Editing Windows 95/98/ME emulators

By the 90s, PCs with [[PC_Emulator_Comparisons#x86_CPU.27s|Intel CPUs]] started to break away from the mold of their 16-bit incarnations. It began with Intel taking the helm of the PC platform with the ATX specification, which departed from the PC AT and related models in a number of ways. The rise of PCs also brought with it the bundling of the Windows 9x family of operating systems, which were hybrid 16/32-bit operating systems consisting of Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows ME; Windows 2000 was based on Windows NT.

Windows 1.0x/2x/3x were graphical user interfaces (GUIs) built on top of MS-DOS. Those were the programs that runs a window manager on top of MS-DOS operating system. Many of the underlying device drivers and protocols had to be loaded in DOS for 3.11 to use them. On the other hand, [[Windows_95/98/ME_emulators|Windows 9x]] (95, 98, ME) were standalone operating systems with DOS compatibility mode. Also [[Emulators_on_Windows|NT3.x]] was an operating system as it included its own micro-kernel and device drivers [http://9gag.com/gag/aGEWOR6?utm_source=copy_link&utm_medium=comment_share#cs_comment_id=c_170720300873967463].

If you are trying to get Win9x software working on a modern system, you should only be using this page as a last resort and would be better suited to read the [https://www.pcgamingwiki.com PCGamingWiki], which likely already has information on the game you want. If you don't have the operating system you want, you can download it from [https://winworldpc.com/library/operating-systems WinWorldPC], and if you don't have the game you want or it's not available on the platforms like [https://store.steampowered.com/ Steam]; you can try downloading it from [https://www.myabandonware.com/ My Abandonware].

These are emulators in the truest sense, in that they don't do any kind of "cheating/hacking" the way a hypervisor would. But keep in mind that, unlike [[Wikipedia:X86_virtualization#Hardware-assisted_virtualization|hardware-assisted]] [[#Hypervisors|hypervisors]]; emulating something like Voodoo3 with Pentium II level of hardware with these software emulators requires latest and greatest top-notch [https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html single thread performance of CPUs]. [[PCem]], [[86Box]] and UniPCemu are full retro x86 computer emulators, spanning from the original IBM 5150 to Pentium II powered PCs. Setting it up is much like building an actual retro computer, but in software, so expect it to be as difficult as setting up an actual retro PC. This means you're going to have to install Windows 95/98/ME along with all necessary drivers for the hardware you chose. Having said that, see these emulators as a useful alternative way to emulate these operating systems especially if you want the most accurate and compatible option for 3Dfx Voodoo emulation and [https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=534 Windows 95/98/ME Glide games]. Windows 95/98/ME can also be installed in [[PC Emulator Comparisons|DOSBox forks]], and it also supports 3DFX Voodoo emulation but hardware compatibility and accuracy aren't as good as [[PCem]] or [[86Box]], although it still has good compatibility and much more performant compared to 86Box or PCem. Another alternative for this (which doesn't need a Win9x installation) is [[DREAMM]], which '''emulates''' (not [[Wrappers|wrapper]] or [[compatibility layer]]) a [https://aarongiles.com/dreamm/docs/v21/#intro-games curated selection of games and multimedia CDs].

;For more and detailed information;

{{Main|PC Emulator Comparisons}}

;See this page; {{Main|Windows 2000/XP/Vista emulators#Hypervisors}}

 

You can still buy reasonably priced compatible hardware from second hand market. See [https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=63052 Vogons Thread: Hardware by Year Build Guide] and [https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/Recommended_Builds VogonsWiki: Recommended Builds] pages.