from Hacker News

Web based Windows XP desktop recreation, built with React

by fibo on 10/31/20, 7:35 PM with 148 comments

  • by dmix on 11/1/20, 2:51 AM

    This loads super fast on a phone and is very responsive.

    Modern js done right can provide top tier interfaces. So many frontend let performance go by the way side when making interactive web apps.

    And performance can also be UX, how things appear and the flow of the loading. Things like placeholder boxes [1] with the same size so the load isn’t janky is one good hack. The sort of thing you don’t have to care about with native apps.

    [1] I’m on the fence about the value of loading icons in each placeholder, they’ll figure out something is loaded soon enough. Not need for the distraction or highlighting loading times. Errors for components are another matter.

    Although of course server side rendering of everything is the ideal initial state.

  • by reificator on 10/31/20, 8:26 PM

    I am very disappointed in the lack of response from Explorer > Help > Is this copy of Windows legal?

  • by hiidrew on 10/31/20, 8:02 PM

    “Your computer might be at risk”

    That extra detail made it very realistic.

  • by beprogrammed on 10/31/20, 9:32 PM

  • by sxp on 10/31/20, 7:56 PM

    Wow. You can even load a Winamp skin from https://skins.webamp.org/ into the player and adjust the EQ.

    Though, I'm not sure if I trust that OS since I see a tooltip telling me that I don't have AV installed :)

  • by dheera on 10/31/20, 10:24 PM

  • by martijnvds on 10/31/20, 8:13 PM

    That's another way to make "ReactOS" :)

  • by ilrwbwrkhv on 11/1/20, 1:37 AM

    This still is one of the best ux. This and Windows 2000. Straight to the point and fast.

  • by dmitrybrant on 10/31/20, 8:22 PM

    This is excellent, with the very minor detail of the fonts, which look a little off, and perhaps a little too anti-aliased? This seems to be the main issue with all web-based retro simulations of Windows 9x and XP. I'm guessing this is because the default font (Tahoma?) isn't freely licensed? Everything else is spot on, though!

  • by ww520 on 10/31/20, 11:38 PM

    Run it at full screen and can't back to the browser view. All function keys are captured. Nice.

    Now add Excel or Word to it. Running it at full screen would be a nice "I'm working hard" wallpaper for the people peeping over your shoulder.

  • by yskchu on 11/1/20, 4:06 AM

  • by smusamashah on 11/1/20, 12:50 AM

  • by fredley on 10/31/20, 8:29 PM

    Very sad MSN Messenger did not open. This was still a hell of a nostalgia trip for me.

  • by qubex on 11/1/20, 8:34 AM

    Very pretty... but just about everything I wanted to try out (Control Panel to switch to the Classic interface, the Run command, Command Prompt) just gave generic “program not found” errors, which I understand, but which makes this little more than a tableaux—though indeed it is termed a ‘recreation’ and not an ‘emulation’, so maybe I was just hoping for too much.

    Well done on the visuals, though. Very impressive.

  • by anilakar on 11/1/20, 11:01 AM

    The sad part: It feels more snappy than my Windows 10 desktop it runs on.

  • by iammiles on 10/31/20, 10:52 PM

    I was not expecting Paint to actually save my file, let alone paint. Bravo.

  • by pseudosavant on 11/1/20, 3:42 AM

    I stumbled around their github and they have a project that I think is far more fun and interesting that even this great Windows XP clone. A bunch of very real looking fake screens: OS update that won't ever finish, crashed, Google Search that doesn't return any results. Check it out. This would be great for pranking co-workers, you know, if we could work in the same room...

    https://github.com/ShizukuIchi/fake-screen

  • by pachico on 10/31/20, 8:27 PM

    I couldn't contain a smile when I saw Winamp's interface :)

  • by ricardobeat on 11/1/20, 4:33 AM

    It is astonishing that so little has changed in almost 30 years. Despite visual differences, menus and windowing in general is almost exactly the same.

  • by 4gotunameagain on 10/31/20, 10:52 PM

    Joke's on you; I don't need this. At work I still frequently use a winXP box to compile stuff.

    But, impressive and awesome :)

  • by Xorlev on 10/31/20, 8:07 PM

    Paint et. all work too, what an incredible simulation! :)

  • by djtriptych on 10/31/20, 10:04 PM

    Really nice. And seeing winamp running just instinctively made me smile. Computers used to be fun!

  • by Stratoscope on 11/1/20, 7:31 AM

    Now this is fun. The S Pen on my Note 8 works in MS Paint!

    I guess I shouldn't be surprised - it just treats it like a mouse - but it was neat to see.

    https://imgur.com/a/R8rbdYZ

  • by holler on 11/1/20, 1:42 AM

    Winamp!! Wow, talk about nostalgia... this is really cool. I just realized thankfully we don't really need to test websites against IE6+ anymore but if we did and the browser worked, this would be really useful! nice work.

  • by jeroenhd on 10/31/20, 8:38 PM

    Not quite Win2k in the browser [0] but it's a pretty good simulation of Windows. Sounds like this would be a fun project for trying out new frameworks.

    It's missing one feature that's been in Windows since 1.0: closing an application by clicking the top left (icon) in the task bar.

    [0]: https://bellard.org/jslinux/vm.html?url=win2k.cfg&mem=192&gr...

  • by brailsafe on 11/1/20, 7:11 PM

    This doesn't really seem to work on my OnePlus 3, but if I think about it, what part of this would emphasize React's performance characteristics? Aren't most things on the XP desktop just static images and buttons and so on?

    That being said, the assets are spot on and visually it seems identical.

  • by CornCobs on 11/1/20, 10:14 AM

    Paint has a "Render history as gif" function??? That is amazing! Or is this a new feature in paint?

  • by l9k on 10/31/20, 10:58 PM

    I just spent an hour on minesweeper

  • by csdreamer7 on 11/1/20, 4:48 AM

    Memories. Really was sad to see XP go...

    Maybe one day Microsoft will release it under the GPL (also would take the Mozilla Public License or the Eclipse Public License).

    Of course, even if the code was released, getting the theme released is a different matter.

  • by tracyhenry on 10/31/20, 11:10 PM

    Nice work! I wonder how much effort did it take to get the the correct web layout and css styles?

    With React it seems like the logic should be simpler to implement (assuming there isn't much change to WinAmp and JSPaint).

  • by stanislavb on 11/1/20, 6:25 AM

    I love that there's a Winamp with playable music. Such a joy.

  • by ziggystardust on 11/1/20, 11:12 AM

    Honestly, windows XP is still a better interface than windows 10.

  • by anonymfus on 11/1/20, 1:18 PM

    I like how unimplemented menu items in your Notepad clone are grayed out as disabled, I would love to see this principle implemented in the rest of this art piece.

  • by philjackson on 11/1/20, 11:37 AM

    I miss Winamp so much.

  • by emilsedgh on 10/31/20, 8:28 PM

    How much work was put into this it's impressive!

  • by coupdejarnac on 10/31/20, 11:48 PM

    This gives me the feeling I think I would have on a holodeck- everything is superficially very realistic if you don't dig too deep.

  • by jaytaylor on 10/31/20, 9:48 PM

    Does this work for anyone on mobile? When I try to click on things it doesn't seem to register, for example- the start button.

  • by jmnicolas on 11/1/20, 9:18 AM

    I wish you had a functioning Internet Explorer, a browser running inside a browser, but yeah I expect it would be tremendous work!

  • by pxi on 10/31/20, 11:15 PM

    Oh no, my computer might be at risk! So that's what I missed out on when I switched to linux :) (Fantastic effort guys)

  • by szszrk on 11/2/20, 7:35 AM

    Wow, a fast winamp, like it used to be. It even collapses to those tiny little menu and can use skins. Pure awesomeness.

  • by mrlambchop on 10/31/20, 9:56 PM

    I didn't realize that I needed half an hour therapy from playing minesweeper, yet I feel so much better now.

    Nice work ShizukuIchi!

  • by stareatgoats on 10/31/20, 9:57 PM

    Wow - that's impressive! Now all you need to implement is the file explorer interface on top of indexedDB ...

  • by idktech on 11/1/20, 4:49 AM

    This is something else! Great job!!!

  • by nojvek on 11/1/20, 4:25 PM

    “Anything that can be built in a browser will be built in a browser”

    Not sure who said that but I love that quote.

  • by bishala on 11/1/20, 4:57 AM

    Really very impressive. The applications like Paint, Notepad etc. actually work! WOW!

  • by jp1016 on 11/1/20, 7:58 AM

    this is so cool, I have created a code screenshot tool with windows xp and windows 98 theme on https://codekeep.io/screenshot

  • by dpedu on 11/1/20, 4:16 PM

    Somehow, this feels more snappy and responsive than my native OS. Bravo.

  • by ineedasername on 10/31/20, 11:39 PM

    Sadly it's not all functional yet: I couldn't play spades.

  • by nojvek on 11/1/20, 4:22 PM

    This brought back so many memories. Thanks for building this.

  • by anta40 on 11/1/20, 5:04 AM

    Very nicely done.

    But wait... can't open any page on IE? And no cmd.exe?

    :)

  • by rcshubhadeep on 11/1/20, 11:30 AM

    Really nice. Is the source code available?

  • by aplummer on 11/1/20, 1:50 AM

    What an os. Less is more for the start bar

  • by onion-soup on 11/1/20, 9:02 AM

    XP was such an aesthetically pleasing OS.

  • by rawoke083600 on 11/1/20, 9:02 AM

    Lol windows has never felt faster ! :D

  • by tomcat27 on 11/1/20, 5:23 AM

    So many memories from school days!!

  • by scared2 on 11/1/20, 1:06 PM

    So beautiful. Good job.

  • by zeptonix on 11/1/20, 5:16 AM

    Absolutely amazing!

  • by collaborative on 10/31/20, 9:38 PM

    Amazing

  • by gao8a on 10/31/20, 10:14 PM

    NO PINBALL?!?!

    Other than that well done :)

  • by arthurcolle on 11/1/20, 5:48 AM

    no filesystem? :(

  • by skee0083 on 10/31/20, 8:53 PM

    I love windows xp. always have and still find it eaiser and more intuitive than windows 10. I encourage everyone to donate and support reactOS. It's our only hope for a sane open source OS.

  • by vaccinator on 10/31/20, 11:09 PM

    Who would get Windows XP when you can have Windows 2000? (not kidding)

  • by known on 11/1/20, 6:27 AM

    You may want to install/configure xcompmgr -cCfF -r7 -o.65 -l-10 -t-8 -D7 for rendering good looking fonts in Linux;

  • by timonoko on 11/1/20, 1:12 PM

    Office Droids are rejoicing. I do not get any this, because (pirated) Window 95 was the last one, as Linux was quite complete already.

  • by Dalrymple on 10/31/20, 10:20 PM

    Windows XP is reportedly the last version of Windows where Bill Gates played a key role in its creation and quality control – something he was very good at. In my view he should return to this job and stop listening to the Melinda Gates and Lorraine Jobs of the world encouraging him to work on saving the universe when Windows has been going downhill ever since he left.

    If Bill were to start with a Windows XP sp3 base, here are a bakers dozen of tasks to get him and his new software team started. I am calling this new product Windows XP-TNG for now. Feel free to add to this list:

    1. WinXP-TNG should be 64 bit only, at the same level of reliability or better as Win XP 32 bit. Support for disks larger than 2tb and main memory greater than 4gb.

    2. USB 3 support.

    3. Investigate if and how this 48 bit address business could be expanded to the full 64 bits.

    4. DirectX 12 support

    5. Directory printer option (like the best add-on utilities provide)

    6. Print to PDF file print driver (better than the best add-on utilities provide)

    7. Integrate the old Office 2003 into Windows XP-TNG without separate activation. Customers that really want a newer Office would buy a Cloud version or the Windows 10 native app.

    8. Integrate a “cleaner” utility that would remove any malware from PDF, and, if needed, epub files.

    9. Deleted file recovery (beyond restore points). Search entire disk and rebuild desired directory entries functionality (much better than the best add-on utilities provide).

    10. One button setup of “classic” Win 95/2000 options and developer settings like View-Details.

    11. Fix bug that causes large, say 1tb file transfers, with Copy-Paste to fail. Drag-and-Drop works ok.

    12. Long-term bug fixing and cybersecurity support.

    13. Option for automatic registry backups, user can delay and specify number of backups before recycling.