js-dos Help

Install OS

The installation process is similar for all operating systems. You can use these instructions not only for MS-DOS/Windows. The installation process includes:

  1. Download an empty disk image

  2. Set up the configuration of DOSBox

  3. Create a js-dos bundle

  4. Get the installation files and a bootable diskette or bootable CD

  5. Upload these images to the file system

  6. Boot from the CD or diskette

  7. Install the operating system

Download the empty disk image

Currently, js-dos provides two disk images:

  • FAT16 256MB – a good choice for small installations (MS-DOS, Win 3.11)

  • FAT32 2GB – the best option for Win 9x and installations that require more space

How to boot with empty image

An empty image is just a formatted drive without any data. Because it is empty, you can't boot from it. You need to have a bootable diskette to boot with the empty image.

  1. First, you need to boot with the newly created drive. The easiest way to do this is to download a DOS bootable diskette. You can get one here (dos.img).

  2. Open studio and press Create empty bundle link

  3. Select a configured preset that fits your OS, or provide your own configuration

    select preset

  4. Start emulation by pressing Play button

  5. Open FS sidebar, press upload file, and select dos.img and qcow2 empty image.

    boot from A:

  6. Type mount -u c: to unmount drive C:

  7. Type imgmount a: dos.img to mount the image as drive A:

  8. Type imgmount 2 <name-of-qcow2>.qcow2 to mount the qcow2 as drive C:

  9. Now boot from A: by typing boot a:

  10. When you have booted, you can change to drive C:. Do what you want: copy files, install OS, etc.

    drive C:

Install MS-DOS

Download the MS-DOS distribution and extract it to a location of your choice. Usually MS-DOS is distributed as a bunch of floppy disks - in our tutorial we used an installation with 3 diskettes. Now add all needed files to the emulator (MS-DOS distribution, qcow2 image and bootable diskette)

add all files

Let's mount the emulator file system as drive D: - we need to extract installation files on it to use later.

mount d . imgmount A disk01.img -U xcopy A:\. D:\ imgmount A disk02.img -U xcopy A:\. D:\ imgmount A disk03.img -U xcopy A:\. D:\

By doing this, we have extracted the DOS distribution to the virtual file system. Now we can boot with our bootable diskette. Please start DOS with CD-ROM support - in this case, you will have your system drive C: and drive D: will contain your virtual file system.

imgmount A dos.img -U imgmount 2 system-fat32-2gb.qcow2 boot a:

When you have booted, change to drive D: and run setup using SETUP.EXE

D: SETUP.EXE

Follow the setup instructions. When the installation is done, you can clean up your bundle using the Trash icon in the FS sidebar.

cleanup

If you installed the system directly on drive C:, then you can add mount and boot commands to the autoexec section:

  1. Restart emulation from the beginning

    restart emulation

  2. Setup autoexec

    boot c:

  3. Run emulation to ensure that everything works fine

At the end, you can export the installed OS as a js-dos bundle.

Export as js-dos

Tutorial video (MS-DOS 7.1)

Install Win9x

Installing Windows 9x is very similar to installing MS-DOS 7.1 — you just need to use the correct Windows installation ISO instead of an MS-DOS one.

Configure your installation

Seamless mouse integration (windows 9x)

  1. Download binary drivers

  2. Mount install.dsk from doslib\windrv\dosboxpi\bin as A: drive

    imgmount a: install.dsk

  3. Boot your Windows 98 image

  4. Open Control Panel -> Add New Hardware -> Mouse -> Have Disk

  5. In the file selector, please select folder related to your Windows version, e.g., win98.

  6. Install DOSBox-X Mouse Pointer Integration

  7. Open Control Panel -> System -> Device Manager

  8. Select Standard PS/2 Port Mouse and press Properties

  9. Check Disable in this hardware profile

  10. Reboot

Install 3Dfx driver (windows 9x)

  1. Download 3.01 Driver

  2. Extract it somewhere

  3. Upload this folder to js-dos before windows boot

  4. Mount FS as drive D:

    mount d: .

  5. Boot Windows 98

  6. Open Device Manager Start -> Settings -> Control Panel -> System

  7. Locate the existing reference to the card it will be listed as:

    Reference Card: Other Devices / PCI Multimedia Device or Sound, Video, Game Controllers / Voodoo2 3Dfx Voodoo

  8. Double-Click on the card, then click the driver Tab.

  9. Click Update Driver then click the Next Button twice on the Detection Dialog Box. Ensure that Specify a Location is checked and Microsoft Windows Update is not checked. Click Browse to continue.

  10. Select drive D:

  11. If windows asks please select Install one of the other drivers. Press Next.

  12. Windows will copy the drivers. Overwrite all files if windows asks.

  13. Reboot the system when prompted.

DirectX (windows 9x)

  1. Download DirectX 6, DirectX 7, DirectX 8 or DirectX 9.0c, extract it to some folder.

  2. Extract it somewhere

  3. Upload this folder to js-dos before Windows boot

  4. Mount FS as drive D:

    mount d: .

When Windows starts, run the D:\Setup.exe.

Windows Installer 2.0 (windows 9x)

Download Windows Installer 2.0 and follow same steps as for DirectX 9.0

28 апреля 2025
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