+ CrossPosted in: WIN95
 + CrossPosted in: WINDOWS

Hi! Bob,

In a message to All you wrote:

 BK> Has anyone here used Win 95 or Win 98 or ME in a virtual machine?

Why run Win95 when you can do Win98?!?  :)

I favour using VirtualBox (vBox) here.  They use _both_ RAM (when running)
& HDD space (dynamically expandable [not always using the defined
space]), as configured in their setup definitions.

I run two Win98SE vBox PCs 24/7.  *This* vBox, which is my primary Fidonet
node, uses 128Mb RAM and has a pair of 2Gb drives.  The other Win98SE vBox
PC, which runs POP3/SMTP/HTTP servers for our LAN, also uses 128Mb RAM but
has a pair of 4Gb HDDS defined.

There are also a couple of Linux vBox Fidonet nodes running, each using
256Mb RAM.  One is a 24/7 system with a 2Gb HDD and the other is a
part-time (limited hours) system with a 10Gb HDD.  Both are used for
testing various Fido & networking functions.

I also have another 24/7 Linux vBox system, using 512Mb RAM and a 40Gb
& 80Gb pair of drives, that provides a print-to-PDF *printer* and
various LAN-shared pseudo drives.  It was originally my main personal PC
years ago, and used to run vBox and a thing called the VMware player in its
own right.

So, generally there are five vBox PCs running much of the time: 2x 128Mb
RAM; 2x 256Mb RAM and the single 512Mb RAM system.  That's ermm... roughly
1.3Gb RAM.  Still plenty available from the 4Gb RAM that this Ubuntu (U'u)
10.04 host has.

There are also other configured vBox PCs that run at various times, but
only for limited periods.  E.g. a XP SP1 vBox (games PC and some tools for
ad-hoc work on my main Fidonet node) and another U'u 12.04.1 vBox, and,
another 'generic' linux vBox used for running occasional testing of
downloaded .iso file from other Linux distributions.

My wife's U'u 10.04 2Gb RAM PC runs XP SP2 24/7.  She wanted Windows, so
that's all she sees: XP.  To her, the PC runs XP.

 BK> I am wondering, is the virtual machine on the HD, or in ram? How
 BK> large is it?

It varies per each configured vBox/VM, however-which-way pleases you.

 BK> I was just thinking of adding ram to an old laptop, and got to
 BK> thinking about linux distros that run in ram. I was wondering
 BK> about running Win 98 in ram, and if it would run much faster.

For running Win98 you just need to have plenty of HDD space.  It runs fine
in just 128Mb, in a vBox.  (I'm not sure about a laptop, though.)

Hope it helps you.

Cheers,
Paul.

... A fight to the death with a zombie has a few inherent problems.
--- Paul's Win98SE VirtualBox