This article will provide a detailed guide on setting up Windows 95 on a brand-new virtual machine utilizing the Oracle VM VirtualBox virtualization program. By following the steps outlined in this article, you will be able to create and configure your virtual machine efficiently, allowing you to run Windows 95 with ease.
Microsoft released Windows 95 with a hybrid graphical user interface based on 16 and 32 bits at the end of August 1995. However, standard support ended in 2000 and extended support in 2001.
It is the first version to offer users a more advanced interface and improve the taskbar and Start menu.
Microsoft’s most significant target audience in developing this operating system was business users, aiming to win over home users. That’s why they switched to 32-bit architecture: they can multitask.
It is almost impossible to use legacy systems of Windows on today’s personal computers. Because using new technologies with old methods is impossible, you can follow this video or the steps below to use Windows 95 on a virtual machine using virtualization software such as Oracle VM VirtualBox.
Step 1: First of all, download the ISO file of the Windows 95 operating system to your computer from the or a source on the Internet.
Step 2: After running the Oracle software, click the New icon from the tool menu or shortcut tools to launch the wizard to create a new VM.
Step 3: In the Name and Operating System window, type Windows95 in the Name field and check the values in the Type and Version fields. If you want to store the virtual PC you will create in a different location, select the location on your external HDD, SSD, or NVMe storage device from the Machine Folder section.
Step 4: In the Memory Size window, set the maximum RAM size for the Windows 95 virtual machine to 512 MB. By default, in the real world, the full RAM size of Win95 is 480 MB.
Step 5: In the Hard Disk window, you must create a new virtual disk for the Windows 95 virtual computer. In this window, if you have a guest machine installed before, you can add the disk of your old virtual machine with the Add existing virtual HDD option. However, to install from scratch, continue with the Create a new virtual hard disk option.
Step 6: In the Hard Disk File Type window, select the VDI (VirtualBox Disk Image) disk type Oracle recommends. Because other virtualization programs use other disk types in this window, you can use them in different situations.
Step 7: If you want to choose a location other than the installation location in the File Location and Size window, click the folder icon and specify the folder’s location. Finally, configure the capacity of the Windows 95 virtual disk to 2 GB.
Step 8: After creating the Windows 95 virtual computer, click Settings to add the ISO installation media of Windows to the guest machine and set up other virtual hardware settings.
Step 9: Since VirtualBox does not support Guest Additions for Windows 9x editions, you cannot use your physical computer’s hardware in the virtual machine or enable features such as Shared Clipboard and Drag & Drop. However, the video tutorial teaches you how to change the screen resolution and color depth.
Step 10: In the System / Motherboard window, configure the primary boot device as Optical and remove the Floppy device from the list. Since the ISO file you downloaded is bootable, you can install Windows 95 without a Floppy device.
Step 11: If you want to configure multiple virtual processors for the Win95 virtual computer, first enable I/O APIC in Motherboard settings and then increase the number of virtual CPUs.
Step 12: After checking that you have configured the I/O Cache feature of the IDE controller and the Windows95.vdi virtual disk file as SSD (Solid State Drive) in the storage settings, click Empty and then the DVD icon to attach the Windows ISO file to the VM and attach the image file.
Step 13: After preparing the Windows 95 virtual PC, click the Start button and start the installation. Watch the full video tutorial to install drivers for display and USB sticks.
NOTE: You can use the following commands after opening the FDISK tool to copy Windows 95 system files.
➦ fdisk
➦ Press the Y key.
➦ format C:
➦ Press the Y key.
➦ Press enter.
➦ C:
➦ dir
➦ mkdir WIN95
➦ copy R:\WIN95\*.* C:\WIN95