Best emulator for 9x?

[arus]

New to emulation, wanting to know what the best emulator for any version of 9x is.

[TheCollector1988]

86Box, at least as far as 3D emulation goes (and yes, this includes WinME).

[RentedMule]

Never had a problem with VMWare

[oscareczek]

That's not an emulator.

[rixolino]

For me best emulator is PCem

[ToMi1]

The best emulator for DOS-Win9x is either 86Box or PCem. I recommend 86Box because it has a larger range of emulation.

[DVINTHEHOUSEMAN]

The one I've had most luck with is 86-Box.

[SintezQ]

I think that of all vms for old windows PCem's has the most user-friendly interface + emulation of a large number of devices

[x010]

Please, no Windows 99 junk; that isn't official to begin with and sharing such screenshots is not within forum rules.

Topic cleaned up

[Joet BERNARD]

Like all of you, I think that PCem and 86box are the best Win9x emulator.
They are the more practical when you host process run above the clock frequency limit of Win9x (3.5 GHz for 98 if I remember well)
In my case, my CPU run at 4 GHz.
I have to use one of these emulator to install Win9x without error

[stashakk]

PCem for Win9x is a bit buggy but maybe PCem-X. Haven't tried it. Yea you could do 86Box. People have done what you are wanting with DOSBox as well. It's not officially supported but there is plenty of literature for you to read on how to do it. Also could look at Bochs. There is some literature out there on that as well. Good luck arus

[WinStartPC]

86Box and PCem are the best emulators i have seen. I test some systems there.

[Joet BERNARD]

I can't use VirtualBox or VMware to install the Windows 9x, so I can only use PCem or 86box (my favorite) !
At this time I test the Windows Millennium beta.

[cleeve555]

Anyone on here resolved the issue with Win95 giving this error under Virtualbox 6.1 on Win10

While initializing device IOS:
Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.

I have tried this, but to no avail:
C: <press Enter>
cd\windows <press Enter>
ren smartdrv.exe smartdrv.ch <press Enter>
Once smartdrv.exe is temporarily renamed, reboot the computer to determine if the issue is still present.
If the issue persists, rename the rmm.pdr by following the following steps.

Boot the computer to an MS-DOS prompt.
Once at the DOS prompt, type:
C: <press Enter>
cd\windows\system\iosubsys <press Enter>
attrib rmm.pdr -r -s -h <press Enter>
ren rmm.pdr rmm.ch <press Enter>

[Testing]

I think pcem is the best emulators for 9x that I have seen.

[ToMi1]

Anyone on here resolved the issue with Win95 giving this error under Virtualbox 6.1 on Win10

While initializing device IOS:
Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer.

I have tried this, but to no avail:
C: <press Enter>
cd\windows <press Enter>
ren smartdrv.exe smartdrv.ch <press Enter>
Once smartdrv.exe is temporarily renamed, reboot the computer to determine if the issue is still present.
If the issue persists, rename the rmm.pdr by following the following steps.

Boot the computer to an MS-DOS prompt.
Once at the DOS prompt, type:
C: <press Enter>
cd\windows\system\iosubsys <press Enter>
attrib rmm.pdr -r -s -h <press Enter>
ren rmm.pdr rmm.ch <press Enter>

You have to use FIX95CPU.

[Fanta Shokata]

I think pcem is the best emulators for 9x that I have seen.

Don't forget that there's also 86box.

[TeamViewerFTW]

What emulator would be best for running 9x on a Mac running Big Sur? I've tried a few emulators, and none of them have worked. Results below.

86box: Out (Windows-only, also fails to load under CrossOver)
PCem: Doesn't work in CrossOver and also does not compile properly for MacOS
VMware Fusion: Causes issues with the 9x setup protram. (probably due to the CPU).
VirtualBox: Won't load due to issues with kernel extensions not installing properly.
QEMU - Same issues as VMware.

I was not able to use Wine due to Apple dropping 32-bit application support in Catalina and Big Sur.

My laptop is a 2020 MacBook Air (CPU is an Intel i3-1000NG4 running at 1.1GHz, if that is important). My attempts were done with Windows 98 SE installation media.

[WinStartPC]

What emulator would be best for running 9x on a Mac running Big Sur? I've tried a few emulators, and none of them have worked. Results below.

86box: Out (Windows-only, also fails to load under CrossOver)
PCem: Doesn't work in CrossOver and also does not compile properly for MacOS
VMware Fusion: Causes issues with the 9x setup protram. (probably due to the CPU).
VirtualBox: Won't load due to issues with kernel extensions not installing properly.
QEMU - Same issues as VMware.

I was not able to use Wine due to Apple dropping 32-bit application support in Catalina and Big Sur.

My laptop is a 2020 MacBook Air (CPU is an Intel i3-1000NG4 running at 1.1GHz, if that is important). My attempts were done with Windows 98 SE installation media.

VirtualBox and VMware Fusion are not emulators, but hypervisors. That is up to you to define which is the best emulator.

[Joet BERNARD]

Can you try Wine for MacOS ??
With this you can try 86box and the Windows version of PCem...
Ouch... Wine is not compatible with Big Sur... You should try but it's not sure it will work...

You can also try double virtualization (i.e Windows 7 under VMware MacOS, and then Windows 95 under 86box in this Windows 7)

[Fanta Shokata]

What emulator would be best for running 9x on a Mac running Big Sur? I've tried a few emulators, and none of them have worked. Results below.

86box: Out (Windows-only, also fails to load under CrossOver)
PCem: Doesn't work in CrossOver and also does not compile properly for MacOS
VMware Fusion: Causes issues with the 9x setup protram. (probably due to the CPU).
VirtualBox: Won't load due to issues with kernel extensions not installing properly.
QEMU - Same issues as VMware.

I was not able to use Wine due to Apple dropping 32-bit application support in Catalina and Big Sur.

My laptop is a 2020 MacBook Air (CPU is an Intel i3-1000NG4 running at 1.1GHz, if that is important). My attempts were done with Windows 98 SE installation media.

If you have an AMD Ryzen CPU, then you won't be able to install Windows 98 properly on VMware

[william14038]

I think is VMWare, I use both VirtualBox and VMWare, But VirtualBox can't install Additions on Win9x, but VMWare can install VMWare Tools on Win9x, So I use it, and VMWare one is stable, but you need a sound driver.

[Windowsbegood]

VMware isn't an emulator, it's a hypervisor. I use PCem and 86box rather than VirtualBox or VMware for Windows 9x since hypervisors are usually too fast for older systems.

[Crosma]

PCem: Doesn't work in CrossOver and also does not compile properly for MacOS

I'm not running Big Sur, but you should definitely be able to get at least some version of PCem built and running. It works about as well as it does on Windows/Linux, once compiled. Some people say that v17 is quite broken on macOS though, so you should probably go for v16.

The instructions here should get it working: https://pcem-emulator.co.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=3464

As for VirtualBox, other people have got it working on Big Sur: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=100720

[ohmsmega]

I am using Virtual PC 2007 SP1 with a Windows Update in Windows 7, with both VPC 2004 additions ISO and Windows 95 works even with internet... but adding TCP/IP was a PAIN I hadn't done it in years...