📀 Image Creation Guide

Create custom Windows disk images for v86 Retro Client

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Overview

This guide walks you through creating operating system disk images with pre-installed AIM and ICQ clients.

💡 Great News: You can use ReactOS (free and open source) instead of Windows! ReactOS is Windows-compatible and runs AIM/ICQ with no licensing issues.

Prerequisites

Installing QEMU

1 Windows: Download from qemu.weilnetz.de
2 macOS: brew install qemu
3 Linux: sudo apt install qemu-system-x86

Creating Windows 98 Image

Step 1: Create Disk Image

qemu-img create -f raw win98-full.img 2G

Step 2: Install Windows

qemu-system-i386 \
    -m 128 \
    -M pc,acpi=off \
    -drive file=win98-full.img,format=raw \
    -cdrom /path/to/win98se.iso \
    -device sb16 \
    -nic user,model=ne2k_pci \
    -boot d
1 Select "Start Windows 98 Setup from CD-ROM"
2 Choose "Large disk support: Yes"
3 Complete installation with typical settings

Step 3: Apply Fixes

⚠️ Important: Without CPU fix, Windows 98 may crash on modern processors.

Creating Windows 2000 Image

Step 1: Create Disk Image

qemu-img create -f raw win2k-full.img 4G

Step 2: Install Windows

qemu-system-i386 \
    -m 512 \
    -drive file=win2k-full.img,format=raw \
    -cdrom /path/to/win2000pro.iso \
    -device sb16 \
    -nic user,model=ne2k_pci \
    -boot d

Step 3: Critical Fix - Change PC Type

⚠️ Critical: Without this step, Windows 2000 will crash in v86!
  1. Right-click "My Computer" → Manage
  2. Open Device Manager
  3. Expand "Computer"
  4. Right-click "ACPI Uniprocessor PC" → Update Driver
  5. Choose "Install from a list" → "Don't search"
  6. Select "Standard PC"
  7. Restart and complete hardware wizards

Installing Chat Clients

Prepare Installer ISO

# Create ISO with installers
genisoimage -o installers.iso -J -R /path/to/OSCAR-known-working-clients/

Configure for OSCAR Server

Edit the hosts file to redirect AIM/ICQ to your server:

File Location OS
C:\Windows\hosts Windows 98
C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc\hosts Windows 2000

Add these lines:

# OSCAR Server
146.190.187.35   login.oscar.aol.com
146.190.187.35   slogin.oscar.aol.com
146.190.187.35   login.icq.com
146.190.187.35   loginc.icq.com

Network Configuration

Windows 98

  1. Control Panel → Add New Hardware
  2. Add: Novell → NE2000 Compatible
  3. Configure: IRQ 10, I/O 0300-031F
  4. Add TCP/IP protocol, enable DHCP

Windows 2000

Usually auto-configured. If not detected, add manually with same settings.

Creating State Images

💡 Tip: State images allow instant boot (~2 seconds vs 60+ seconds)
  1. Boot the image in v86 locally
  2. Wait for Windows to fully load
  3. Open AIM/ICQ (but don't log in)
  4. Use browser devtools: emulator.save_state()
  5. Save the downloaded file
  6. Compress: zstd -19 state.bin -o state.bin.zst

File Naming

Filename Description
reactos-aim.img ReactOS + AIM (✅ Free & Legal!)
reactos-icq.img ReactOS + ICQ (✅ Free & Legal!)
reactos-full.img ReactOS + AIM + ICQ (✅ Free & Legal!)
win98-aim.img Windows 98 + AIM only
win98-icq.img Windows 98 + ICQ only
win98-full.img Windows 98 + AIM + ICQ
win2k-aim.img Windows 2000 + AIM
win2k-icq.img Windows 2000 + ICQ
win2k-full.img Windows 2000 + full suite

Place completed images in the images/ directory.

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