Firefox 2.0.0.20 Running on Windows 95 Tutorial

[spunker88]

Despite the fact that it is not supported, Firefox 2 will run pretty stable on Windows 95 with some OS updates.



Here are some Microsoft patches that should be applied that supposedly make things smoother:
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... comupd.exe
http://download.microsoft.com/download/ ... 2setup.exe
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta ... laylang=en

If you have a later release of Windows 95 or something that you have downloaded all of the Windows Update patches for, you may already have these.

Its also recommended to have IE5+ on the machine since this will supposedly help compatibility issues, but either way its nice to have a browser to download all of the updates from. Here is the link for IE5.5 SP2, the last version for Windows 95.
http://browsers.evolt.org/download.php? ... e55sp2.exe

Once you are done installing updates, grab a zipped build of Firefox 2.0.0.20 off Mozilla's FTP. The exe installer will not work under Windows 95.
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/ ... .win32.zip

If you need a program to read the zip file on your Windows 95 machine, grab a trial of WinRAR, which still supports Windows 95:
http://www.win-rar.com/download.html

Now simply unzip the Firefox build and open firefox.exe.

Troubleshooting:
-If the Firefox window appears briefly but Windows crashes or freezes, try deleting nssearchservice.js and nssafebrowsingapplication.js from the components folder of the installation. You will lose your search bar functionality but firefox should now open and not freeze.

You can also get Flash 7 working and youtube still supports it for the time being, but you will get a message telling you to upgrade to Flash 10:
http://download.macromedia.com/pub/flas ... ayer_7.exe

This is mostly just for fooling around in virtual machines, I cannot get Firefox 3 to work on 95 or 98SE so it looks like 2.0.0.20 is the newest out there. Alternatively you can try out Opera which has good support for older versions of Windows.

EDIT: This trick also works in Windows NT 3.5 and 4.0, I havent had time to test it but Ive seen screenshots on the internet.

EDIT 2/17/10: Fixed firefox zipped link, its a nightly build but it should work just the same.

[EzeAris]

I'm preety sure that Firefox 2.X supported Windows 95, 98 and ME, maybe the installer not, but Gecko 1.8 support MSDOS-Based Systems

[win98]

Nice job, Pitty it won't work for later versions though.

[Saul]

yeah, 2.0.020 was the latest I could get running on 98, I haven't tried ME however, maybe someone needs to get Chromium running on an old OS.

[DroidX762]

I wish FireFox 3 would support Windows 95, that would be awesome!
Although I wonder how FireFox would perform though if I try this.

[giantsteen]

That's pretty cool

[James]

Nathan Lineback at ToastyTech had figured out how to get Flash 8 working on Windows 95 iirc.

[DORFD1]

yeah, 2.0.020 was the latest I could get running on 98, I haven't tried ME however, maybe someone needs to get Chromium running on an old OS.

I got firefox 3.5x to run on windows 98 and above.

[spunker88]

I'm preety sure that Firefox 2.X supported Windows 95, 98 and ME, maybe the installer not, but Gecko 1.8 support MSDOS-Based Systems

Yes, which is why it will run if you do a little work. But, according to Mozilla Windows 98 FE was the minimum operating system that could run Firefox 2.0.0.20. The last one to support windows 95 was 1.5.0.12.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/sy ... ts-v2.html

yeah, 2.0.020 was the latest I could get running on 98, I haven't tried ME however, maybe someone needs to get Chromium running on an old OS.

I got firefox 3.5x to run on windows 98 and above.

How, please tell. I am getting a kernel32.dll error on both windows 95 and 98 when trying to run Firefox 3.0 or 3.5, how did you solve this error?

[DORFD1]

I'm preety sure that Firefox 2.X supported Windows 95, 98 and ME, maybe the installer not, but Gecko 1.8 support MSDOS-Based Systems

Yes, which is why it will run if you do a little work. But, according to Mozilla Windows 98 FE was the minimum operating system that could run Firefox 2.0.0.20. The last one to support windows 95 was 1.5.0.12.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/sy ... ts-v2.html

yeah, 2.0.020 was the latest I could get running on 98, I haven't tried ME however, maybe someone needs to get Chromium running on an old OS.

I got firefox 3.5x to run on windows 98 and above.

How, please tell. I am getting a kernel32.dll error on both windows 95 and 98 when trying to run Firefox 3.0 or 3.5, how did you solve this error?

I used kernelex.

[spunker88]

I'm preety sure that Firefox 2.X supported Windows 95, 98 and ME, maybe the installer not, but Gecko 1.8 support MSDOS-Based Systems

Yes, which is why it will run if you do a little work. But, according to Mozilla Windows 98 FE was the minimum operating system that could run Firefox 2.0.0.20. The last one to support windows 95 was 1.5.0.12.
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/sy ... ts-v2.html

yeah, 2.0.020 was the latest I could get running on 98, I haven't tried ME however, maybe someone needs to get Chromium running on an old OS.

I got firefox 3.5x to run on windows 98 and above.

How, please tell. I am getting a kernel32.dll error on both windows 95 and 98 when trying to run Firefox 3.0 or 3.5, how did you solve this error?

I used kernelex.

Yes, that works great. Too bad its not ported to windows 95, its not really that much different from windows 98.

[mewrox99]

Anyone had any luck getting Firefox 3.x running on NT4

[Saul]

Well, since it was in the same time period of 98 you could try using KernelX

[spunker88]

Well, since it was in the same time period of 98 you could try using KernelX

It checks your OS version and refuses to install on anything older than Windows 98. But if you were to know what files its installed and the changes it does, you may be able to port it back to 95 and/or NT4.

[4512jth]

I have also gotten FF3.5 and Flash 10 on Win 98 SE using KernelEx

[DuranMedine]

I'll go test it out with my Windows 95 OSR 2 virtual machine.

[hb860]

I use Opera 6 for Windows 95. I love Opera.
BTW, useful tutorial

[betaluva]

@spunker88, the foirefox link is dead!