Emulating NT 3.51 on VMware
I have VMware Workstation 10.0.1 installed on my Windows 10 Technical Preview (upgraded from Windows 7) and would like to use Windows NT 3.51 Workstation for my project. Initial tests with NT 3.x showed that versions 3.1 and 3.5 cannot find compatible mass storage drivers, but 3.51 installed without problems.
I am currently looking for video as well as other drivers which are needed for using development tools such as Visual Studio 97. Thank you in advance.
I am currently looking for video as well as other drivers which are needed for using development tools such as Visual Studio 97. Thank you in advance.
Comments
https://communities.vmware.com/thread/99078?tstart=0
Use this floppy image to install video drivers, it's on my OneDrive. Ensure you copy framebuf.dll into the system32 directory before installing the video driver. Otherwise NT will just crash on startup and will need to go back into VGA mode.
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=E ... file%2cIMA
It can go up to 24-bit colour at 1920 x 1440 resolution!
Windows NT 3.1 I've only seen work using the QEMU emulator. Windows NT 3.5 I've had it detect mass storage drives in the past though it still gets undone at the GUI portion of setup stating that the CPU is not compatible. This is due to setup looking for a physical 486, Pentium, or Pentium Pro CPU. I can't remember the reason for this, but this requirement was dropped in NT 3.51. There's a file from NT 3.5 that can be overwritten from a NT 3.51 CD to get around this though.
With installation I never had to go through the hassle of using DOS first and installing the CD-ROM driver before running NT Setup. This is probably done where someone doesn't have the 3 floppy disks for the initial part of startup, by using the floppy-less install switch with setup.exe.
Was there anything else you needed? Installing SP5 would also be recommended.
A sound driver would be nice. As for service packs, Visual Studio 97 requires SP5, so there's no escaping it for me.
I couldn't find VMware Workstation 5, so I tried Player 3.0.1 instead. Caused a blue screen... :(
Actually, Workstation 10.0.1 works okay for me, so no issues.
I think ampharos meant that in Workstation 10, when creating a new virtual machine using custom settings you can wind back the compatibility level of it down to Workstation 5 level. You have Workstation, there's really no need to get Player 3. I created my NT 3.51 VM using Workstation 5 settings in Workstation 10 and don't really have any issues.
Go to Drivers via Control Panel. Select Add and choose the "Creative Labs Sound Blaster 1.X, Pro, 16" driver. You'll need your NT CD for the driver. When the configuration dialog box appears, keep everything default except the MPU401 I/O Address option by changing it to "Disable". Restart the VM once all done, and you should start hearing sounds. MIDI sounds files won't play back though.