This will enable us to transfer the driver from the host system to the target VM via the VirtualBox floppy drive. The first is a floppy disk image of the CD-ROM driver for MS-DOS. In this step, we’re going to build two images. I’ve outlined nine steps to follow to construct a WfW VM with sound, super VGA display, local network and browser support. As I already had access to later versions of Windows in VMs, I used the technique described here to create floppy images. I thought ImgBurn would do the trick for me, but I couldn’t create a readable floppy image with it.

A means of creating a floppy image (.IMG).

ImgBurn or equivalent, for creating a CD-ROM image (.ISO).

I’ll be blending elements of both posts to provide a fresh look at getting WfW working in VirtualBox. However, it seems to make the assumption that the reader has access to a physical floppy drive. The post here (circa 2004) includes all the software and patches required to get WfW working under VMware. It could also be streamlined a little better. However, it’s missing a key component, which is required to make WfW work on top of modern day processors. There’s a 2012 post here that covers the installation of WfW in VirtualBox in quite good detail. These should serve as signposts for those who also wish to embark on a similar journey on the road less travelled to a time when Windows was just an immature little child that often behaved badly! So detailed in this post are the steps I took to resurrect WfW in VirtualBox. Plus the allure of bringing WfW back to life again in all of its former glory was just too great to pass by.

However, WfW is where my love affair with Windows first began. I intended to stop the Windows virtual machine (VM) challenge at Windows 95 and wasn’t planning on going back as far as WfW.

Some familiarity with DOS is also assumed.Įdit (): According to this thread, the highest version of VirtualBox to still support WfW is VirtualBox 6.0.18. A working knowledge of VirtualBox is assumed. This post will be of interest if you are considering revisiting MS-DOS 6.22, the last standalone version of Microsoft DOS, and Windows for Workgroups 3.11 (WfW), the first commercial version of Windows to gain any real traction.įor this post, I’m working with VirtualBox 5.2.12 under Windows 10 Home (build 1803).

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