So, where does one find the actual specs for the base platform that is actually running under the Parallels VM? A particular Main Board and Chip Set emulation? Anyone?

I didn’t know about the method you have for connecting to the internet instead of the fake modem setup that I did. I will add that to the guide.

I didn’t seem to have the issue that you had with the Install Parallels Tools greyed out, but your notes should be helpful for those who do have that issue so thanks for writing about it. I will also add this to the guide.

Firstly, while my Win98.iso file was connected to the VM, Install Parallel Tools was greyed out. The Parallel Tools .iso is located in /Library/Parallels/Tools, connect it manually and it’ll ungrey in the menu. This still didn’t let me install it however, clicking the menu option did nothing, so I just opened the CD in the guestOS manually and it autoplayed and installed perfectly.

Also, you don’t need to go into the Control Panel when looking for the Device Manager; just right (ctrl) click the My Computer icon and select Properties, and this takes you sraight to the System Properties screen.

You don’t need to go through the fake modem selection process if you follow the instructions given in the official 98SE guide for going online - just click the Connect to the Internet icon instead of IE, and tell it straight away that you’re trying to connect through a LAN.

Lastly, for explicitness for those who don’t see their Parallels machines whein they try to browse their mac’s Network folder: after using the Win98 File and Printer Sharing dialogues to enable file sharing and activate sharing on a folder/drive, go to Finder and select Go - Connect Server (cmd-K). Input the server address as smb://{vmname} and then authenticate using your guestOS username and password and there you have it, fileswapping capability. I’ve found that sometimes it doesn’t like me drag/dropping into this folder, if that happens to you try copy/pasting instead.

Regardless of this nitpicking, I found this guide to be much easier to follow than the official one, and I now have a working Win98 machine for the first time in 6 years Oh, and while you may consider it “unstable”, I once had it running on a live machine for up to 6 weeks between reboots, and it was in daily use as a gaming/surfing machine… I put this success down to never installing any other MS retail software

What a flashback.