Windows 98 - System Requirements

System Requirements

• 486DX2/66 MHz or higher processor (Pentium processor recommended)
• 16 MB of RAM (24 MB recommended, it's possible to run on 8 MB machines with /nm option used during the installation process)
• At least 500 MB of space available on HDD. The amount of space required depends on the installation method and the components selected, but virtual memory and system utilities as well as drivers should be taken into consideration.

• Upgrading from Windows 95 (FAT16) or 3.1 (FAT): 140–400 MB (typically 205 MB).
• New installation (FAT32): 190–305 MB (typically 210 MB).
• Note 1: Both Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE can have significant problems associated with hard drives that are over 32 Gigabytes (GB) in size. This issue only occurs with certain Phoenix BIOS settings. A software update has been made available to fix this shortcoming.
• Note 2: Both Windows 98 and Windows 98 SE are unable to handle hard drives that are over 137 GB in size with the default drivers, because of missing 48-bit LBA support – whole disc data corruption is likely. Third party patches are available to fix this shortcoming.
• Note 3: It is also possible to compress a Windows 98 installation using DriveSpace 3 to less than 120 MB, using maximum compression, without deleting many files. Installing Windows 98 on a HDD that small is usually useless, because it doesn't leave much room for programs, but can be accomplished by moving the DriveSpace 3 container file there.

• VGA or higher resolution monitor (640x480)
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive (floppy install is possible but slow)
• Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device (optional).

Like its predecessor, Windows 95, and its successor, Windows Millennium Edition (Me), users can bypass hardware requirement checks with the undocumented /NM setup switch. This allows installation on computers with processors as old as the 80386 SX.

Unlike Windows 95, Windows 98 checks at the install if the processor has a Floating-point unit (Math Coprocessor), unless the undocumented /NM setup switch is used The Intel 80486DX and later Pentium processors include a floating-point unit as part of the CPU.

Windows 98 is not designed to handle more than 1.0 GB of RAM.