05 Dual Boot
Windows 95+98
This is a dual boot VirtualBox VHD with Windows 95C and Windows 98SE installed.
This was another exercise in a multi boot w9x system done without a third party boot manager.
Both are plain vanilla installs apart from an updated display driver and wallpaper.
The disk has 4 partitions - partition 1 is boot files, partition 2 W95C, partition 3 W98SE, partition 4 spare.
I've also used the same reboot method I came up with for the quad boot W98 VHD.
There's a DOS batch file icon on the desktop called "Reboot Into Different OS" for switching between Windows.
When run this prompts you to enter the version number to reboot into (1 for Windows 95, 2 for Windows 98) and then swaps the OS load files MSDOS.sys and Logo.sys for the reboot.
Once the script has run, just re-start Windows and whatever version you selected will then load.
A bit tedious, but as there's no way to select an OS during the w9x boot process it's the best solution I could come up with - without resorting to using a third party boot manager.
Basically, it works and it's fairly simple and can handle multiple installs of w95 and w98 (see my other w98 quad boot upload).
The VHD is only 400MB zipped down to 152MB.
The VHD was created with VirtualBox 6.1.26 and no Guest Additions are available for Windows 98.
No login passwords needed (just click OK or Cancel at the prompt).
95C will throw a hissy about a PCI bridge driver so just click cancel.
You'll notice partition 4 isn't used - this was for a Windows ME install which didn't work out.
While ME installs in partition 4 OK, Windows 95 does not play will with the later ME DOS version.
Windows 95 will refuse to run any command process and throws an "Incorrect DOS version" error, so the batch script I use for the reboot process won't run.
If anyone knows a work-around for this error, let me know at the IA.
* Note on graphics: Allocate your VM's graphic card at least 40MB of RAM or the VBemp driver in w95-98-ME will only show a black screen on startup. The more RAM you allocate, the higher the resolution you'll be able to achieve.
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