Diagnosing a Kernel Failure

A kernel failure message.

Sometimes, the Windows 96 kernel just does not want to boot. There can be many reasons for this, some of which will require some manual diagnosis.

How kernel failures happen

A kernel failure can happen because of the following reasons:

• The target browser is not supported (too old or just incompatible).
• The loaded kernel is loading incompatible core libraries (can happen if an older kernel is cached).
• There is a kernel bug that the developers didn't discover yet.
• Mixing kernel versions.
• Missing system files.

Diagnosis

Generally, the recommended way to diagnose kernel errors is to check the DevTools console. This console can usually be triggered by pressing CTRL+SHIFT+I or F12, but this may differ per browser. The console will be able to state what went wrong during script execution. Please note that this error may not be understandable to non-developers, so you will likely have to consult the Windows 96 community for help.