Windows 2000 under VirtualBox

[Tom_ZeCat]

I've been fighting and fighting to get Windows 2000 to run well enough under VirtualBox. The full story of what I've done so far is here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...2#post13066502

In short, it runs and Visual BASIC 6 runs under it, but my graphics suck. I can only get 800x600 and 16 colors. What I've done since the post linked to above is I've downloaded and installed numerous Win 2K Lenovo drivers, but none have worked. My laptop is the Lenovo Z570 for which no Win 2K driver exists. I tried its XP driver with no luck. I've tried numerous Win 2K drivers for previous Lenovo laptops. Without fail, all of their install programs say something to the effect of incorrect hardware or does not meet system requirements. This is with running a setup.exe file. What I'm wondering is if it's possible to extract a driver from such a file and then manually install it in Win 2K. It doesn't matter if my Win 2K install gets trashed in my attempts. I won't lose any data. I can aways just delete it in VirtualBox and start again.

Other thoughts are to go with Windows XP. However, I remember I had some hassles getting Visual BASIC 6 to run under it when I used it before. Even with XP, VB 6 was already an old development tool. On the other hand, there is an XP driver for this Lenovo laptop.

The whole purpose is to run Visual BASIC 6. I wrote some software in it a long time ago, which I wish to rewrite in a modern version of C++.

[claydoh]

Did you install the Virtualbox Guest additions?

Vbox uses an emulated video device, not the native hardware driver, so you wouldn't install the Lenovo drivers within your Win2k virtual machine. The Guest Additions provides better video resolutions, mouse pointer integration, and probably other goodies.

[Tom_ZeCat]

Did you install the Virtualbox Guest additions?

Vbox uses an emulated video device, not the native hardware driver, so you wouldn't install the Lenovo drivers within your Win2k virtual machine. The Guest Additions provides better video resolutions, mouse pointer integration, and probably other goodies.

Yes, I've installed the latest version of that.

[claydoh]

I dunno. I just installed win2k in Virtualbox, and after installing the guest additions and rebooting the Vm , I am able to easily resize the Vm's window, windows grows to fit, and is 32 bit color. No tweaking or anything special.

[Tom_ZeCat]

I dunno. I just installed win2k in Virtualbox, and after installing the guest additions and rebooting the Vm , I am able to easily resize the Vm's window, windows grows to fit, and is 32 bit color. No tweaking or anything special.

Strange. I wonder if it has to do with which Windows 2000 it is. It's Win 2K Professional. Let me look to see which service pack. ..... Okay, I ran "ver" at the DOS prompt and this is what I got:

Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]

[claydoh]

Same here.

It might be worth trying a fresh VM, install win2k, then do nothing but Insert Guest Addititons.
All I did from the stock settings for a new Windows 2000 vm was to increase the ram to 750mb, just because I could.

I should have mentioned/asked about versions of VB. I am using the latest release from Oracle, not the one in the repos. Mine is 4.3.12, while the ubuntu packages are 4.3.10, I don't think this would be a major factor, but you never know.

I hadn't run Win2k with Virtualbox in some time, probably early 2012, on the old Compaq Pentium M laptop, so I could root my phone at the time

[Tom_ZeCat]

Same here.

It might be worth trying a fresh VM, install win2k, then do nothing but Insert Guest Addititons.
All I did from the stock settings for a new Windows 2000 vm was to increase the ram to 750mb, just because I could.

I should have mentioned/asked about versions of VB. I am using the latest release from Oracle, not the one in the repos. Mine is 4.3.12, while the ubuntu packages are 4.3.10, I don't think this would be a major factor, but you never know.

I hadn't run Win2k with Virtualbox in some time, probably early 2012, on the old Compaq Pentium M laptop, so I could root my phone at the time

The problem with a fresh install is that would wipe out my install of Windows 7. I've spent a bunch of time setting up software exactly how I want it. Buying an old computer at a thrift store is looking better and better. I saw an HP laptop for $20 at one, but I didn't snatch it up because I already own three laptops, each with its purpose. For $20 I guess I could own a Win 2K laptop just for running Visual BASIC 6. I'm going to go up there today and see if they still have it.

Of course I risk being branded a computer hoarder much like a cat hoarding lady, but I really do need to be able to go through my old Visual BASIC code and see it in action via the debugger.

[claydoh]

No no nonono, sorry! I mean a new VM with a fresh Windows 2000 installed inside it. Don't do a thing to your current bare metal OS!
Just make a new virtual machine for Win2k, and don't try installing any Windows video drivers from within the Win2k VM - you don't use them there as VirtualBox uses its own virtual gpu and driver for that. The Guest Additions gives this Vbox video "device" better performance.


heck, if you are using Windows 7, have you tried running VirtualBox there? You can use the same VM files iirc. I think you would still have to install the Guest Additions from within Win2k if not already done.

And there is always Vmware as an alternative. Some like that better.

[Tom_ZeCat]

No no nonono, sorry! I mean a new VM with a fresh Windows 2000 installed inside it. Don't do a thing to your current bare metal OS!
Just make a new virtual machine for Win2k, and don't try installing any Windows video drivers from within the Win2k VM - you don't use them there as VirtualBox uses its own virtual gpu and driver for that. The Guest Additions gives this Vbox video "device" better performance.


heck, if you are using Windows 7, have you tried running VirtualBox there? You can use the same VM files iirc. I think you would still have to install the Guest Additions from within Win2k if not already done.

And there is always Vmware as an alternative. Some like that better.

This has become quite the headache and the time soak, distracting me from other things I need to work on. I went back to the thrift store to snatch up that old $20 laptop, hoping it was still available, but it was gone. They had a bunch of old desktops, none of which ran. I couldn't find anything at other thrift stores either, and pawn shops don't carry laptops that old. I guess I'm back to trying to make this work.

I had already tried just deleting the Win 2K install and making sure the Guest Additions are the newest ones available and then reinstalling Win 2K, but I had the same problem. Win 2K is running and Visual BASIC is running under it. I just have crappy screen resolution. It runs well enough for me to check out my old code. I may live with it for a while. Maybe I'll watch Craig's List for cheap old laptops.

Win 7 is running great under VirtualBox, oddly enough. I've also tried XP, which is running terribly. It freezes up when I try to copy files to it. Maybe my copies of Win 2K and XP suck. I don't know. I'm pretty sick of #$%^ing with it.

[Tom_ZeCat]

This has become quite the headache and the time soak, distracting me from other things I need to work on. I went back to the thrift store to snatch up that old $20 laptop, hoping it was still available, but it was gone. They had a bunch of old desktops, none of which ran. I couldn't find anything at other thrift stores either, and pawn shops don't carry laptops that old. I guess I'm back to trying to make this work.

I had already tried just deleting the Win 2K install and making sure the Guest Additions are the newest ones available and then reinstalling Win 2K, but I had the same problem. Win 2K is running and Visual BASIC is running under it. I just have crappy screen resolution. It runs well enough for me to check out my old code. I may live with it for a while. Maybe I'll watch Craig's List for cheap old laptops.

Win 7 is running great under VirtualBox, oddly enough. I've also tried XP, which is running terribly. It freezes up when I try to copy files to it. Maybe my copies of Win 2K and XP suck. I don't know. I'm pretty sick of #$%^ing with it.

An update: Uhg. I tried a different edition of Win 2K with the same result. Previously I was using Win 2K/SP5. I just tried Win 2K/SP4. No luck. Same crummy resolution. I have the latest guest additions, no drivers. #$%^ing thing.

On the positive side, I know a lady who works at the thrift store. She said if any outdated laptop comes through, she'll save it for me.

I do have an extra netbook with nothing important on it. I've been meaning to turn it into my Jukebox PC. I could try it on there, though it is really too modern for Win 2K. I could also try Windows XP. Visual BASIC runs under XP, but you have to tinker with it.

[claydoh]

This has become quite the headache and the time soak, distracting me from other things I need to work on. I went back to the thrift store to snatch up that old $20 laptop, hoping it was still available, but it was gone. They had a bunch of old desktops, none of which ran. I couldn't find anything at other thrift stores either, and pawn shops don't carry laptops that old. I guess I'm back to trying to make this work.

I had already tried just deleting the Win 2K install and making sure the Guest Additions are the newest ones available and then reinstalling Win 2K, but I had the same problem. Win 2K is running and Visual BASIC is running under it. I just have crappy screen resolution. It runs well enough for me to check out my old code. I may live with it for a while. Maybe I'll watch Craig's List for cheap old laptops.

Win 7 is running great under VirtualBox, oddly enough. I've also tried XP, which is running terribly. It freezes up when I try to copy files to it. Maybe my copies of Win 2K and XP suck. I don't know. I'm pretty sick of #$%^ing with it.

I Don't blame you. I just feel bad that it simply doesn't work for you. But you gotta do what you gotta do.

[Tom_ZeCat]

Finally some good news!!

I changed tactics. The goal is to run Visual BASIC 6 and run it well. The previous tactic was to run it under Win 2K via VirtualBox. Seemed like a sound tactic since Win 2K was the OS I previously had used Visual BASIC 6 under with no problems, and I was having problems even getting XP to run at all under VirtualBox. However, I've already got an install of Windows 7 under VirtualBox, which I had not tried because of previous problems running Visual BASIC under 7. My new tactic change was to find hacks to get VB 6 to run under Win 7. I googled it and found all the hacks I needed. They worked. Now VB 6 is running just fine under Win 7. There's no crappy or tiny resolution. I can run my old code.

Turns out the install of Win 2K was not a waste of time. I can now run WordStar for Windows, something I've been needing to do for a while. It won't run under Windows 7. It used to run under WINE, but somehow an update screwed it up. I have a bunch of old WordStar for Windows files that I need to convert to something more modern. Now In WSWin I should be able to export these old files to Word files, granted a very old type of Word file. WordStar for Windows came out in 1992. However, I should be able to convert those really old Word files into the Word '97/2000 "doc" files that are so universal, or maybe even to OpenOffice files.

At least I wasn't wasting my time. I'm ridiculously persistent with this tech crap. It paid off.