I recently had to install Windows 98 through VMWare for some quick tests, and there were a few minor problems after the install that needed to be resolved. I thought I’d share them here if anyone ever needed them.

• First, VMWare Tools needs to be installed to get video and some other drivers working.
• Second, Windows 98 was really before the time when network cards were used to connect to the internet, as broadband technology was rare and modems were the commonplace solution, so it doesn’t make this process easy. To connect through your VMWARE bridge or NAT to the Internet (to use IE - FireFox [newer versions of?] doesn’t work on Windows 98), the following must be done through the MSN Connection Wizard (this is mostly from memory).
  • Open "Connect to the internet" from the desktop
  • Click Next
  • Select Modem Manually [next]
  • Select any of the normal modems in the list on the right, like a generic 56,000 modem [OK]
  • Click Next
  • Click lan/manual
  • Connect using my local area network (LAN) [next]
  • Click Next
  • "No" to email [next]
  • Click Finish
• Lastly, the default sound driver does not work, so you need to do the following [Information found here by googling]
  • Install the Create Lab’s drivers for the PCI sound card
  • Add the following lines to your VMWare config (vmx) file
    • pciSound.DAC1InterruptsPerSec = 0
    • pciSound.DAC2InterruptsPerSec = 0
  • Optionally, for a better midi waveset, download Creative Lab’s 8mb GM/GS Waveset [version 5] and select it for use in the device’s properties by:
    • Right click my computer
    • Select properties
    • Select the Device Manager tab
    • Find the area for sound and go to “SB PCI(WDM)”
    • Go to the second tab
    • Change the Midi Synthesizer Waveset to the downloaded eapci8m.ecw