What about a VM?

Win98 can be installed natively on a modern machine, but some conditions are required: NVidia 7xxx, Radeon X8xx or older video card is required.
You also need a Win98 compatible sound card.
FreeDOS is not required, it has its own DOS (DOS7.1).
You also need:
Loew mem-driver, if the system RAM is larger than 512MB
Loew TBPLUS driver
Loew SATA(AHCI) driver
The installation is quite complicated and may vary from machine to machine.
It also runs on Ryzen, for example:

PixelPolish wrote on 2025-07-17, 10:13:

We've got FreeDOS which can be installed on modern hardware and run DOS games and apps, but supposedly you can't install Win 98 on top of it ...

Unlike MS/PC/DR etc... FreeDos is still a developed thing, much more likely to support modern hardware...
.. and unlike 3.1, 95/98 is more tied into DOS not just running on top of it ... so I wouldn't expect it to
work on non-MS/IBM

I have DOS/Win3/Win95/98/Nt/2K/XP/7 and a few flavours of Linux running (quite well) on my (not terribly recent by
todays standards) I7 desktops and laptops ... under "VMware Player 7" - this is a virtual machine under Windows which
was free... intended to be able to run VM images created by the (paid for) "Vmware Workstation"

But for at least a little while VMware released versions of "Player" which allowed you to boot Floppies/CDs and do
OS installs - not sure it still allows this now.

You could also look at "VirtualBox" another (and fully free) VM.
I chose VMware because at the time I was working for a client who was using it for other
reasons (I had the .vmdk on a removable hard drive which I could easily take with me between
their and my offices)

I kept the "Player7" install, disconnect from Internet when I install it (otherwise it will update before installing)
- and never let Winblows "update" it... Still works well for me.

A couple advantages of doing it this way...

1) You can easily backup/restore the full machine (.vmdk disk image - I always tell it to store the disk image
in a single file) - super handy when you want to "try" some package and have the option to easily restore the
system to "it was never there"

2) Dead easy to copy a VM to another system. (Like a laptop so you can travel with it)

Player will notice this and an ask "Did you copy or move" - ALWAYS say "move" - otherwise
it will change the virtual hardware (NIC address etc.) enough that some OSs will think they
have been "pirated" .. just take care not to run multiple instances of a copied VM at the
same time.

Unfortunately, I dont see a readily available way to combine both csmwrap and memdisk, on a Grub2 boot option line.

CSMWrap is a WIP UEFI executable based generic CSM for use on EFI only systems.
New project called CSMWrap, a new legacy OS boot solution for UEFI-only systems lacking a built-in CSM
https://github.com/FlyGoat/CSMWrap/wiki/Usage-Guide

Memdisk is part of the IsoLinux toolset, and creates a bootable ramdisk, using a physical HDD disk image or floppy diskette image file. It needs a CSM to be present.
https://wiki.syslinux.org/wiki/index.php?title=MEMDISK

Maybe someday CSMWrap will permit passing a linux kernel and initrd line to it. When/if that ever happens, it could be used with Memdisk to boot a legacy OS on modern iron in a safe and convenient way that is GPT partition table friendly.

But again, sadly that does not seem to be the case.

But until then, it can be used to boot from a storage device that has a properly set up MBR partition table, and bootable partition, on EFI only systems.

DaveDDS wrote on Yesterday, 02:12:

I have DOS/Win3/Win95/98/Nt/2K/XP/7 and a few flavours of Linux running (quite well) on my (not terribly recent by
todays standards) I7 desktops and laptops ... under "VMware Player 7" - this is a virtual machine under Windows which
was free... intended to be able to run VM images created by the (paid for) "Vmware Workstation"

Newer VMware Player versions can create virtual machines, there's just not as much knobs to be playing with.

VMware Workstation Pro became freeware in May 2024, so VMware Player was discontinued in its favor, account registration at Broadcom is required to be able to download from official source.

The biggest thing with newer versions are less restrictions applicable to serious server environments, newer Direct3D support for Windows guests, possibly better compatibility with newer versions of host OS. At least with VirtualBox I played with couple of years ago (which is forever in computer world!), its drivers were most surely to work right with period correct Windows version.

My main concern with a laptop is you can't change the video or sound card.
That old thread you linked specifically has a section on this at the end explaining you may need to find compatible cards for a computer.
Not saying you shouldn't get a laptop and downgrade, just double triple check if sound/video in Win9x will work

chinny22 wrote on Yesterday, 23:35:

My main concern with a laptop is you can't change the video or sound card.
That old thread you linked specifically has a section on this at the end explaining you may need to find compatible cards for a computer.
Not saying you shouldn't get a laptop and downgrade, just double triple check if sound/video in Win9x will work

I also have an older laptop - Athlon-II-X2/HD4250/integrated sound. DOS/XP can run on it without any problems, but Win98 is not good because there is no video/sound driver. The latter is better solved on a desktop computer, or a laptop natively with all components compatible with Win9x.

Depends on what is meant by "modern systems".

AFAIK, there are 3 methods :

1.For running Win9x natively :

A Socket 775 based Pentium 4 desktop system can be considered a modern system if talking about Win9x compatibility, which is the last generation that can run Windows 98SE/ME natively.

A Win9x native laptop, like the Thinkpad T42 is a mobile alternative that can run Win9x natively since drivers exist even now.

2. Running Win9x with hacks :

Get a Windows 9x supported last gen Nvidia or Radeon cards - e.g. - Nvidia 6800 Ultra or Radeon 9800XT, or even X800 or X850XT (yes, Win9x drivers exists for these cards) along with a Win9x supported SoundBlaster card - e.g. Audigy or Live! 5.1 cards and install them on newer post-Socket 775 motherboards with PCI-E slots. Though, AGP slots are preferred. Some motherboard drivers won't be available for Windows 9x, but the main thing - graphics and sounds work. Which are the most important for running Win9x based software. Also, use PATCHMEM - https://archive.org/details/PATCHMEM if having more than 512MB RAM in the system, otherwise Win9x won't boot after install.

3. Running Win9x under a virtual machine

I'm also running Windows 98SE "natively" in my Debian system using QEMU. Runs fully 3D accelerated games using Softgpu - https://github.com/JHRobotics/softgpu.