Windows 98 is a continuation of the Windows 95 product. The major change is an insanely heavy focus on web integration. The help system, many applications, and even the desktop are redesigned to make use of Internet Explorer. Windows 98 runs on top of the same "MS-DOS 7.1" with FAT32 support as Windows 95 OSR2, and it includes support for USB. Windows 98 had two major releases - a First Edition and a Second Edition. It was followed up by Windows ME.
If a download does not include a boot disk, please see Microsoft Windows Boot Disks
If the listed serials below do not work for a specific release, please see the Serials thread
Other Windows Versions:
| 1.0 | 2.x | 3.x | NT 3.x | 95 | NT 4.0 | 98 | 2000 | ME | All |
Retroactively referred to as "Windows 98 First Edition", this is the gold RTM version that was shipped with computers and sold on store shelves.
Important: Only the OEM Full CD is bootable. All others require an appropriate Windows 98 Boot Floppy.
To speed up installation, and to avoid numerous problems, copy the win98 folder to a folder on the hard drive (such as c:\win98) and then run setup from there.
Note: VMWare and VirtualBox can be problematic with Windows 9x. You may need to disable various acceleration features first, or consider emulators like x86Box or PCem.
Windows 98 First Edition may require an updated NDIS.VXD when installing on a faster computer or VM, otherwise you may receive a "protection error" at startup.