I wish, truly wish, that I could provide a clear succinct how-to for using vmware to get your XP machine to run previous flavors of Windows. Unfortunately, that is not the case. The big issue came down to one stubborn issue: the sound card. I couldn’t find a driver that would make the thing run without crashing the entire Win98 install.
My solution? An email to everyone I know that’s nearby and might possibly have a dinosaur gathering dust. The good news is we did locate a dinosaur laptop, now christened Moby (it’s white and weighs a TON). The bad news is that it was even older than she thought….Windows 3.11 older.
(For my younger readers *coughHOLLYcough* – Windows 3.11 is copyright 1985-1993. And requires DOS to run.)
Daniel is the proud owner of Moby, and I’m slowly but surely gathering games that I think he’ll enjoy.
So how does that solve my computer problem? It reminded me that we DO have another dinosaur (as of yet unnamed) that already has win98 installed. I need to locate the power cable (laptop batteries that old don’t hold a charge, yanno) and see if/how I can get it hooked to a printer.
Baby steps, friends. Babysteps.
1) How is it my fault that the only cool people to talk to are nearly old enough to have birthed me? I still firmly believe I’m the only person who can’t wait to be 30.
2) It’s not that I couldn’t have known that, it’s a simply that I’m not THAT kind of geek. That’s what I have you and Drew for.
I know, luv. I enjoy teasing you
Hey, Em?
VMWare is buggy as all hell for running *any* Windows OS. It’s great for things like Linux.
For running old Windows OS software that won’t run in compatibility mode in XP, get Microsoft’s Virtual PC. It’s free and can be downloaded at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/virtualpc/default.mspx
Thanks, Larry – I’ll give that a shot today. Can you or your wifey come babysit for me? pleeeeease? It’s only a 10-hour drive….(I think?)
So how did it go? Better than VMWare, I’m hoping.
It works wonderfully on the still-functioning CDs, which is a very good thing. Because Daniel just ripped the CD drawer out of the antique laptop (Ibm 380D) and at this point I don’t think it’s worth it to fix.