Win98-quickinstall: A framework and installer to quickly install Windows 98

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Use cases and audience

  • Many commenters still run Windows 9x for:
    • DOS, 16‑bit, and early 32‑bit Windows software
    • Late‑90s/early‑00s games that don’t work reliably on modern Windows
    • Retro programming, hardware tinkering, and event demos
  • Some see it purely as nostalgic fun; others treat it as a serious environment for legacy work.

Installation and emulation choices

  • The project’s promise: a largely unattended Win98 install in ~60–90 seconds, including hardware detection and drivers, is seen as impressive.
  • Several people prefer dedicated emulators (86Box, PCem) over generic VMs like VirtualBox for better compatibility and stability with pre‑XP systems.
  • Browser‑based emulation (v86, copy.sh) is mentioned for quick, no‑install experimentation.
  • A few run Win98 on modern hardware using period‑appropriate PCI/PCIe cards; this is niche but demonstrated in the wild.

Installer design and performance

  • The custom data packing optimized for streaming from CD to disk without seeks is praised as clever and reminiscent of old optical‑disc game installers.
  • Commenters contrast this with their memory of Win98 installs taking ~45 minutes plus many driver/patch reboots.
  • Some ask why Win98 setup was historically so slow; others cite the era’s messy hardware landscape (ISA, early USB, flaky PnP) and heuristic probing that could even crash machines.

Comparisons to modern Windows deployment

  • Someone asks for an equivalent “fully unattended, slimmed” installer for Windows 11.
  • Responses outline current tooling:
    • Sysprep + captured images
    • Microsoft Deployment Toolkit and its deprecation/WDS changes
    • Configuration Manager, Intune, Autopilot, provisioning packages, and “smartphone‑style” management.
  • Home users are advised to periodically build a tuned VM image and clone it to target machines.

Stability, nostalgia, and aesthetics

  • Multiple recollections of Win98 needing frequent reinstalls (filesystem corruption, DLL hell, drivers overwriting each other), often driving people to Linux or to NT‑based Windows 2000/XP.
  • Strong praise for Win98SE as the “best of 9x” and for Windows 2000 as peak Windows; some discuss XP’s boot optimizations and higher RAM needs.
  • Debate over whether classic Windows or contemporaneous Mac OS looked better; opinions split, with both sides calling the other era “ugly.”

Imaging, rollback, and “why not just keep a ghost?”

  • Several note that in the 9x era, tools like Ghost, GoBack, Deep Freeze, and later Windows SteadyState made frequent reinstalls tolerable by restoring snapshots quickly.
  • Some argue that today one could just maintain a clean Win98 image instead of a custom installer; others value this project’s automation, speed, and “from‑scratch” reproducibility.
  • Side discussion about SSD bit‑rot and the suitability of various flash media for long‑term retro builds.