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I have a number of old games I'd like to play which seem to only run well inside of Windows 95. I therefore have endeavored to get a Windows 95 installation running inside of VMWare. However, when I try to install VMWare Tools, I receive an "illegal operation" dialog box. I was able to get around this by manually running the msi installer and running the MSI inside of the VMWare Tools package, but the display adapter driver still won't install.

I then followed the manual driver installation instructions (i.e. go through device manager, select "Have Disk", pick the file in the C:\Program Files\VMware folder...), but now VMWare itself complains with this:

Jan 21 16:00:09.716: vcpu-0| [msg.svga.legacyDriver] Unable to use legacy SVGA driver. A video driver in the guest operating system has attempted to use an older SVGA interface than the one this virtual machine is configured to use. Very likely, your guest will run in VGA mode (640x480 with only 16 colors) instead of in SVGA mode.
Jan 21 16:00:09.716: vcpu-0| If you are in the middle of upgrading a virtual disk, this message is normal and you should continue to follow the upgrade instructions. Otherwise, it indicates that your guest video drivers are probably out of date and will require reinstallation.

Any ideas on what to do here?

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    This is not unexpected. I feel that VMWare only targets Windows 98 and upwards (if they support the 9x series at all). Your chances of getting the display drivers installed are slim. I've seen the same behaviour on VirtualBox and Virtual PC for Windows 3.1 and Windows 95.
    – user3463
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 21:12
  • @Randolph: The VMware docs say it's still supported.
    – Billy ONeal
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 21:14
  • Are you stuck with VMWare? I'd try Virtualbox.
    – tobylane
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 21:35
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    @tobylane: VirtualBox does not support Windows 95 ( source )
    – Billy ONeal
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 21:48
  • Try Windows NT 4.0. It often runs the DOS games in it's command box just fine. Also it's still supported.
    – sinni800
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 22:38

1 Answer 1

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Try these instructions from the VMware Knowledgebase, it looks a little different than what you posted above.

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    That link has the same instructions I described above. I got a different Windows 95 disk from a friend though -- seems like it's a newer copy -- and it worked now though. So have a free green checkbox :)
    – Billy ONeal
    Commented Jan 21, 2011 at 22:37
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    You probably got your hands on Windows 95 OSR2 then, which had FAT32 support. Yes?
    – user3463
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 1:12
  • @Billy - Glad you got it working!
    – LeoB
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 3:43
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    @Randolph: Yes, it's an OSR2 one.
    – Billy ONeal
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 3:59
  • OSR2 was definitely more stable than OEM, so glad you got it working eventually.
    – user3463
    Commented Jan 22, 2011 at 6:42

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