Warning

GitHub LFS considered harmful

On 2023-08-13 GitHub has permanently disabled Git LFS for ALL of our repositories because we've "exceeded the data plan". Instead of limiting downloads to the allotted bandwith, they simply let them run wild and then shut it down entirely.

Let this be a warning to everyone (considering) using Git LFS on Github. They cannot be trusted. In the meantime, you can download hda.img here: https://rtts.eu/download/win98/hda.img

Virtual Machine with Windows 98

Here's a fully configured Windows 98 machine with a working internet connection and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.

The file hda.img contains the harddrive. You can mount it directly with the ./mount command to copy over files. The ./start command starts the machine using QEMU.

Browsing the internet

Windows 98 has been configured to connect to the gateway at 192.168.178.1. Change this configuration via the Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> Network -> TCP/IP -> Properties -> DNS Configuration and Gateway tabs.

Internet Explorer has been configured to use the HTTP proxy server at address 192.168.178.129 port 81. On this machine I'm running nginx with the following configuration:

server {
  listen 81;

  location / {
    resolver 8.8.8.8;
    proxy_http_version 1.1;
    proxy_ssl_server_name on;
    proxy_pass https://$host$request_uri;
  }
}

This allows visiting HTTPS websites over HTTP. To change the proxy configuration, go to Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Connections -> LAN Settings -> Advanced

Persisting changes

First, shutdown Windows 98. Then, type Ctrl-Alt-2 to switch to the QEMU monitor, then type commit all.