The bootable CD versions just use a stripped down ElTorito floppy image, and start the windows setup from a dos prompt. It's basically the same as the method I described. You also get all the bloat thats on the CD that you dont need. The CABs package file is about 70mb. The bootable CD has shitloads of "unnecessary extras" packed in, making it over 300mb in size.
The added tedium is a nice trade for shorter download times, and faster deployment.
RE: Witcher
Uhm, not everyone is driven 100% by some hormonal cocktail produced by their gonads? Also, if their biochemistry is jacked with THAT much, then there is this thing called anaphylaxis that might make them think twice about banging people. (As in, the recipient of their amourous antics could suddenly be siezed with a lethal hystological reaction and die in terror. This is basically because her body would react strongly to his radically different biochemistry.)
But hey, dont let little things like that get in the way of your testosterone fueled fantasies.
RE: WHY?
Ok, that makes a bit of sense-- but the AOL Free Trial is over a decade out of date, and I seriously doubt that it would work out of a virtual machine anyway. I seriously hope you were putting that as pure comedic value.
A win98 install only needs about 380mb of disk space, including the cab files. A very small disk image in a virtual machine will more than suffice. However, I seem to think a game like Myst would (and probably should have been by now) be portable directly to HTML. I'll see if it has.