86Box v6.0 Beta

May 17, 2026 - written by richardg867

This is a beta preview of the May 2026 update to 86Box, bringing in the obligatory bugfixes, some performance improvements, user interface updates and lots of new hardware.

Important note: The ROM set for this beta release is not displayed on the roms GitHub page. Download it through this link.

Main features

After the floppy drive sounds feature in v5.2, the same contributor now brings in hard disk sounds, configurable through the hard disk settings separately from the existing model presets. Recordings from three 3600 RPM disk models are currently available, with more to come in the future.

The long-awaited local switch allows for networking multiple 86Box machines running on the same host computer and across multiple hosts on the same real network, automatically and across platforms, unlike previous solutions such as VDE which required manual configuration and left Windows users in the dark. Multiple networks can be created and isolated by passwords, and more technically-inclined users can connect other emulators to the switch; see the documentation for more information.

Serial and parallel connectivity also saw many updates. On the parallel side, printers are now configurable, new sound devices join the existing DACs, and the new Named Pipe device can connect machines together with a LapLink cable or the rare DirectParallel cable for high-speed Windows Direct Cable Connection. On the serial side, the passthrough feature has evolved into serial devices bringing many improvements: Named Pipe (now supported on Linux and macOS) has an automatic client/server mode, Serial Passthrough no longer requires setting the host port’s baud rate separately, and Virtual Console (now supported on Windows) can automatically connect a terminal to the emulated port.

SCSI tape drives are now emulated, in case you’re emulating a retro server and want to make period-accurate backups. Tape drives for the floppy interface, which were more common in the consumer space, are planned for the future.

Many updates have been made to the user interface, starting with some updated icons, including a more colorful logo. New toolbar buttons allow for fast forwarding emulation (running as fast as your host system can handle) and quickly taking a screenshot to file or clipboard. The Settings window was starting to become overwhelming with the sheer amount of options available, so it now has tabs on most pages; most of the options you know are still there, just organized into tabs, and some no longer require a hard reset to be applied. All device selectors now have search, activated by clicking the X button and typing a search query. The Preferences window now has pages like the Settings window.

Important changes

Moved options

Custom key bindings have moved from the Settings window’s Input devices page to the Preferences window’s new Key bindings page, as they are now saved system-wide and apply to all machines on all copies of 86Box v6.0 and newer. Due to this change, any 86Box keyboard shortcuts you may have changed on individual machines have been reset.

Additionally, several View menu options related to the emulated display have moved to a new Monitor tab in the Settings window’s Display page, where they can still be changed without a hard reset.

Merged video cards

The very large amount of video cards to choose from is a longstanding issue which has finally been addressed in this release. We have shortened the video card list by merging cards: the card selector now lists video chipsets instead, and the individual card and VBIOS variants for each chipset are available through the Configure button next to the selector. The new search feature can help you find the video chipset for a given card name.

Upgrading to 86Box v6.0 will automatically migrate the configured video card to this new system. After this migration, downgrading to v5.3 or older may result in the machine losing its video card settings.

MDS v2 / MDX support component

The new support for Daemon Tools MDS v2 and MDX CD-ROM images uses an external component due to a license incompatibility issue. This component is included with 86Box as the mdsx.dll file inside the .zip on Windows, or embedded within the AppImage on Linux or the app bundle on macOS. Windows users should make sure the included mdsx.dll is present in the same folder as the 86Box executable, otherwise MDS v2 and MDX images will refuse to load.

Linux package maintainers should note that mdsx.so is an optional component located in a separate repository governed by the non-free TrueCrypt License, which may prevent its inclusion in the 86Box package according to your distribution’s policies. We welcome contributions bringing in a GPL-compatible reimplementation of the legacy encryption algorithms used by Daemon Tools.

Windows ARM support

We now provide builds for Windows host systems with Snapdragon, Nvidia N1 and other ARM processors through the 86Box-NDR-Windows-ARM64 download. Intel and AMD systems should continue using the same 86Box-Windows-64 download as before. Note that ARM builds require Windows 11, and these currently lack some minor features relying on external components (Discord integration and the PostScript printer’s PDF conversion).

Third-party manager applications may need to be updated to handle these builds, even on non-ARM systems. Please update your manager if it fails to download or run 86Box v6.0, with symptoms including “This app can’t run on your PC”, “not compatible with the version of Windows you’re running” or “machine type other than the current machine” error messages.

macOS 10.13 support

86Box no longer supports macOS hosts running High Sierra 10.13. The minimum supported version is now Mojave 10.14, and a future release will bring it up to Catalina 10.15.

Changelog

Emulator

User interface

Machines

Hardware