Win95 Virtual Machine under 7

[Monty]

Hey guys,

My dad has an old scanner that only works under Win95 and I want to retire the Machine running 95. How do I go about creating a 95 virtual machine in windows 7 ultimate?

[wit_skapie]

Hey guys,

My dad has an old scanner that only works under Win95 and I want to retire the Machine running 95. How do I go about creating a 95 virtual machine in windows 7 ultimate?

Hi Monty,

I use VMWare server 1.9 (freeware) for most of my old stuff, i have VMware server version 2 running on some systems - but i'm not to keen on the fact that they made it into a tomcat web interface. Me thinks your bigest challenge will be sharing the physical hardware - is it USB? If so - then it should be easy

There another free tool you might want to look at - it's called VMWare converter, it'll create a virtual machine directly from the host 95 pc. You can then just copy the VM image to the machine running VMWare server and import it.

Cheers,
w_s

[Monty]

Can't I use the Windows Virtual PC app? (I have installed XP mode). And how do I add (install) 95 in the Virtual Machine? (This is my first foray in to the world of Virtual Machines so I know nothing about doing anything with them)

[Prime]

Can I ask why it only wants to work in 95? If its drivers, can't you use generics?

[Monty]

Can I ask why it only wants to work in 95? If its drivers, can't you use generics?

No you can't.

Lol. The scanner is from the 95 days, and works very well for what my dad needs. And there are no generic drivers for it.

[wit_skapie]

Hi Monty,

Yes you could probably use Virtual PC, but the hardware support in my experience is a lot better in VMWare. To install 95 you most likely have to create images from the stiffy discs, then mount them using the tool options - you can mount ISOs or floppy/stiffy When you configure your Virtual machine you give it virtual hardware, like CDs, USB etc.

w_s

[rustypup]

there's also virtual box... which is like vmware... only sexier

[wit_skapie]

there's also virtual box... which is like vmware... only sexier

lol... mine BSOD a few times, not sexy

[rustypup]

you're doing it wrong!... actually, the win7 RC, (guest),did this once or twice... but the earlier windows flavours have proven fault free for us... not that we're virtualising '95.. we're not cavemen... <hint, hint..>

wouldn't a new scanner be a better approach?

[Monty]

you're doing it wrong!... actually, the win7 RC, (guest),did this once or twice... but the earlier windows flavours have proven fault free for us... not that we're virtualising '95.. we're not cavemen... <hint, hint..>

wouldn't a new scanner be a better approach?

A new scanner would probably work, but the one my dad has (The HP Scanjet 4s) works very well, is fast and is tiny. (And if any of you can suggest a way to get it to work in 7 or XP, I'll be eternally grateful.)


We do have a flat bed scanner, but it is a bit too big to be properly useful to my dad.

[rustypup]

if it's small you're after M12 OpticSlim... not sure about local distributors, but we have a few of these in the office and they're pretty rugged... nowhere near as fast as the batch scanners, but they do the job...

[Monty]

And quality of those little scanners??

[rustypup]

well... they're mostly operated by users who can't seem to recall the steps required to switch a monitor on, so i'd go with "fool proof" and work up from there.... tomsguide review