where could i still buy Windows 95/98?

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

i own an old pc from the late 90's which i have never used...

the reason is i have never had an operating system for it. 

 

it has a pentium MMX and 16mb of ram. 

 

i don't know if it's capable of running Windows 98, but i only need 95.. 

i have a bunch of old games from 1998 to 2002, and i assume it could run some of them. 

 

the pc does work, it boots up to bios, but yeah i have no OS. 

 

i want to get a genuine copy of Windows for it. where could i get that? i assume Microsoft doesn't sell those old versions anymore... 

[PlayStation 2]

Your best bet is eBay, or really any used market.

[Jade]

You can't even activate older versions of Windows, the activation servers for it are down. 

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

52 minutes ago, Jade said:

You can't even activate older versions of Windows, the activation servers for it are down. 

i suppose they would activate offline.. back in 1995 not everyone had internet... 

 

53 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Your best bet is eBay, or really any used market.

i found a Windows 98 upgrade disk, but could i do a clean install from that? 

[Wh0_Am_1]

52 minutes ago, Jade said:

You can't even activate older versions of Windows, the activation servers for it are down. 

I have had success getting XP activated in recent months.

 

49 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i found a Windows 98 upgrade disk, but could i do a clean install from that? 

No, you would need an older version of windows for that to work.

[PlayStation 2]

8 minutes ago, Jade said:

You can't even activate older versions of Windows, the activation servers for it are down. 

Windows pre-XP doesn't require online or even phone activation, from what I remember.

Even then, you can still install XP and activate it via phone, from what I remember.

[Ryujin2003]

Seriously, depending on the games, you could probably get away with installing DOS and running just that. I didn't have Windows until 98, so all of my games were on Floppys and I played them from a DOS system (RadioShack Tandy). And I think that's super easy to install and free.

[Julian5]

I guess you can always make your own installation disk if you had a compatible floppy reader/writer with a more modern system

[takagi19]

I think I still have a Windows 98SE installation disc, but I'll see if I can find it later when I get home. It's not genuine key-wise, but it works.

 

I can make an ISO image of it, and then you just burn it to a CD.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

27 minutes ago, takagi19 said:

I think I still have a Windows 98SE installation disc, but I'll see if I can find it later when I get home. It's not genuine key-wise, but it works.

 

I can make an ISO image of it, and then you just burn it to a CD.

i want to get it genuine and legal.. i have no interest in piracy

[takagi19]

8 minutes ago, firelighter487 said:

i want to get it genuine and legal.. i have no interest in piracy

Alright, was worth a shot. Good luck with your search.

[dnroamhicsir]

With 16MB of RAM you could even install MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11

[LogicalDrm]

I have two Win98 keys at hand, and one key which I don't remember if its XP or 95 (handwritten to disc case). Probably its XP. Our Win95 P2 machine was upgraded to 98 and there haven't been any other 95 machines in the house.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

6 hours ago, dnroamhicsir said:

With 16MB of RAM you could even install MS-DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11

the problem is finding genuine install media for those. 

[dnroamhicsir]

8 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

the problem is finding genuine install media for those. 

It's easy. Just google "ms-dos 6.22 disk image". It worked for me.

 

EDIT: I could even send you disk images by email if you want.

[Ashley MLP Fangirl]

20 minutes ago, dnroamhicsir said:

It's easy. Just google "ms-dos 6.22 disk image". It worked for me.

 

EDIT: I could even send you disk images by email if you want.

i already addressed this:

 

19 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

i want to get it genuine and legal.. i have no interest in piracy

 

[dnroamhicsir]

Then your best bet is probably buying original disks on eBay

[LogicalDrm]

9 hours ago, firelighter487 said:

i already addressed this:

Ebay has listings for CDs/floppies with keys or just COA's. Like with later Windows, and many other software, CD is not same thing as activation key. There's list of accepted keys within install files (or something like that). So you could download installer from anywhere and then search Ebay for key. Older the OS, harder it is to get genuine keys.

[PowerChaos]

On 22-8-2018 at 4:03 AM, firelighter487 said:

i want to get it genuine and legal.. i have no interest in piracy

well

it going be really hard to find a key for windows 98 or 95 or 3.11 or Dos ( or even millenium ) 

specialy if it is a NOT used key ( aka legal key )

 

before you just buyed a cd , and use that cd

or in case of 95 - 3.11 - dos you just buyed the floppy disks ( woot 22 floppy disks for win 95 ^^ ) 

 

so put your anti piracy aside for this case

as you will be totaly fine by using it

i even guess that microsoft will give you one for free if you ask them nicely 

 

also do not forget to trow away your 28.8k modem , as it wont work on your P2 with those windows ( maybe 95 .. if you find the right dos drivers ? )

 

so if it is just for games ... make it yourself easy and get the files from the net

 

else you will have a lot to search for and it is not even certain you got a Valid serial ( OEM serial ? or a original serial ) 

 

Greets From PowerChaos