07 Triple Boot
Windows 95,
98, ME using BootitNG
This is a triple boot VHD with 3 Windows installs - Windows 95C, Windows 98SE and Windows ME, to test the BootitNG (NG = Next Generation) boot manager and see how it compares to the OSL2000 boot manager.
These are all plain vanilla installs and I've added the VBemp VGA driver to 95, 98 and ME and installed the 2.1Ghz CPU fix in 95 so it will run fine with CPUs above 2.1ghz.
- Partition 1 is Windows 95C
- Partition 2 is Windows w98SE
- Partition 3 is Windows ME
Partition 4 is reserved for the BootitNG loader.
The VHD was created with VirtualBox 6.1.26 and no Guest Additions are available for Windows w9x.
The total VHD size is a bit under 1GB and this has been zipped to a 545MB file, uploaded here.
Also included in the zip is the BootitNG install and re-activate bootable floppy disk image.
If you change any of the partitions or install a different OS in any, then you'll need to re-activate BootitNG from the floppy image.
BootitNG is a more featured boot manager than OSL2000 and has a nice GUI with more options than OSL2000 and it also has it's own partition manager which is very convenient.
It's also a currently supported product that's been around a long time.
The downside is it's a shareware product with a 30 day evaluation period, although as I've only had it a few days I can't say whether it disables itself after 30 days.
The documentation is very good, with a lot of tips and tutorials on muIti booting Windows.
The documentation says it can create a large number of primary partitions using an extended MBR.
I'll test that out by creating a VHD and then seeing if BootitNG will create 8 primary partitions and install 8 Windows versions - W3.1, 95C, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP, Vista and 7.
* 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.
< Click To Download Triple Boot Windows 95-98-ME VHD > < Click To DL BootitNG Floppy Image >
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