Windows 98 running as VM - how to get USB drivers in there?

[thewul]

I have Windows 98 running as VM and need to copy something from the host pc into the VM.

Drag and drop (though enabled) does not work

USB thumbdrive (old 128MB) either formatted as FAT or FAT32 are not detected under Toolbar VM -> Removable Devices

USB Thumbdrive inserted in USB 2.0 port - VM settings Hardware USB Controller either set to 2.0 or 1.1 - makes no difference

I might connect any other thumbdrive/external USB HDD (formatted as NTFS): those are listed under Removable Devices, but of course Windows  98 does not recognize that FS.

see: Windows 98FE USB Mass Storage Device Drivers

FWIW  VM Tools installed.

Feel VM Tools should include (an option to install) those old USB drivers once stuff like 98 or older is installed.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

p.s.: I tried installing Windows NT, but the resolution remained 640x480

A higher resolution required SP6 or something, that I don't have.

[wila]

Hi,

Drag & drop should work. I just tested it here with a Win98 VM I have and it worked OK.

Note however that this VM is so old that it is on Hardware version 4... and it has the vmware tools of that time too.

USB 2.0 is after windows 98, so you need to set it to USB1.1 and use a USB device that has:

- support for USB1.1

- drivers from Windows 98

Windows 98 has only very limited support for USB and not a lot of inbox drivers.

What I would do in your case is to install an older version of VMware Tools as it sounds like the drag and drop feature is broken in the current version (I'm not surprised)

Older versions can be found here:

CDS Repository

My suggestion is to try VMware Tools from before Workstation 10.

For example try this one: https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/ws/7.1.6/744570/windows/packages/tools-winPre2k-8....

The steps on how-to access and install that version of vmware tools can be found here: VMware tools not downloading

edit:

You're not mentioning it, but you would want Windows 98 SE as it has "improved USB support", not even sure if it works with an older version of Windows 98.

BTW, there are other ways of getting data in your Windows 98 VM.

- you can write the data to an .iso file and mount that as a CD.

- you can write the data to a virtual floppy

- you can write the data to a separate virtual disk formatted as FAT and add that virtual disk to your VM.

- network ... probably better not.

--

Wil

[bluefirestorm · Accepted solution]

We have been through this before in your previous post Workstation 14.1 and Windows 98 - no removable media detected

I would suggest still retry the methods previously suggested

(1) create an ISO file (virtual CD) of the files you want to put inside the Windows 98 and mount the ISO file as virtual CD

or

(2) copy the files into a secondary virtual disk in another VM where copy/paste or drag/drop or USB works. Then add the secondary VM hard disk to the Windows 98 VM. This is physical equivalent of  plugging a hard disk into another machine, copy the files, unplug the hard disk with the files and plug into the Windows 98 machine.

or

(3) use the Map Virtual Disk method

As far as I know, Windows 98 does not support USB 2.0 and only Windows 98 Second Edition supports USB 1.1. I think even Windows 2000 only supports USB 1.1.

NT4.0 does not support USB at all.

I don't think VMware can bundle the USB drivers because of the Microsoft EULA. Technically speaking, it is a form of piracy to distribute parts of the Windows OS without permission from Microsoft.

[thewul]

Thank you, option 1 finally worked out.

I didn't have the software to create a bootable iso (Virtual CD)

Had to look around.

IMGBurn could do it perfectly.

Created an iso of the file and opened it in the WIndows 98 VM, settings->CD ROM

Could install the program I wanted.

Thank you so much - truly appreciated!

As for the old USB drivers, well, I guess at some point Microsoft does not support it anymore(?)

There are no updates, nothing. Hence I would expect they would remove the EULA from such old stuff, i.e. anyone (company/developer) could then use it, at their own risk without support. Probably that is too simple... 🙂