I’ve been tracking the Windows 98 revival project since 2023, and today I want to share some exciting new solutions to watch for in 2026.

Actually, over the past few years, we’ve already tried many methods. The DOSBox family essentially emulates the x86 processor through software, with derivatives like DOSBox-X and DOSBox Pure adding Voodoo 3D acceleration card emulation, allowing you to run Windows 95, 98, and Me programs directly. There are also emulators like 86Box, which can fully restore the nostalgic BIOS boot screen and emulate Voodoo 3 3000 acceleration cards, providing better compatibility for those “semi-old, not new” 3D games.

On the virtual machine side, I often use VirtualBox combined with SoftGPU, which is efficient and offers good compatibility with Windows 98, even delivering 4K resolution visual experiences. However, the limitation of virtual machines is that they only run on x86 architecture computers.

A more interesting development now is that after DOSBox Pure released a 1.0 preview at the end of 2024, it gradually added features like disk hotkeys and Voodoo upscaling, greatly enhancing the gaming experience. In October last year, developer schellingb released DOSBox Pure Unleashed, which finally runs independently without relying on the RetroArch main program, making it much more convenient to use.

On Android, there’s also something called Winlator, which is quite interesting. It’s based on Wine and Box64, and although it’s not a complete Windows system, it can run Windows 98 and XP games directly, with support for controller input, providing a good nostalgic gaming experience on mobile devices.

What I’m most looking forward to is Loss32, a Linux distribution still in development. It plans to integrate the Linux kernel and Wine, aiming to boot directly into a Windows-like desktop environment and run .exe files immediately. While it’s not a full restoration of Windows, the concept of “playing nostalgic games right after boot” is quite appealing.

In my next post, I plan to do an in-depth comparison of these solutions’ pros and cons, especially focusing on various use scenarios for DOSBox Pure Unleashed. Honestly, as these virtual machines and emulation technologies become more mature, I’m also brewing an idea for a “Windows 98 AI PC,” which I expect to make progress this year. The Windows 98 revival project is becoming more and more fascinating.