How to install Windows NT

[BridgeHeadland]

I have come so far in my research and experiments of how to install all versions of Windows NT up to Windows Server 2003, as well as Windows Home Server, so I decided to create a discussion topic, where the first post shows the procedures for the Windows NT installations. It applies to all editions of Windows NT I have mentioned, as well as Windows Longhorn (up to build 4020), which is the beta version of Vista. This post does not show how to install Windows Vista, at least not yet. As I see it, there are no plans to make it possible to install Windows Vista (and newer; except WHS) in DOSBox-X, I don't think it will be possible either, but of course I could be wrong. Currently. It is also possible to install all of Windows NT in dynamic VHD files, if you want to save space on the hard drive in your device.
This post will change over time!

Windows NT 3.1
Windows NT 3.1 for Workgroups is recommend.

The highest possible storage capacity is size 503 MB. Operating systems can be installed in a VHD file or IMG file (other image files will behave as IMG), created in DOSBox-X. The file system begin as FAT16, but you can convert it to NTFS during the installation.

Approach
Start DOSBox-X with the configuration below, create an IMG file in the integrated DOS, like a virtual floppy drive, by typing "IMGMAKE disk.img -t fd_1440", then you will create an IMG (or similar) or VHD by typing for example "IMGMAKE -t hd -size XXXXX hdd.vhd -fat 16", with the configuration below, type "imgmount A disk.img -t floppy -fdc 0m", then "imgmount C hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and then, for example "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", when done type "D:", then "cd i386", then "WINNT.EXE". Now you are in the installation file of Windows NT 3.1, for DOS, first press ENTER to continue, then ENTER again, the setup will now copy the files to the virtual floppy disk, you can enable Turbo to make the copying faster, after that DOSBox-X will restart, and you must write "imgmount A disk.img -t floppy -fdc 0m" and "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and preferably "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso - ide 2m", before typing "BOOT A:" to continue the installation. You have now reached NTLDR, there you will see a menu where the installation/upgrade of Windows is the recommend option, so you can safely press ENTER. It will take time, after that you will come to an END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, you scroll all the way down with PAGE DOWN until you have reached the end, then you press F8, after that you press C, then ENTER, and then you choose whether you continue to have FAT (FAT16) as file system, or if you want to convert to NTFS (which is recommend). Now the rest of the second step will take care of itself, so you can activate Turbo again to speed up the setup. DOSBox-X will reboot again, you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m" again, before typing "BOOT C:", because the rest of the setup will take place in Windows NT 3.1 itself, you must setup manually, and it's up to you how you want to set up Windows NT 3.1.

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
machine=svga_s3
memsize=256
convertdrivefat=false (true if you want to run WNT with FAT16)

[video]
memsize=16
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0

[vsync]
vsyncmode=off
vsyncrate=75

[cpu]
cputype=pentium
core=dynamic
cycle=max

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[speaker]
tandy=on (if desired)

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[parallel]
parallel1=printer
parallel2=disney
dongle=true

[printer]
shellhide=true
timeout=5000

[dos]
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0
ver=8.0
lfn=true

[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false

[ide, secondary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

[fdc, primary]
enable=true
int13fakev86io=false

Windows NT 3.5x
Windows NT 3.51 for Worsgroups is recommend.

The highest possible storage capacity is size 1600 MB. Operating systems can be installed in a VHD file or IMG file (other image files will behave as IMG), created in DOSBox-X if the file system is FAT16, you can convert it to NTFS during the installation.

Approach
Start DOSBox-X with the configuration below, create an IMG (or something similar) or VHD in the integrated DOS, by typing for example "IMGMAKE -t hd -size XXXXX hdd.vhd -fat 16", type "imgmount C hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", then for example "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", when done type "D:", then "cd i386", and then "WINNT .EXE /B". Now you are in the installation file of Windows NT 3.5, for DOS, first press ENTER to continue, then ENTER again, the setup will now copy the files to the IMG/VHD file, you can enable Turbo to the copying should go faster, after that DOSBox-X will restart, and you must write "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and preferably "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", before writing "BOOT C:" to continue the installation. You have now reached NTLDR, there you will see a menu, where the installation/upgrade of Windows is the recommend option, so you can safely press ENTER. It will take time, after that you will come to an END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, you scroll all the way down with PAGE DOWN until you have reached the end, then you press F8, after that you press C, then ENTER, and then you choose whether to continue with FAT (FAT16) as a file system, or if you want to convert to NTFS (which is recommend). Now the rest of the second step will take care of itself, so you can activate Turbo again to speed up the setup. DOSBox-X will reboot again, you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m" again, before typing "BOOT C:", because the rest of the setup will take place in Windows NT 3.5 itself, the setup is done manually , and it's up to you how you want to set up Windows NT 3.5. If you want to install Windows NT 3.51, you must install Windows NT 3.5 first, but with the FAT16 file system, then you install Windows NT 3.51, which is only available as an upgrade, you install as a new installation, if you want to convert the file system to NTFS.

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
machine=svga_s3
memsize=256
convertdrivefat=false (true if you want to run WNT with FAT16)

[video]
memsize=16
vesa modellist width limit=0
vesa model list height limit=0

[vsync]
vsyncmode=off
vsyncrate=75

[cpu]
cputype=pentium
core=dynamic
cycle=max

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[speaker]
tandy=on (if desired)

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[parallel]
parallel1=printer
parallel2=disney
dongle=true

[printer]
shellhide=true
timeout=5000

[dos]
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0
ver=8.0
lfn=true

[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false

[ide, secondary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

[fdc, primary]
enable=true
int13fakev86io=false

Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 for Workgroups is recommend.

The highest possible storage capacity is size 4098 MB. Operating systems can be installed in a VHD file or IMG file (other image files will behave as IMG), created in DOSBox-X, or with Disk Manager in Windows if you have, the latter method is recommend, The file system need to FAT16 before you start the installation, you can convert it to NTFS during the installation.

Approach
Start DOSBox-X with the configuration below, create an IMG (or something similar) or VHD in the integrated DOS, by typing for example "IMGMAKE -t hd -size XXXXX hdd.vhd -fat 16", or create a VHD in Disk Manager, type "imgmount C hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", then for example "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", when done type "D:", then "cd i386", then "WINNT .EXE /B". Now you are in the installation file of Windows NT 4.0, for DOS, first press ENTER to continue, then ENTER again, the setup will now copy the files to the IMG/VHD file, you can enable Turbo to the copying should go faster, after that DOSBox-X will restart, and you must write "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and preferably "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", before writing "BOOT C:" to continue the installation. You have now reached NTLDR, there you will see a menu, where the installation/upgrade of Windows is the recommend option, so you can safely press ENTER. It will take time, after that you will come to an END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, you scroll all the way down with PAGE DOWN until you have reached the end, then you press F8, after that you press C, then ENTER, and then you choose whether to continue with FAT (FAT16) as a file system, or if you want to convert to NTFS (which is recommend). Now the rest of the second step will take care of itself, so you can activate Turbo again to speed up the setup. DOSBox-X will reboot again, you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m" again, before typing "BOOT C:", because the rest of the setup will take place in Windows NT 4.0 itself, the setup is done manually , and it's up to you how you want to set up Windows NT 4.0.

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
machine=svga_s3
memsize=512
convertdrivefat=false (true if you want to run WNT with FAT16)

[video]
vmemsize=8
vesa modellist width limit=0
vesa model list height limit=0

[vsync]
vsyncmode=off
vsyncrate=75

[cpu]
core=dynamic
cputype=pentium_mmx
cycles=max

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[speaker]
tandy=auto

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[parallel]
parallel1=printer
parallel2=disney
dongle=true

[printer]
shellhide=true
timeout=2000

[dos]
ver=8.0
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=true

[ide, secondary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=true
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

[fdc, primary]
enable=true
int13fakev86io=true

Windows 2000
Windows 2000 Professional is recommend.

The highest possible storage capacity is of an unknown size, the recommend size is 32000 MB, if the file system is NTFS. Operating systems can be installed in a VHD file created with DOSBox-X, or with Disk Manager in Windows if you have, the latter method is recommend. If you want to install operating systems with FAT32, the size cannot be larger than 16000 MB.

Approach
Start DOSBox-X with the configuration below, create an IMG (or something similar) or VHD in the integrated DOS, by typing for example "IMGMAKE -t hd -size XXXXX hdd.vhd", or create a VHD in Disk Manager, type "imgmount C hdd. vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", then for example "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", when done typr create a VHD in Disk Manager, type "imgmount C hdd. vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", then for example "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", when done type "D:", then "cd i386", then "WINNT.EXE". Now you are in the Windows 2000 installation file, for DOS, first press ENTER to continue, then ENTER again, the setup will now copy the files to the IMG/VHD file, you can enable Turbo to speed up the copying, after DOSBox-X will restart, and you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and preferably "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", before typing "BOOT C:" for to continue the installation. You have now come to NTLDR, there you will see a menu, where the installation/upgrade of Windows is the recommend option, so you can safely press ENTER. It will take time, after that you will come to an END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, you scroll all the way down with PAGE DOWN until you have reached the end, then you press F8, after that you press C, then ENTER, and then you choose whether to continue with - or convert to FAT32 as the file system, or whether you want to convert to NTFS (which is recommend). Now the rest of the second step will take care of itself, so you can activate Turbo again to speed up the setup. DOSBox-X will reboot again, you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m" again, before typing "BOOT C:", because the rest of the setup will take place in Windows 2000 itself, the setup is done manually, and it's up to you how you want to set up Windows 2000. If your VHD is raw, you simply imgmount the VHD as 2, and you do the first 2 installation stages in 1 single stage, when you are going to format the VHD and decide the preferred file system, don't choose quick formatting. If the file system in your VHD file is RAW, type, at drive Z, "boot -el-torito d:".

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
machine_svga_s3trio64v+
memory file=memory.bin
memsize=1048576
memalias=40
convertdrivefat=false (true if you want to run WNT with FAT32)

[video]
vmemsize=8
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0

[vsync]
vsyncmode=force
vsyncrate=75

[cpu]
core=dynamic_rec
enable pse=pse40
cputype=pentium_iii
cycles=3800000 (that means 3.8 GHz; if the basic speed of your device are higher than that, encrease it - e.g. if the basic speed is 4.125, encrease it to 4125000)

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[speaker]
tandy=auto

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[parallel]
parallel1=disabled
parallel2=disabled
dongle=false

[printer]
shellhide=true
timeout=2000

[dos]
ver=8.0
lfn=true
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false

[ide, secondary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

Windows XP
Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 (x86) is recommend.

The highest possible storage capacity is size 32000 MB, if the file system is NTFS. Operating systems can be installed in a VHD file created in DOSBox-X, or with Disk Manager in Windows if you have, the latter method is recommend. If you want to install operating systems with FAT32, the size cannot be larger than 16000 MB.

Approach
Start DOSBox-X with the configuration below, create an IMG (or something similar) or VHD in the integrated DOS, by typing for example "IMGMAKE -t hd -size XXXXX hdd.vhd", or create a VHD in Disk Manager, type "imgmount C hdd. vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", then for example "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", when done type "D:", then "cd i386", then "WINNT.EXE". Now you are in the Windows XP installation file, for DOS, first press ENTER to continue, then ENTER again, the setup will now copy the files to the IMG/VHD file, you can enable Turbo to speed up the copying, after DOSBox-X will restart, and you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and preferably "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", before typing "BOOT C:" for to continue the installation. You have now come to NTLDR, there you will see a menu, where the installation/upgrade of Windows is the recommend option, so you can safely press ENTER. It will take time, after that you will come to an END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, press F8, after that press C, then ENTER, and then choose whether to continue with - or convert to FAT32 as the file system, or whether you want to convert to NTFS (which is recommend). Now the rest of the second step will take care of itself, so you can activate Turbo again to speed up the setup. DOSBox-X will reboot again, you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m" again, before typing "BOOT C:", because the rest of the setup will take place in Windows XP itself, the setup is done manually, and it's up to you how you want to set up Windows XP. If your VHD is raw, you simply imgmount the VHD as 2, and you do the first 2 installation stages in 1 single stage, when you are going to format the VHD and decide the preferred file system, don't choose quick formatting. If the file system in your VHD file is RAW, type, at drive Z, "boot -el-torito d:".

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
machine_svga_s3
memory file=memory.bin
memsize=1048576
memalias=40
convertdrivefat=false (true if you want to run WNT with FAT32)

[video]
vmemsize=32
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0

[vsync]
vsyncmode=force
vsyncrate=75

[cpu]
core=dynamic_rec
enable pse=pse40
cputype=pentium_iii
cycles=3800000 (that means 3.8 GHz; if the basic speed of your device are higher than that, encrease it - e.g. if the basic speed is 4.125, encrease it to 4125000)

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[speaker]
tandy=auto

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[parallel]
parallel1=disabled
parallel2=disabled
dongle=false

[printer]
shellhide=true
timeout=2000

[dos]
ver=8.0
lfn=true
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false

[ide, secondary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition RTM (x86) is currently the version I would recommend among these that work today, otherwise I would recommend Windows Server 2003 Datacenter Edition SP2 (x86). Currently, it is not possible install any but RTM versions of Windows Server 2003 because during the installation you will also install updates that DOSBox-X does not handle yet, most likely because DOSBox-X does not emulate full IDE controllers, but rather generic ones.

The highest possible storage capacity is size 32000 MB, if the file system is NTFS. Operating systems can be installed in a VHD file created in DOSBox-X, or with Disk Manager in Windows if you have, the latter method is recommend. If you want to install operating systems with FAT32, the recommend size is 4096 MB, the highest possible storage capacity is unknown.

Approach
Start DOSBox-X " with the configuration below, create an IMG (or something similar) or VHD in the integrated DOS, by typing for example "IMGMAKE -t hd -size XXXXX hdd.vhd", or create a VHD in Disk Manager, type "imgmount C hdd. vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", then for example "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", when done type "D:", then "cd i386", then "WINNT.EXE" .Now you are in the Windows Server 2003 setup file, for DOS, first press ENTER to continue, then ENTER again, the setup will now copy the files to the IMG/VHD file, you can enable Turbo to speed up the copying, after that, DOSBox-X will restart, and you must write "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and preferably "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", before writing "BOOT C:" to continue the installation. You have now reached NTLDR, there you will see a menu, where the installation/upgrade of Windows is the recommend option, so you can safely press ENTER. It will take time, after that you will come to an END- USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, press F8, after that press C, then ENTER, and then choose whether to continue with - or convert to FAT32 as the file system, or whether you want to convert to NTFS (which is recommend). Now the rest of the second step will take care of itself, so you can activate Turbo again to speed up the setup. DOSBox-X will reboot again, you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m" again, before typing "BOOT C:", because the rest of the setup will take place in Windows Server 2003 itself, the setup is done manually , and it's up to you how you want to set up Windows Server 2003. If your VHD is raw, you simply imgmount the VHD as 2, and you do the first 2 installation stages in 1 single stage, when you are going to format the VHD and decide the preferred file system, don't choose quick formatting. If the file system in your VHD file is RAW, type, at drive Z, "boot -el-torito d:".

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
machine_svga_s3
memory file=memory.bin
memsize=1048576
memalias=40
convertdrivefat=false (true if you want to run WNT with FAT32)

[video]
vmemsize=32
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0

[vsync]
vsyncmode=force
vsyncrate=75

[cpu]
core=dynamic_rec
enable pse=pse40
cputype=pentium_iii
cycles=3800000 (that means 3.8 GHz; if the basic speed of your device are higher than that, encrease it - e.g. if the basic speed is 4.125, encrease it to 4125000)

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[speaker]
tandy=auto

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[parallel]
parallel1=disabled
parallel2=disabled
dongle=false

[printer]
shellhide=true
timeout=2000

[dos]
ver=8.0
lfn=true
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false

[ide, secondary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

Windows Longhorn (Windows Vista Beta)
Windows Longhorn build 4042 (Lab06_n) is recommend among those that can be installed from a DOS based Windows (Windows 98 and Windows ME in this case), if it doesn’t matter, I would recommend Windows Longhorn build 5840. Currently, it is not possible to complete an installation of Windows Longhorn because during the installation you will also install something that DOSBox-X does not handle yet, most likely because DOSBox-X does not emulate full IDE controllers, but rather generic ones.

The highest possible storage capacity is size 32000 MB, if the file system is NTFS. Operating systems can be installed in a VHD file created in DOSBox-X, or with Disk Manager in Windows if you have, the latter method is recommend. If you want to install operating systems with FAT32, the recommend size is probably 4096 MB, the highest possible storage capacity is unknown.

Approach
Start DOSBox-X " with the configuration below, use a copy of the image file where you have any operative system you can install it from the integrated DOS or any Windows like Windows 95, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 98, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, Windows Server 2003 or Windows Home Server, depending on which build you want to install, whether in an IMG file, VHD file or another image file, by typing "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", in the integrated DOS, if that's what the image file is called, then write for example "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", if it's Windows The Longhorn ISO is called, when it is done type "BOOT C:" so that you start one of the mentioned Windows. You start the installation of Windows Longhorn by clicking into the CD drive, where the Windows Longhorn CD is, then you do a completely clean installation of Windows Longhorn, you can also convert the file system to NTFS, if the file system is not already, you can activate Turbo so that the copying will go faster, after that DOSBox-X will restart, and you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and preferably "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m" again, before typing "BOOT C:" to continue the installation. You have now reached NTLDR, there you will see a menu where the installation/upgrade of Windows is the recommend option, so you can safely press ENTER. If you are using one of the first two versions of Windows Longhorn, after a while you will come to an END-USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, press F8, after that press C, then ENTER. Now the rest of the second step will take care of itself, so you can activate Turbo again to speed up the setup. DOSBox-X will reboot again, you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m" again, before typing "BOOT C:", because the rest of the setup will take place in Windows Longhorn itself, the setup is done manually, and it's up to you how you want to set up Windows Longhorn. If the file system in your VHD file is RAW, type, at drive Z, "boot -el-torito d:".

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
machine_svga_s3
memory file=memory.bin
memsize=1048576
memalias=40
convertdrivefat=false (true if you want to run WNT with FAT32)

[video]
vmemsize=32
vesa modellist width limit=0
vesa model list height limit=0

[vsync]
vsyncmode=force
vsyncrate=75

[cpu]
core=dynamic_rec
enable pse=pse40
cputype=pentium_iii
cycles=3800000 (that means 3.8 GHz; if the basic speed of your device are higher than that, encrease it - e.g. if the basic speed is 4.125, encrease it to 4125000)

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[speaker]
tandy=auto

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[parallel]
parallel1=disabled
parallel2=disabled
dongle=false

[printer]
shellhide=true
timeout=2000

[dos]
ver=8.0
lfn=true
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false

[ide, secondary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

Windows Home Server
Windows Home Server SP1 (x86) is recommend.

The highest possible storage capacity is size 32000 MB, if the file system is NTFS. Operating systems can be installed in a VHD file created in DOSBox-X, or with Disk Manager in Windows if you have, the latter method is recommend. If you want to install operating systems with FAT32, the recommend size is probably 4096 MB, the highest possible storage capacity is unknown. Currently, it’s not possible install Windows Home Server, because during the installation you will also install something that DOSBox-X does not handle yet, most likely because DOSBox-X does not emulate full IDE controllers, but rather generic ones.

Approach
Start DOSBox-X " with the configuration below, create an IMG (or something similar) or VHD in the integrated DOS, by typing for example "IMGMAKE -t hd -size XXXXX hdd.vhd", open the VHD file with Disk Manager, transfer all files from the ISO file to the VHD file you opened with Disk Manager, since the ISO file are based of a DVD disc. From DOSBox-X, you type "imgmount c hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", then "c:", then "cd i386", and then "winnt.exe". Now you are in the Windows Home Server setup file, for DOS, first press ENTER to continue, then ENTER again, the setup will now copy the files to the IMG/VHD file, you can enable Turbo to speed up the copying, after that, DOSBox-X will restart, and you must write "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m", and preferably "imgmount D cdrom.iso -t iso -ide 2m", before writing "BOOT C:" to continue the installation. You have now reached NTLDR, there you will see a menu, where the installation/upgrade of Windows is the recommend option, so you can safely press ENTER. It will take time, after that you will come to an END- USER LICENSE AGREEMENT, press F8, after that press C, then ENTER, and then choose whether to continue with - or convert to FAT32 as the file system, or whether you want to convert to NTFS (which is recommend). Now the rest of the second step will take care of itself, so you can activate Turbo again to speed up the setup. DOSBox-X will restart again, you must type "imgmount 2 hdd.vhd -t hdd -ide 1m" again, before typing "BOOT C:", because the rest of the setup will take place in Windows Home Server itself, the setup is done manually , and it's up to you how you want to set up Windows Home Server. If your VHD is raw, you simply imgmount the VHD as 2, and you do the first 2 installation stages in 1 single stage, when you are going to format the VHD and decide the preferred file system, don't choose quick formatting. If you prefer to use a Disk Manager created VHD, transfer all the files from the ISO file in a Disk Manager created VHD with a earlier Windows NT, or the RTM version of Windows Server 2003 with SP2, and do a clean install inside the VHD.

[sdl]
autolock=true

[dosbox]
machine_svga_s3
memory file=memory.bin
memsize=1048576
memalias=40
convertdrivefat=false (true if you want to run WNT with FAT32)

[video]
vmemsize=32
vesa modelist width limit=0
vesa modelist height limit=0

[vsync]
vsyncmode=force
vsyncrate=75

[cpu]
core=dynamic_rec
enable pse=pse40
cputype=pentium_iii
cycles=3800000 (that means 3.8 GHz; if the basic speed of your device are higher than that, encrease it - e.g. if the basic speed is 4.125, encrease it to 4125000)

[voodoo]
voodoo_card=software

[sblaster]
sbtype=sb16vibra

[speaker]
tandy=auto

[serial]
serial1=disabled
serial2=disabled

[parallel]
parallel1=disabled
parallel2=disabled
dongle=false

[printer]
shellhide=true
timeout=2000

[dos]
ver=8.0
lfn=true
hard drive data rate limit=0
floppy drive data rate limit=0

[ide, primary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false

[ide, secondary]
enable=true
int13fakeio=true
int13fakev86io=false
cd-rom insertion delay=4000

To create a VHD file in Disk Manager, click Create VHD in Action. You decide where the VHD should be placed, how big the file should be, and whether the file should be fixed or dynamic. You left-click on the recently connected VHD file in Disk Manager and choose initialize disk, you choose the MBR partitioning method, you wizard for new single volume without assigning a drive letter or path (number), don't format the volume, and then finish. Now the VHD file is ready.

For some reason, Windows NT 5.x (2000/XP/Server 2003/Longhorn/Home Server) requires cycles to be set to 3800000 (3,8 GHz) for any reason to run with cputype set to pentium_iii, unlike DOS-based Windows, which does not require cycles to be set too much like that. Haven't checked yet on how many cycles pre-NT5.x requires to run with pentium_iii.

Bonus
It doesn't appear that Windows Vista can be installed or be run in DOSBox-X, at least not yet, but if you create a VHD file with the FAT32 file system (32000 is the only known size known to work), in DOSBox-X, and install Windows Vista (any version , only it's x86) in another virtual machine, like VirtualBox (the only one tested), where you have to expect the file system to be formatted to NTFS. After the installation is complete, try booting the VHD file in DOSBOX-X. You will get to the Windows Boot Manager (BOOTMGR), but you may not be able to start and run Windows Vista anyway, because the ACPI emulation is currently experimemtal, and because Windows Vista contain files DOSBox-X can’t handle - likely because the IDE controller emulation is generic. If you install Windows 7 or later this way, you won't even get to the Windows Boot Manager In DOSBox-X (reason unknown), it will just flash at the top left.
You are welcome to try to install Windows Vista in DOSBox-X, but then the installation must be started from Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 (Standard Edition RTM), and not from the integrated DOS, since the CD or DVD does not have an installation file for DOS.
These images of the Windows Boot Manager are the print screen when it was run in DOSBox-X.

[joncampbell123]

I'm of the understanding from other discussions here that Windows Vista and higher requires an ACPI BIOS to run, or at least install.

[Torinde]

Correct, so it may be a good test for ACPI developments?

[Torinde]

@BridgeHeadland, thank you for sharing your experiences!

Related:

• Windows NT, 2000, XP - how to install them as guest? #3538

I haven't went through all of it, so sharing some first observations:

You may want to split the long opening post - for easier reference and for discussions about each OS version be in the replies to each post:

• opening post: intro & the common parts valid for installing NT in general
• next post: NT3.1
• next post: NT3.5
• next post: NT3.51
• next post: NT4
• next post: Win2000
• next post: WinXP
• next post: Win2003
• next post: WHS
• next post: Vista
• next post: ReactOS

Recommending Windows editions that don't work is confusing... for me the question is not "which edition is best" (whatever best means), but "which Windows edition works with the least amount of problems or most convenient installation procedure".

• would be handy if you share links to archive.org or winworldpc.com or wherever you downloaded the known-to-work installation files from.

WHS - official requirement is "Pentium III" - I doubt that's a reason for it not to work in DOSbox, but have you tried with cpu type P3?

ReactOS - NT/2003 clone with open source, so worth to try, because theoretically having access to the source code may help with solving the problems in running it?

[Torinde]

You may also want to check the recently added capability by @joncampbell123 to boot from some installation ISOs directly (WinXP and maybe others).

dosbox-x/CHANGELOG

Line 24 in 61e4460

- The BOOT command now supports El Torito "no emulation" booting from a

[ct2057]

I've been trying to follow your instructions to install Windows 2000 in DOSBox-X, and I have managed to get as far as WINNT.EXE copying the files across (which completes successfully). However, after remounting the C: and D: drives after the reboot and running BOOT C:, I get the error "NTLDR is missing. Press any key to restart". I have checked the contents of C: and I can see NTDLR exists, so not sure what's going on here.
Are you able to help me here?

[BridgeHeadland]

@ct2057 I have to admit that I could be wrong when I wrote 32768 MB, maybe you could try with 32000 MB.

[ct2057]

Unfortunately, this did not fix the issue. The same issue occurs when trying to do the installation for Windows XP too.
I did manage to get around this issue by booting into a copy of Windows ME with the Windows 2000 disk mounted, and then launch the installer from there (Windows 2000 successfully installs this way, but only if you keep C: drive as FAT32). If you choose to convert the drive to NTFS during installation, the HDD image becomes unbootable.

Regardless, it would be nice to be able to install Windows 2000 and XP without the need of a previous OS to leapfrog from.

[BridgeHeadland]

Are you using IMG or VHD? I always use VHD and it works for me. I usually create VHDs with Disk Manager (diskmgmt.msc; it's usually included with Windows, at least the latest ones), for Windows 2000 I create a 32768MB VHD file (which is also 32GB), for Windows XP I create a 32000 MB (31.25 GB) VHD file, at least it worked for me. I initialize the VHD files to MBR but keep them raw, meaning I don't format them. To install Windows in the raw VHDs, type "boot -el-torito d:", if the ISO file is mounted as drive D. Remember that the mounted C drive must be mounted as 2.

[ct2057]

I've been using .img files as the HDD for my Windows 3.1 and Windows 9x VM's and they've worked fine. From what you've mentioned about creating VHD's, it looks like you're using Windows as your host machine (I'm using DOSBox-X on Mac). I have access to a Windows 11 VM... let me take a look at creating a VHD from there, and then reattempt the steps for installing Windows 2000/XP in DOSBox.

[ct2057]

So, good news - I've successfully managed to install Windows 2000 in DOSBox-X, from scratch using .vhd as a HDD (formatted in NTFS). I did not realise that you could create .vhd files using the built-in IMGMAKE command, which made things super convenient as I didn't need to use another Windows PC or VM in order to create them.
Thank you for your help!

[alan-ford]

@BridgeHeadland
Interesting tutorial. Several times the modelist parameter was misspelled (modellist or model list). I don't quite understand two things about Windows NT 3.5x: can I install NT 3.51 directly if I convert the partition to NTFS without having to install NT 3.5 first? Why do you use imgmount 2 hdd.vhd instead of imgmount C hdd.vhd to mount the disk? Of course it works, it's just a curiosity.

[BridgeHeadland]

The only way to install Windows NT 3.51 is to install Windows NT 3.5, and then upgrade it to 3.51. I'm not entirely sure, but I think I remember installing WNT35 with FAT16 file system before converting to NTFS during the upgrade to WNT351, because I was unable to upgrade to WNT351 as long as the file system was already NTFS. Last time I checked, I could only install WNT3x on a VHD file created with DOSBox-X, and not with Disk Manager.
Why I use 2 instead of C? It's been a while now, but I seem to remember being advised to use 2, although I don't quite know the difference. I wonder if differences are that C does not support Master and Slave as 2 does.

[alan-ford]

@BridgeHeadland Everything is clear now, thank you. I was able to install Windows 3.5 and it works. The problem is that it asks for CTRL+ALT+CANC key presses at startup, but this causes the host system's Task Manager to open.

EDIT: Solved with the function Main ---> Send special key ---> Send Ctrl+Alt+Del

[the-burrito-triangle]

So I finally got Windows NT 4.0 to install. It is very sensitive to the configuration and will either crash during the installation from INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error or random missing/corrupted file errors during the GUI portion of the installer or during first boot of the OS if not configured properly (ems = false and quick reboot = false are required).

Currently, the main problems with DOSBox-X support for Windows NT 4.0 are:

1. Only SP0 or SP1 ISOs will install. (SP6a and its SRP can be installed using 86Box, but the atapi.sys, atdisk.sys, disk.sys and scsiport.sys drivers in WINNT/system32/drivers need to be replaced with those from SP1 otherwise you will either see errors in during installation, the console log during use or INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE during boot with DOSBox-X.)
2. The installer cannot see the floppy drive controller and so pre-installation drivers cannot be loaded.
3. You cannot have two drives connected to any one IDE controller--only imgmount n hdd.vhd, where n = 2, 4, 6, etc. corresponding to -ide 1m, -ide 2m, -ide 3m, etc.
4. The DOSBox-X config options ems and quick reboot MUST be set to false.

NOTE: The primary issue with DBX and Windows NT 4.0 is DOSBox-X's emulated IDE controller and the NT4 atapi.sys, atdisk.sys, disk.sys and scsiport.sys drivers. This is where 90% of all errors come from. The remaining errors are due to the emulated S3 graphics adapters being identified incorrectly or flooding the console with various log messages.

How to install:

1. Download Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 Workstation (4.00.1381.1.sp1) from WinWorld. (The "Embeded" version has SP5 pre-integrated into the i386 folder but I couldn't get it to work with DOSBox-X. This updated version from the Embeded ISO works fine with 86Box.)

NOTE: There are two ways to install NT/2k/XP on DOSBox-X. The first is using DOS to pre-install the Windows installer to the HDD. The second is to boot directly from the ISO using el torrito. In most cases, booting from the ISO directly will fail. However, the attached config will work with booting directly from the ISO and installing from DOS. Both methods will be shown below.

2. Setup your dosbox-x.conf file. THIS STEP IS CRITICAL! Too much deviation here will likely result in errors.

[dosbox]
# ViRGE (4MiB RAM) has OpenGL support but DOSBox-X's emulation of it is broken in Win9x and NT4
# Vision968 (8MiB RAM) is the second best choice, but, again, DOSBox-X's emulation doesn't work right in NT4
#Trio64V+ (4MiB RAM) has issues if using updated driver in note 1), otherwise works fine with updated driver from the Embedded SP5 ISO
#Trio64 (4MiB RAM) works but has no OpenGL support, link to updated drivers in note 1) below
machine                   = svga_s3
#speed enhancements, these all greatly improve speed and have yet to cause issues
a20                       = fast
irq delay ns              = 0
iodelay                   = 0
iodelay16                 = 0
iodelay32                 = 0
#128MiB seems to work best at the moment
memsize                   = 128
convertdrivefat           = true

[video]
vmemsize  = 4

[cpu]
core            = dynamic_x86
rdtsc rate      = 100000 #needs a fixed value or Windows will crash if `cycles` value is changed on the fly
cputype         = auto #had the fewest errors, but pentium and ppro_slow also work fine -- pentium_* all have issues (* = mmx, ii, iii)
cycles          = 100000
apmbios         = true #NT4 can support APM with a file extracted from SP6a installer, see note 2) below
isapnpbios      = true #NT4 partially supports this feature, see note 3) below

[dos]
hard drive data rate limit = 0 #massively speeds up DOS pre-install
ems = false # causes errors, don't enable
quick reboot = false #if true, installation is impossible
ver = 7.0 #NT4 uses FAT 16 like Win95

[ide, primary]
enable         = true
pnp            = true
int13fakeio    = true
int13fakev86io = true
enable pio32   = true

[ide, secondary]
enable         = true
pnp            = true
int13fakeio    = true
int13fakev86io = true
enable pio32   = true

NOTES:

1. S3 Trio64 driver for NT4
2. NT4 APM (soft power) Support (seems to cause high idle load at the desktop, but load issue goes away in full-screen apps like games)
3. NT4 PNP Support
4. Voodoo 1 NT4 driver ( NOTE: NT4 is weird and doesn't actually show the Voodoo as attached/working inside any of system menus, you just have to play a game and look for the 3dfx splash screen to see if it is working.)

3a. CD Boot Install:

Open DOSBox-X with the modified config and run:

IMGMAKE nt4.vhd -t vhd -size 2048 -align 4K -fat 16
IMGMOUNT 2 nt4.vhd
IMGMOUNT d winnt4_wks.iso -ide 2m
boot -el-torito d:

During the text based installer choose to keep the FAT partition. Converting to NTFS has zero known benefits with DOSBox-X right now. Keeping FAT 16 will allow you to use the built-in DOS environment to copy files to and from the NT4 image.

3b. Alternatively, perform DOS based pre-installation:

NOTE: The WINNT.EXE DOS pre-installer will only work with disk size 2048 MB or smaller.

Copy the "i386" folder from the ISO to your DBX directory, then open Dosbox with the modified config and run

IMGMAKE nt4.vhd -t vhd -size 2048 -align 4K -fat 16
IMGMOUNT C: nt4.vhd -ide 1m
MOUNT D: i386 -ide 2m
D:
WINNT.EXE /B

After the files finish copying press [Enter] to reboot and run:

IMGMOUNT 2 nt4.vhd
BOOT C:

The text based installer should load. Choose to keep the FAT partition. Converting to NTFS has zero known benefits with DOSBox-X right now. Keeping FAT 16 will allow you to use the built-in DOS environment to copy files to and from the NT4 image.

4. GUI Installation

To simplify the rest of the installation, exit dosbox-x and edit your dosbox-x.conf file:

[autoexec]
IMGMOUNT 2 nt4.vhd
IMGMOUNT d winnt4_wks.iso -ide 2m
BOOT C:

And run DBX with modified config file.

The GUI installer should load. If you don't encounter any errors you will eventually reboot into Windows NT 4.0 with a HDD and CDROM. If you deviated from the given config, you will likely see an INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error or missing/corrupt file errors during the GUI installer.

[the-burrito-triangle]

Post installation:
SP6a (sp6ai386.exe) and post SP6a SRP (q299444i.exe). That last link has IE6 and WMP7 for NT 4.0 too.
Unofficial DirectX 5.0
Fat32 filesystem driver
Diskeeper6.0 Defrag Tool for Windows NT 4.0
AutoLogin tool or use TweakUI. TweakUI is better but you have to redo the auto login if your HW profile changes (new devices added/removed) which is kind of annoying.

Stop Windows asking for the NT4 CD when drivers are needed:

1. Copy i386 folder from ISO to C:\i386
2. Edit SourcePath registry value. Open regedit and navigate to
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup\SourcePath
   and set SourcePath string to C:\

Enable APM softpower off:

1. Use 7zip to open sp6ai386.exe, extract "hal.dll.softex" and rename to "hal2.dll".
2. Copy the "hal2.dll" softex HAL to the \WINNT\System32\ folder.
3. Open "My Computer" -> "View" -> "Options" -> "View" -> select "Show All Files" and close the window.
4. Go to your C drive, right click on the BOOT.INI file , select "Properties" and remove the check box for "read only".
5. Open BOOT.INI with notepad and append /hal=hal2.dll to the boot entry switch, as shown below:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINNT
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdis(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00" /hal=hal2.dll
multi(0)disk(0)rdis(1)partition(1)\WINNT="Windows NT Workstation Version 4.00 [VBGA mode]" /basevideo /sos

6. Update the registry to enable the Software Power Off option. Open RegEdit and navigate to the key
   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon
   then find the valuename "PowerdownAfterShutdown" and change its valuedata to "1".
7. Reboot and the APM auto power off feature should work the next time your power off the VM.

Windows XP Paint (with XP mfc42u.dll) and games work on NT 4.0. The XP games have quality of life improvements (right click auto moves cards etc.) and XP Paint looks slightly better. There are probably some other mods that work, but I haven't tired fiddling around too much yet.

NOTE: I had to use 86Box to install the service pack and Fat32 filesystem driver as well as make any serious changes to the OS and then go back to using DBX for testing. I highly recommend getting the latest 86Box from the automated builds page and the latest roms from github.

[Torinde]

Great, thanks for sharing!

[the-burrito-triangle]

Thanks for reading!

If anyone is curious, I finally got the "NT4Alive" script (used to slip stream service packs and updates) working. Had to use an XP 32-bit virtual machine and install Power Shell 2.0, and the script ran great. Getting all the dependencies, though, was a pain. But Internet Archive made it possible to get everything. Anyways, I was able to make a SP6a disk that works in DOSBox-X. I tested with both the Embeded version (which is actually based on Server not Workstation--Wikipedia is wrong!) and the SP1 Workstation disks and both worked fine. I recommend getting the ISOs from winworldpc.com.

A big "quality of life" feature is to extract both the BOOT.BIN (with bbie.exe) and copy the BOOTFIX.COM file from the Windows 2k SP4 ISO and use these with cdimage.exe to make an NT4 ISO that has a "press any key to boot" prompt to bypass booting the CD. This way you can save the install routine in the config file and do a seamless install using boot -el-torrito d: .

Something to note, the bootable CD based install method requires the ISO to contain the "cdrom_w.40" file. This is just a text file with "JBCE" inside it. The Embeded ISO has a "cdrom_s.40" file, which is for identifying the CD as a "Server" disk. Out of curiosity, I tried renaming it to "cdrom_w.40" but the installer had a prompt asking to insert the correct CD to continue. So you can't swap editions by editing it.

So the only files you have to have are the i386 folder and cdrom_w.40. But I would also add the drvlib folder as well (after removing all alpha, ppc, mips related drivers). The updated x86 only ISO is 123MiB.

[the-burrito-triangle]

And the big question: Why use Windows NT 4.0?

Windows NT 4.0 is fully 32bit (no 16bit kludges like Win9x), supports 4GiB of RAM (without fiddling around) and has native support for OpenGL. Graphics drivers written for NT4 are kernel mode and are more performant than NT3.x. Vintage 32bit games will likely perform better on NT4 than Windows 9x--especially on real HW with the Pentium Pro (the Pentium/Pentium MMX worked better with Win9x than the Pentium Pro). In my testing, Diablo I and Helfire seemed to have lower CPU loading in an NT4 guest than 98 SE but it is hard to say with all the problems NT4 has with DOSBox-X at the moment. 86box has great support for NT 4.0 and you can actually setup similar enough systems that you can swap between DBX and 86box using the same image.

In 86box I use Machine Type "miscellaneous", Machine "Microsoft Virtual PC 2007", Video "[PCI] S3 Vision 968" with 8MiB RAM, Sound "Windows Sound System" (disabled if jumping between DBX and 86box), and HD Controller "Internal Device. This config works well and is much saner than using random period accurate ROMs for the motherboard and so on.