Running Windows CE in Bochs.

Since discovering the amazing Bochs emulator last year, I’ve set it up to run MS-DOS, Windows 3.11, Windows 95 and Windows 98. I’ve also gotten curious as to how to have it run Windows CE, which comes embedded in numerous hand held devices. The web page with the instructions on getting CE up and running in Bochs is no longer online, but fortunately I found a cached copy in the Internet Archive. I reprint the instructions here.

Ever wanted to run Windows CE on your Bochs PSP x86 emulator? Well it’s easier than you think, and yota from our forums has figured it out.

Here are the steps to make the Bochs Image:

1 – Download image for Virtual PC from here.

I have noticed you will now need to sign up for a free account from HPC:Factor in order to download the disk images from their site. It’s painless and takes only a few minutes. Once your account is established, the above link takes you to a page with 4 different Windows CE images. The following instructions will work regardless of which image you use.

2 – Create a new image disk in Boch like for the Win95 prototype (http://forums.qj.net/f-psp-homebrew-…ighlight=win95)

I couldn’t track down the link in this second step. All you do here is create a new virtual hard disk image as usual with the bximage command. I’ve done some experimenting and found that Windows CE 5.0 will fit comfortably on a 15MB virtual disk formatted with MS-DOS 6.22. You can use the Windows 95 boot disk described in these instructions if you wish, but MS-DOS will work just as well and doesn’t consume as much virtual disk space.

3 – Like for Win95, run FDISK and FORMAT (use /S to make it bootable)

With the Windows 95 or MS-DOS boot disk image mounted as your A: drive, launch Bochs and run FDISK and FORMAT to prepare the virtual hard disk for use. 

The rest of these instructions should be fairly straightforward.

4 – Download the latest WinImage and install it

5 – Open the WinCE image you downloaded in 1 with WinImage and extract all the files into a temp folder. Delete Command.com file in the temp folder.

6 – Close Bochs, open the Bosch image with WinImage and Inject all the files from the temp folder into the Bochs image (except Command.com that was deleted previously).

7 – Change the memory allocation in the bochsrc.bxrc from 8 to 32 megs (I think “this” is the main problem for running on the PSP)

8 – Boot the Bochs image from the C: drive with Bochs. You will have a warning, just continue the emulation. That’s it, WinCE should be loaded…

9 – Change the bochsrc.bxrc file according to the Win95 but with 32 megs and copy the image to the PSP

See? It’s as easy as that. Now, go have fun with Windows CE on your PSP 😀

Have fun! Thanks to those for letting me know about the dead link.