Windows Error Reporting is all well and good, and I’m sure there are many problems that it’s solved. However it managed a classic fail tonight that made me chuckle. Take this error report here:

“Update Spyware Doctor”. Fine. Sounds like a good idea.

Such a good idea that…. it is in fact what I was trying to do when PC Tools “SmartUpdate” crashed, causing the error what I reported to Microsoft’s Error Reporting service, which recommended… can you spell “infinite loop”?

Just browsing through the links on here, thinking about checking whether they all still work I decided to have a go with Basilisk ][. (more…)

Originally started by Kevin Lawton, the bochs project – whose motto is “Think inside the bochs” – maintains the bochs emulator. Bochs aims to emulate – at a reasonable speed and with a fair degree of accuracy – an x86-based 32-bit PC with the AMD 64-bit extensions. It can run most operating systems inside it (as “guest operating systems”, if you prefer the VMWare term), such as Windows (3.1, 95, Vista…), Linux, Minix or one of the BSDs. (They even collect disk images as well). In addition, Bochs also runs on loads of operating systems as well – Windows, BeOS, OSX, Irix, Solaris… (more…)

Fabrice Bellard’s excellent QEMU is up to version 0.9.0 (a Windows port is in alpha stage).

So far, QEMU is the first thing I’ve found that runs Windows 98 and Dungeon Keeper properly.  Virtual PC was fast but couldn’t run anything other than the DOS version, and had problems with screen refresh.  Bochs was slow and clunky.  VritualBox couldn’t run the DirectX version either, and wouldn’t run the DOS version at all.  DOSbox was fine – but had problems with the integrated graphics on the laptop.

QEMU was fast, especially with the kqemu acceleration layer (which works fine on Windows Vista Home Premium, folks).  Couldn’t get the networking going, but it wasn’t really too much to worry about – getting the main game going was the main priority. 

It’s always nice, when using a new operating system in a virtual machine, to have some apps to look at in it.  So I thought I’d compile a list of some, where to get them, and the usual suspects: OpenOffice.org, Firefox, Thunderbird and Opera.  Here, then, after a quick scan through my bookmarks is all that I can find.  Use and enjoy. (more…)