Windows 95 On a Windows XP System?

[praetorius]

Can later versions of Windows 95 be installed (and effectively run) as a separate boot system on the same HD as a Windows XP system? I know Windows 95B supports FAT32 and USB, but I'm not sure if there are any incompatibilities I'm overlooking. Also, what's the difference between Windows 95B and Windows 95C (would it be better to use 95C on the Windows XP system?).

The reason I'm thinking of going this route is that many older games are unstable or simply won't run at all under Windows XP, and I'm thinking that having Windows 95 available will allow me to avoid those problems. Anything to watch out for?

Thanks

 

[bruincal]

According to the Microsoft Support site, they state that they highly do NOT recommend installing an older version of Windows alongside Windows XP. Windows XP uses NT Loader (NTLDR) to boot, and a bunch of other stuff. Windows 95 would not be able to anticipate the features available in WinXP and may overwrite the boot sector and possibly even system files, even though the two OS's are on different partitions. There is a chance that you will be unable to boot to WinXP without some troubleshooting and problems.

I think the best way to go is if you have a fast computer and lots of memory, you can use VMware and run Windows 95 under Windows XP, but this might be a little slow. However, this way, there is no need to modify the system, add partitions, or potentially risk damaging the WinXP OS. You can also easily delete Windows 95 if you later decide to remove it.

 

[JustinLerner]

Windows 9x WILL overwrite the MBR/MFT of any NT4.x/5.x installation.
Unless you have special software, you need to install 9x on FAT/FAT32 primary partition (easiest) first, then install any version of NT (4.0/2000/XP).

 

[praetorius]

bruincal,

My system is an Athlon XP 2000+ with 1 gig memory. Would the performance (under your proposed solution) be adquate to run games that say they require a 450Mhz pentium?

By the way: Is there ANY solution that would allow pretty much any game (from say 1995 to present) stably? Or do you just need multiple PCs?

Thanks again

 

[MoMeanMugs]

Did you try the compatibility mode for your games? Right-click on the shortcut to your game, select the Compatibility tab, and select it run in Windows 95 compatibility mode.

 

[corkyg]

Win95 is not a good idea with XP. Do yourself a favor, and install a mobile rack. Get two inner trays and a second HDD. Put p5 on its own HDD and leave XP on its own. That way when you feel you must amuse yourself with legacy games, just swap trays and drives and reboot.

 

[mee987]

if you are having trouble with stability under XP and really want to install another MS OS, you should go with win98se. Going all the way back to win95 will probably have almost no stability increase over win98se in your old games. The reason I stear you away from win95 is because a lot of your newer hardware will hate it.

also, isnt there an option somewhere in winxp or in winxp setup to "repair ntloader"? I really think I remember seeing this somewhere, but I have no idea where...

just out of curiosity, what games are you having trouble running? are they DOS games?

 

[Superwormy]

I can't speak specifiically for WinXP, but for NT and 2k you should dual boot your system as follows:

First format the drive, make sure you backup everytyhing. Fdisk and setup partitions at follows:

C:\ (active primary particiont) 100mb FAT
D:\ 3gb FAT32
E:\ 3gb FAT32

Install Win98se FIRST, YOU MUST INSTLAL IT FIRST, I REPEAT, FIRST!!!! (btw, don't torture yourself with Win95, go Win98SE) and install it to D:\Windows\ it will put all its boot files on the C:\ drive. Install WinXP (I assumke because its based off NT / 2K it will still work this way...) to E:\Winnt\ it will detect another installation of Windows, set itsself up properly with its bootloader on C:\, and you will be able to choose which OS to boot at startup.

In any case, WinXP is garbage for the most part anyway (so far at least), its a less stable prettied up 2K with less driver support, you really should go 2K Professional and Win98SE.

 

[praetorius]

Actually, I haven't tried playing any of these legacy games yet under XP (all of them classic adventure games, such as Sanitarium, Pandora Directive, Grim Fandango, Circle of Blood, Beast Within, Neverhood, Obsidian), but in speaking with the technical support personnel at the various game companies, all report that people are having a LOT of problems trying to run older games on XP. So rather than waiting to see what problems arise, I'm trying to come up with a configuration that I KNOW will be very unlikely to create problems.

As to Windows 98 SE, will games created for Windows 95 run stably on 98 SE? Isn't this the same problem as trying to run Windows 9x games on Windows XP? It seems that whenever MS takes a "step forward", they actually mess up a lot of what came before. Conversely, I know that most games written in the era of a later Windows 9x are created to run stably on all EARLIER 9x's. So I've been assuming that a Windows 95 boot system would be fine for pretty much all games created since late 1995.

Finally, although I realize that Windows 95 isn't an inherently stable OS, is 98 SE that much better?

 

[mee987]

win95/95b/98/98se/me are all very similar, thats why you can use the same drivers for all of those OS's... if a game works on one of those, 99% of the time it will work on all of the others.

win2k and xp are totally new OS's, not just a slightly improved version of the previous OS like the ones listed above.

other readers, please dont get all technical on me and try to tell me im not 100% accurate... I am trying to keep things as simple as possible