A Virtual Machine for Win98 on a Win XP Computer?

LazyLion

LazyLion

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I have an old computer here at the office with Windows 98. It is used to run a Thermal Printer Machine and the Software that designs the labels for the Thermal Printer.

I have tried all the newer versions of the software and drivers for the printer and none of them work as well as the combination I already have.

So what I want to do is copy this setup to a virtual machine on an updated Windows XP computer (Celeron 1.8 Ghz with 1 Gb RAM).

Which VM is recommended, and how do I go about copying the program and the driver to the new setup?

I need someone to hold my hand through this process... :o
 
I have used Virtual PC from MS, and VirtualBox. Both are good, though Virtual PC runs Windows a little better. I'm just not sure if the virtual extensions you install support 98 anymore.

That being said, I would backup the old system with cloning software, and then restore that image into the Virtual Machine. Win98 may handle the shock better than XP would, as it doesn't have all the issues with HALs and drivers. That's why you need to install the virtual extensions into the VM afterwards, to insert some drivers.

Otherwise, you can install 98 from scratch, along with the porgram, and then configure it again as per the old machine.
 
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This is how I would do it:

1) Create a partition image of the Win98 system with Acronis True Image Echo Workstation
2) Install Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 on the XP system (MSVPC is free), and configure a new Win98 virtual PC (there are default settings for this in MSVPC). Make sure you install the Virtual Machine extensions so you can transparently use the mouse between XP and the virtual machine/s.
3) In Acronis True Image Echo Workstation you have the standard option to convert a backup image into a MSVPC virtual hard disk (*.vhd). Convert the backup image you created in 1 above to a vhd (virtual machine hard disk), copy the vhd to the directory where you new Win98 virtual machine files are stored, and rename the VHD to match the *.vmc file (ie replace the original vhd with the new one you created with Acronis True Image)
4) Start the Win98 virtual machine from the MSVPC console, and voila! Win98 running in a virual machine inside XP. Everything you had on you Win98 machine is there exactly as it was before - all applications, etc, etc.
 
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Is the new pc's specs the P4 Celeron 1.8 Ghz with 1 Gb RAM. Why not load Win98 on this pc and skip the VM setup?
 
SharkBait said:
Is the new pc's specs the P4 Celeron 1.8 Ghz with 1 Gb RAM. Why not load Win98 on this pc and skip the VM setup?
Click to expand...

We tried that on a few other machines and the combination failed. This PC does not have an LPT port. For some reason the software and printer seem to work best on this machine. Put it on any other machine, WinME, Linux, Win2000... etc. and something goes wrong. The fonts don't want to download, the driver doesn't work, etc. So I want to preserve this working combination.
 
tell me what am i missing here.
you state:
have a win98 machine, used to run a thermal parallel printer
going to image this into a virtual machine, host runs xp, celeron etc etc
you also state: host has no parallel port.

so how the heck is the virtual machine going to print to the parallel thermal printer without a host having a parallel port? or did we somehow start talking about more than one celeron machine?
 
werner said:
tell me what am i missing here.
you state:
have a win98 machine, used to run a thermal parallel printer
going to image this into a virtual machine, host runs xp, celeron etc etc
you also state: host has no parallel port.

so how the heck is the virtual machine going to print to the parallel thermal printer without a host having a parallel port? or did we somehow start talking about more than one celeron machine?
Click to expand...

Ooops, *** facepalm ***

ja, I can't use that machine then. Dang... I'm gonna have to swap with one of the other guys. crap, now I gotta move all his documents and stuff.

LOL... ok, I will use a machine that has a parallel port.. or I'll just have to add an LPT port for him.

but anyway... you get my point. I want to preserve an existing working setup. The lady who does the labeling knows the setup anyway. I want to make it easy enough for her.
 
You also get PCI parallel ports if you need these - and they are not that expensive (if they're still available tho...)

Werner spotted the problem right away :D
 
The_Librarian said:
You also get PCI parallel ports if you need these - and they are not that expensive (if they're still available tho...)

Werner spotted the problem right away :D
Click to expand...

Ja, I think I have one of those... although I also think these boards have a pin-out for an LPT cable... I'll just pull an LPT cable from an old machine.
 
I'm still lost. Why not load win98 on the celeron pc and get a lpt pci card like The_Librarian said? or is that what you gona do? :p
 
It's better to have it in a VM, since backup is a snap, and restoration as easy. You can also roll back changes and so on, so the system becomes more stable. The new big buzz in the IT world is virtualization, and I can understand why.
 
SharkBait said:
I'm still lost. Why not load win98 on the celeron pc and get a lpt pci card like The_Librarian said? or is that what you gona do? :p
Click to expand...

No, I'm going to load Win98 into a Virtual Machine inside Windows XP for the reasons I stated above.

1) It's an already working combination, I don't have to try and get it working again (which I have wasted enough time on).
2) I don't have to go searching for Win98 drivers for the new machine.
3) Every other machine, combination I have tried has not worked. I want to preserve what I have.
 
Garyvdh said:
No, I'm going to load Win98 into a Virtual Machine inside Windows XP for the reasons I stated above.

1) It's an already working combination, I don't have to try and get it working again (which I have wasted enough time on).
2) I don't have to go searching for Win98 drivers for the new machine.
3) Every other machine, combination I have tried has not worked. I want to preserve what I have.
Click to expand...

I meant getting the add-on PCI LPT card for a new PC with enough RAM...

It does not matter what methods you will use, as long as you can get a virtual PC up and running with windows98 on with access to a LPT port.

I am sure you will win with this one - backups/recovery is far easier with a virtual PC than with a regular PC :)
 
BTW, can your thermal printer app write a raw printer stream and output to file? If it can, you can print to file and then output to printer from the host XP system.
There's also a DOS command to set up LPT1: to print to file ... google will help you find it.
 
Arthur said:
BTW, can your thermal printer app write a raw printer stream and output to file? If it can, you can print to file and then output to printer from the host XP system.
There's also a DOS command to set up LPT1: to print to file ... google will help you find it.
Click to expand...

Yes it can do that... thanks!
 
Garyvdh said:
No, I'm going to load Win98 into a Virtual Machine inside Windows XP for the reasons I stated above.

1) It's an already working combination, I don't have to try and get it working again (which I have wasted enough time on).
2) I don't have to go searching for Win98 drivers for the new machine.
3) Every other machine, combination I have tried has not worked. I want to preserve what I have.
Click to expand...

Fair enough, but from what I understand is that the celeron PC doesn't have a lpt port, so unless you get the pci lpt card, it doesn't mater what hardware you are going to use? :confused:
 
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