Pretty sure sharing an image like that would break copyright laws.

Also licensure.

Old OSes were 'per install', and cloned images like that count.

Big box stores had lawyers calling other lawyers to make restore CDs legal. Us normal folk? Not so much.

Aside from copyright being an issue, I can't imagine too many people would have no only created a disk image of a Win 98 install (with all software), but also then uploaded that to the internet. Especially since any such installs would be specific to the original hardware and not as much use on a random system.

Your best bet is to just obtain intact systems from that era and see what software is on them. It's a crap shoot though, because as you've found out, a lot of them are pretty boring.

I have seen them on internet archive they used norton ghost to make images of desktops you need to browse for them but you'll probably need your drivers after booting. Thing is they are usually themed for anime and visual styles so they might be interesting.

ldeveraux wrote on 2026-09-08, 15:17:

Pretty sure sharing an image like that would break copyright laws.

well yeah you are right ... but being really old systems where most of the stuff is readily available online like Windows 98, drivers, norton, encarta, winamp, cuteftp, netscape and many games etc I dont know
But I really didn't thought about that aspect.

I guess I have to rely on lists of "essencial win98 software" or that kind to build a period correct machine

But I really would like to go deeper than that, you know like those funny icon and sound packs that existed, shareware stuff that came with magazines etc etc

zapbuzz wrote on 2026-09-09, 15:03:

I have seen them on internet archive they used norton ghost to make images of desktops you need to browse for them but you'll probably need your drivers after booting. Thing is they are usually themed for anime and visual styles so they might be interesting.

yeah, for sure the drivers will have to be recycled but I will put an eye out for it 😀

wierd_w wrote on 2026-09-08, 15:41:

Also licensure.

Old OSes were 'per install', and cloned images like that count.

Big box stores had lawyers calling other lawyers to make restore CDs legal. Us normal folk? Not so much.

We used the same serial for any installation, no matter if there was a proper license, or whatever else, and I used it so much that I still remember it after 28years.

Perhaps it's what all OEM did and do to this day, no matter the sticker attached to the machine.

Even MS surrendered to the status quo and published generic KMS keys for most of their OS

I dont seem to be able to login from my usual computer ... is there something wrong ?

Did I do something wrong here ? I didnt get any warning
I'm not really wanting to focus on the copyright side of software .. we all know even many 90's titles are still copyrighterd to this day

My question was simply about the availability of some hard disk snapshots of a period correct of what a tipical machine would look like at the time to have a more realistic experience

As I said most HDs I come across with a win98 still installed there are boring office or business machines without any 90's flavour in them 😜