November 18th in News, Playbook, Playbook Apps, Reviews by .

How To run Windows 95 or 98 on your BlackBerry Playbook

Update: The link for Windows 95 was down, so I zipped the w95.img and uploaded it. Just for kicks, I included a Windows 98 image that works as well, so now you can boot either Windows 95 or Windows 98 on your Playbook! </endupdate>

I don’t want to take away from the incredible bargain that $300 off on a BlackBerry Playbook is. But this article might give you an additional incentive to pick one up at that amazing price.

Before beginning, I should mention that the OSBB team had nothing to do with figuring out how to do this. We’re just presenting this tutorial.

Anyway, if you ever wanted to run Windows95 on your Playbook, now’s your chance!

Note: You MUST be running Playbook OS2 for this to work.

The first thing you need to do download and install DosBox for your Playbook. DosBox is now available in BlackBerry App World thanks to A7omic at https://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/84359/?lang=en

Next, you need an .img for Win95. You can get one here (thanks to PSX-Scene.com for the original downloads) in a zip file:

http://jumbofiles.com/skxnyww3maxf

Extract the folder using 7zip or Winzip. Place the Win95 folder into the misc folder on your Playbook using your PC. You can transfer it over Wifi (remember the how-to on mapping your Playbook as a network drive http://opensourcebb.com/2011/10/map-your-playbook-to-a-network-location-aka-easy-file-access-over-wifi/) or with a USB cable. I personally used a USB cable because I had one handy, and my router sucks.

Once you have the Win95 folder in the misc folder on your Playbook, launch DosBox.

To bring up the keyboard, swipe up to the center of your Playbook screen from the lower left corner.

Type the following commands exactly as shown, hitting enter after each line:

mount c: /accounts/1000/shared/misc/win95

c:

imgmount a w95.img

boot w95.img

That’s it!

The internet doesn’t work, but the mouse does.

Windows 95 will take a minute or two to boot up, and then you can do all the awesome things that Windows 95 has for you to do like play solitaire, or use the calculator, or…

…

or…

Why did you want to run Windows 95 anyway?

Enjoy :D

 

 

 

BlackBerry Addict threat-level Midnight. Hybrid builder, App/Theme Developer, Law Student, OSBB Co-Founder. My thoughts are your own.

VIsit Shane (SCrid2000)'s website

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  • yk

    I don’t know what the guys at RIM think about these interesting developments. Neither the DOSbox or W95 are mainstream applications. They are toys for geeks. If the PB is only good for this kind geeky things, its future is NOT bright!

    On the other hand, is Microsoft holding skype on purpose or it is just because of the post-acquisition mess. There is no skype for PB after so long time, which makes PB less attractive. Skype for Honeycomb is also pretty ugly. It seems the non-ipad market too segmented to attract enough traction for the developers. It is sad then for our non-apple fans.

    YK

    • J_Duke

      I think this is just the beginning of some interesting things being ported to Playbook. Playbook is based on open standards which should help ensure that nearly any application out there will be able to be fairly easily to port over to BBx

    • http://blog.cridlebaugh.net Shane (SCrid2000)

      Good point, except that this isn’t available to mainstream consumers lol.
      Playbook OS2 should solve the app problem. And developing apps for Playbook is no harder than developing for Android or iOS, there’s just not a sufficient userbase to really attract lots of developers, and there probably won’t be until BBX comes.
      I sure would love skype to come to Playbook though.

  • Pingback: DosBox on PlayBook – The Engadget Appearance | Open Source News

  • yk

    I wish I could be more positive about PB. However, RIM’s positioning of PB is questionable. PB was aimed at BB users, maybe business users mainly. If PB can’t become a massive consumer product, then there will be no enough developers’ interest.

    PB was a great piece of hardware, while others are catching up. 6 months is long enough to loss any edge in this industry. The PB OS is also quite nicely implemented, but that is not enough either. Historically, IBM had a technically-superior OS/2 but it was driven to dust by the inferior but widely used MSWIN, due to lack of customer base and no developers support. The core is IBM did not live on it.

    I am not sure if it is too late for RIM to react to the overwhelming dominance of APPLE and its rising penetration in business users. The core of the problem is not how strong APPLE is, it is the lack of commitment of RIM. Will RIM repeat HP’s route? Voluntarily or not, the wheel is rolling to that direction, unless…… I don’t know.

    If we look at how MS has been declining in the tablet or mobile market, we can see how hard it is for a company to re-invent itself to catch up the tide and break their life cycle. I cross my fingers for RIM.

    YK

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  • http://papogp.com Diego Nei

    I got it working on the current OS. Quite interesting! Any good w95 legacy stuff you suggest?

  • Yungwun55

    umm yall are just haters. i dont kno what all you pple are sayin apple does not do anything special they just market it well. its not special nore is its hardware and os its nice but playbook is wayyyy nicer

  • jonp

    Is there a Win 98 image out there that could be installed the same way?

    Thanks.

  • Christopher_578

    Is there anyway to add files to this so I can install programs on 95 without the internet? (because the internet doesn’t work with 95 on PB) I really want to try orbiter on my PB

  • J.D.W Tan

    how do we get the ESC and F keys please?

  • Billywhiskyjack

    Download link doesn’t work, all I get is a bunch of toolbar progs to load. Tried all of them but still no win95

     

  • Decrzone

    is possible to instal win programs/games?

  • umang

    Download link doesn’t work, for win95 .img.

  • mathan

    Anybody tried installing windows 8 using vm in 95?

  • dragontat

    Is the blackberry playbook system still able to be used

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