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By the 90s, PCs with [[POS_(Pong_Consoles)_CPUs_and_Other_Chips#Intel_CPUHardware_support.27s2C_features_and_peripherals|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.

Playing games for these platforms [[POS_(Pong_Consoles)_CPUs_and_Other_Chips#x86_CPUs|Windows 1.0x/2x/3x]] were graphical user interfaces (GUIs) built on top of MS-DOS. Those were the programs that runs a modern window manager on top of MS-DOS operating system can be quite easy as programs can . Many of the underlying device drivers and protocols had to be run on later windows without sacrifices loaded in backwards compabilityDOS for 3. For example if a program runs on Windows 7,there is a big chance it will work on Windows 10 and so on11 to use them. If On the program however doesn't know to work on other hand, [[Windows_95/98/ME_emulators|Windows 79x]] (95, 98,Compability settings can be used to work ME) were standalone operating systems with the aforementioned DOS compatibility mode. Also [[Emulators_on_Windows|NT3.x]] was an operating system,which will also work in Windows 10as 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].

ButPlaying games released for these platforms on a modern system can be quite easy as programs can be run on latest Windows without sacrifices due to backwards compability.<ref>https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/make-older-apps-or-programs-compatible-with-windows-783d6dd7-b439-bdb0-0490-54eea0f45938</ref> However this '''may''' change in the near future due to dropping 16 and 32-bit support from processors.<ref>[https://www.youtube.if com/watch?v=D2FpXimj1oA René Rebe: Intel finally to remove 16-bit REAL MODE and some 32b RINGS]</ref><ref>[[Wikipedia:X86#From_16-bit_and_32-bit_to_64-bit_architecture|In 2023, Intel proposed a major change to the architecture referred to as x86-S (with S standing for "simplification"), which aims to remove support for legacy execution modes and instructions]]</ref> If you are trying to get them Win9x software workingon 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 PC Gaming WikiPCGamingWiki], which likely already has information on the game you want. If you don't have the operating system or game 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] or [https://www.gog.com/ GOG]; you can try downloading it from [https://www.myabandonware.com/ My Abandonware].

Sometimes, all that may be missing in order to get an old game running is a DLL wrapper for the graphics API. This is common for games that were designed for 3Dfx Glide cardsand also you can use these in virtual machines for increasing "Virtual GPU Adapter" compatibility. More information is available at the respective page.

==Hardware emulationSoftware emulators==These are emulators in the truest sense, in that they don't do any kind of "cheating /hacking" the way a hypervisor would. 3D graphics and But keep in mind that, unlike [[Wikipedia:X86_virtualization#Hardware-assisted_virtualization|hardware-assisted]] [[#Hypervisors|hypervisors]]; emulating something like Voodoo3 with Pentium CPU emulation for II level of hardware with these systems usually software emulators requires modest to powerful latest and greatest top-notch [https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html single thread performance of CPUs]. [[PCem]],[[86Box]] and PCBox UniPCemu are full retro x86 computer emulators, spanning from the original IBM 5150 to Pentium III 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. This is also Having said that, see these emulators as a great option useful alternative way to emulate these operating systems especially if you want the most accurate and compatible option for 3DFX 3Dfx Voodoo emulation and [https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?t=534 Windows 95/98/ME Glide games, even if it may be difficult to set up and significantly slower performance compared to [[Hypervisors]].

*Windows 95/98/ME can also be installed in [[POS_(Pong_Consoles)_CPUs_and_Other_Chips#Intel_CPU.27sx86_CPUs|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. '''See [[POS_(Pong_Consoles)_CPUs_and_Other_Chips#x86_CPUs]] and [[PC_Emulator_Comparisons]] pages for more and detailed information.'''*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].

{{Main|POS_(Pong_Consoles)_CPUs_and_Other_Chips#Intel_CPU.27sx86_CPUs}}{{Main|PC_Emulator_Comparisons}}

One way to get Windows 9x software running is to run the operating system in a [[Wikipedia:X86_virtualization#Hardware-assisted_virtualization'''See this page;''' {{Main|hardware-assisted]] virtual machine. Unfortunately, this requires you to know how to manually install a Windows 9x-family operating system on a computer. If you do decide to install Windows 95 in a virtual machine, you will need to install [http:Windows_2000/XP/lonecrusader.x10host.com/fix95cpu.html FIX95CPU] for it to run on processors with clock speeds over 2.1GHz (for Intel CPUs) and 300MHz (for AMD CPUs). Failing to do so will result in a "Protection Error" at boot time.Vista_emulators#Hypervisors}}

VMWare Tools supports ;Keep in mind that, if you do decide to install Windows 95 through Windows 10in a virtual machine, you will need to install [http://lonecrusader.x10host.com/fix95cpu. html FIX95CPU] (or better [https://github.com/JHRobotics/patcher9x#patch-for-windows-959898-seme-to-fix-cpu-issues Patcher9x by JHRobotics]) for it to run on processors with clock speeds over 2.1GHz (for Intel CPUs) and 300MHz (for AMD CPUs). Failing to do so will result in a "Protection Error" at boot time. Also there is a GPU driver project called "[VirtualBox]https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu softgpu] does not include 3D acceleration " for Windows 9xWin9x virtual GPU adapters which increases compatibility.

==External links==* [https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Virtualization PCGamingWiki: Virtualization]* [https://www.vogons.org/ VOGONS][[Category:ComputersOperating systems]]