https://github.com/aeriavelocity/windows98launcher
Open source GUI front-end for QEMU for installing and running Windows 98.
https://github.com/aeriavelocity/windows98launcher
disk-image dotnet gui iso launcher qcow2-image qemu windows windows-98 winforms
Last synced: 2 months ago
JSON representation
Open source GUI front-end for QEMU for installing and running Windows 98.
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/aeriavelocity/windows98launcher
- Owner: AeriaVelocity
- License: gpl-3.0
- Created: 2020-11-05T15:11:49.000Z (over 4 years ago)
- Default Branch: start
- Last Pushed: 2021-04-08T15:39:24.000Z (about 4 years ago)
- Last Synced: 2025-03-25T18:41:02.230Z (3 months ago)
- Topics: disk-image, dotnet, gui, iso, launcher, qcow2-image, qemu, windows, windows-98, winforms
- Language: C#
- Homepage:
- Size: 50.9 MB
- Stars: 12
- Watchers: 2
- Forks: 2
- Open Issues: 1
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
README
# Windows 98 Launcher 
An open source GUI front-end for QEMU that is intended for installing and running Windows 98 inside of a virtual machine. Currently unfinished. Bundled with QEMU and written in .NET C#. Yeah, that means it won't work in macOS or Linux without any [compatibility layers](https://www.winehq.org/). On macOS 10.15 Catalina and above [it won't even work at all](https://forum.winehq.org/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=32590). Sorry.
# Important stuff
## OS files
You need to provide your own Windows 98 ISO for use with this project, however a boot disk is already supplied. This ISO file must be named `windows98.iso`. For legal reasons, I can't include one in this project.
### Other OSes
It is possible to boot other operating systems using *their* ISO files, but it is not recommended, as this project was created with Windows 98 in mind.
If the OS in question supports i386 (Intel x86 32-bit) processors, it'll probably work.
## Hard disk image
If you already have a QCOW2 image for Windows 98 (or any other x86 OS), you can run it using this project. The image must be named `win98.qcow2`, however if you do not have an image, the program will use `qemu-img` to create one.
### Exploring and editing the file
[7-Zip](https://www.7-zip.org/) supports opening, browsing and extracting QCOW2 files, but it cannot edit them.
There is a [guide](https://gist.github.com/shamil/62935d9b456a6f9877b5) for mounting QCOW2 images, but it seems to work for a Linux system with NBD support only -- if on Windows, Cygwin or WSL might work. I don't know, I haven't tried it.
If you just want to copy a few files to the VM, use [this utility](https://www.trustfm.net/software/utilities/Folder2Iso.php) to compress a folder to an ISO disk image and use `Boot Options` in the launcher to start up the machine with that ISO file.
## QEMU
[QEMU](https://www.qemu.org/) is open source software licensed under the [GNU General Public License V2](https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.en.html) created by [Fabrice Bellard](https://bellard.org/), and is not affiliated with this project or me whatsoever.
# Frequently asked questions (that were not actually asked)
## Why would you make this?
For fun.
## What can it do?
Whatever you can do with a Windows 98 VM.
## Does it have internet?
Unless you somehow had a flipping modem from the 90's, then no, I don't think it'd have internet. (Disclaimer: even if you *did* have a modem I don't think it'd work)
## Why would I use this when I can just use VirtualBox or VMware?
No one said you had to, this was just an experiment. Plus it's more fun to play around with a VM that you could absolutely screw up if you're not careful.
## Can it run Doom?
Abso-fricking-lutely. [I even made a custom QCOW2 image for it.](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FI5B9kikLCxFtn4Qac-uii5dc6SqVmh8/view?usp=sharing)
## What happened to the original commit history?
I kinda fricked everything up and did a `git push -f origin master` (wow, was that a mistake) but thankfully the old code with the original commit history was forked by [dports](https://github.com/dports/), so I was able to reupload it to my own account! All the old code now resides at [Windows98Launcher-classic](https://github.com/SpeedStriker243/Windows98Launcher-classic).