Can you install Windows 98 on a laptop with the operating system Vista installed on it?
If that's possible, how do I uninstall Vista?
I need Windows 98 in order to play Drakan, Wizards and Warriors, Dark Earth and Redguard and lots of other games :(

You need a time machine. Either a DeLorean or a TARDIS will do.

Install it in VirtualBox in a virtual machine. If you install Windows 98 on a newer machine, it's likely you will have driver issues (and newer software won't run)

I am actually not sure that you can directly install Windows 98 on it, since Vista was preinstalled and that is basicly a golden rule: You can upgrade from a the current version, or downgrade until you hit the preinstalled version.It is not possible to go past that, but luckily we have virtual machines which run all sorts of things for us old suckers :D. Cheers

I would advise that you don't do this. Windows 98, Vista and such like are operating systems. They are versions of Windows from time back. Windows 98 is very old and hence it is really not good to install on a new laptop.

Now what you are getting is compatablity issues. First start by searching the web (and here) as a lot of games have patches and updates which make them work on newer systems - Redguard I know I have had working on Windows 7/8 before so you shouldn't need to go back to an old OS. Even if for some reason you did, and its very rare, there are virtual machines, a bit like OS's within your OS that can be used to emulate these things.
I can't goto game pages on the work machines but this is the first hit from Google:
www.uesp.net/wiki/Redguard:Redguard

Also, consider upgrading your Windows Vista OS to a more recent one - Windows 7 or if you really want to be up to date, Windows 7/8 free upgrade to Windows 10. Vista is probably the worst OS you can have on your machine.

TL;DR; Don't downgrade your OS, look for compatability solutions. Lets be serious here for a moment, a Delorean would break down every two minutes - much like the Vista he is currently using, and the Tardis has no control over where it goes, much like Vista he is using now.

Then what the hell do you suggest? H G Wells' piece of crap?

What kind of laptop? Unless it is an ancient laptop (like well over 12 years old), drivers will probably be one problem, and also Win9x installations have problems if the PC has more than 512MB of RAM if I recall correctly (but there are ways around that).

You could try virtual machines too (install Win98 in a virtual machine), but my experiences with that haven't been encouraging. Games work poorly or not at all in such.

I do have a laptop which runs both Windows 98SE and XP (side by side) and works great even for old Win9x era games (I played Heavy Gear through on it), but it is an IBM ThinkPad T41, probably over 12 years old laptop.


If all else fails, have you considered installing Linux and trying if the games work through WINE? It depends if the manufacturer made drivers for the older OS as well.

I think my ancient IBM ThinkPad T41 originally came with Windows XP pre-installed, but I could install Windows 98SE on it as well just fine(*), as IBM/Lenovo had released a set of Windows 98(SE) drivers for it as well.

(*) I think I had to make some adjustment during the installation because the laptop had more than 512MB of RAM, and after it was installed, I had to restrict the amount of available RAM to 512MB in Windows settings.

OOhh boy xD. Got ninja'd pretty hard there.What else to expect from the guys at IBM.They never seem to lack creativity and technical solutions which are outright genius and hard to imagine today(*looks at HP*) :D.Thx for the info.Cheers

Win 98, man that bring back some bad memorys. So many blue screens of death.

Forgot to reply to this specifically: Boot your laptop with either your Vista (or XP, or 7) installation media (CD-ROM), and there you should have an option to delete any existing partitions. That's the only "uninstallation" you need.

You can use some Linux installation CD as well, run the partition program when you are in Linux and delete any partitions with it.

This might work too: boot with the Windows 98(SE) installation media but abort it so that you go to the command prompt, and then run FDISK. I don't recall for sure but it might be you can delete NTFS ("non-DOS") partitions with it as well.

Also I don't recall for sure but it might be a good idea to create a FAT(32) partition beforehand before you run the actual installation, if possible. I recall some Windows installation medias (either Win9x or XP) didn't like it if there was no empty partition available to install to. Then again, you can probably do that with that FDISK command prompt utility with the Win9x installation CD, if it doesn't create the partition for you automatically.

Wow.. People claiming you can't install it because it had Vista; have you never heard of a boot disk? I've used an XP boot disk to boot into the install environment and install 98 from there. The driver compatibility is another issue. But you can use a boot environment to do a lot of things if you are creative.

But basically, at least one of those games (Redguard) will run on modern systems if purchased from GOG. I know I've run a Drakan game, I think it may be DOS Based and you just need DOSBox.

It is a Windows (1999) game. Yeah I have the retail version too.

http://www.mobygames.com/game/drakan-order-of-the-flame

Hmm, i have Wizards & Warriors and Dark Earth too, so now I got an urge to see if I can get them to run ok on my Windows 7 laptop... Depends at least if their setup programs can handle a 64bit Windows, that's usually the first hurdle.

Thank you for the answers.
Oh boy, that's disappointing, I already feared that it wouldn't work.
I never used a virtual machine before and I'm not that good with technical issues. I have an 8 year old Dell Vostro 1000, with I guess 1 MB RAM.
Well, I also think Vista is a very cheesy operating system, but I got the laptop from my mother and back than, we didn't think much about which operating system would be the best.
On my main PC I have XP, fewer compatability problems.
Since I don't play any newer games it is my first choice.

Stupid question: How do I use the boot environment?
Nevermind, it's probably not working with 1 MB RAM, and I'll never manage to config the system.ini right in order to solve that problem.

And no, I tried running Drakan in DOSbox and it won't work.
And for Wizards and Warriors there aren't any solutions on the internet to make it work on newer systems.
I really urgently want to play those two games.
And I read the GOG version of Redguard isn't that good...

install windows 98 in a virtual machine
either virtual box
vmware workstation player
or virtual pc ( these 3 are all free )

the biggest problem wil be drivers a vista machine might have xp drivers available but windows 98 drivers ?
not a change
if you really want to use ( or need to use ) hardware buy a pentium 2 or 3 laptop which have more then enough raw power to play the games you want to play
if you want to go fast and cheap go with virtual machines
they are free after all
using a virtual machine is honestly not that hard
if you can install an OS and an application you can install windows 98 on a virtual machine

and the vostro 100's drivers go back to xp

Well, that only had one moving part from memory, and a stick which moved up and down, so less likely to break. Anyways, time travel is totally and utterly impossible, I know I came back and clarified that with myself.