Although domestic PCs began to popularize with Windows 95 and 98it was with his successor, Windows XPwhen the trend was consolidated and made a home weird without at least one computer. Launched in 2001, it became the dominant operating system during the next decade, until Windows 7 It exceeded its market share in 2011. It is a piece of computer history that you can relive thanks to a Reddit user who has created a website that simulates the classic Microsoft operating system.
The talented developer behind this project is U/DUCBAO414and the official name of the project is Win32.run. Its creator explains that he developed it a few years ago while learning Svelte (Javascript Framework to build user interfaces), but that the project was abandoned after several updates of Sveltekit that made it difficult to continue expanding their functions. A pity.
Win32.run It is not a perfect simulation of Windows XP, but it approaches a lot. There are some inconsistencies here and there, but they are quite lower. It should also be taken into account that Not all elements are functional: Some buttons do nothing. But it is still a notable nostalgic trip to what it was to have a computer almost a quarter of a century ago.
There are classic elements such as the load screens at the beginning, the interface, the dialog boxes, the sounds, the button of Start (START), the icon of My PC to access the file system and navigate with the Windows Explorer Classic, recreated in detail, although with very little content, since it is not a real installation of Windows XP. The same happens with other aspects of the configuration, such as Screen propertieswhich include the desk fund gallery that brought the operating system, but they do not allow changing anything else. Some options, such as control Panel wave Command consolealthough they appear in the menus, they are decoratively and do not offer functionality.
There are also applications that you can use, like a Word 2003 That allows you to create documents that you can save, the player Half Player Classic, Paint, Notes and the one who was the king of the Internet until Chrome He unseated it at the end of the Windows XP cycle: Internet Explorer. The Microsoft browser is also recreated with all care and can be used to visit web pages. The project even has an installer that allows you to add Webapps To Windows XP, if you are really going to spend a lot of time in it.
Other applications that it brings are the games. Windows no longer includes this type of entertainment as standard, but with titles such as Business and Lonelypresent and functional here, many passed in front of Windows XP. These two games are accompanied by another 19 that are not from the time, but the result of a project collaboration with the online games portal Crazygames.com. More current, although a version of Minecraft.
How could it be otherwise, this Windows XP supports the then immensely popular -and after its vulnerabilities – Flash Player. Allows you to run flash applications and games that you can download from Internet Archive.
There are also programs that have no greater relationship with Windows XP and it is not known very well what they do there, such as Photon EditoR (image edition) or Koodo Reader (Electronic book reader).
Win32.Run does not offer any practical utility, except for the pleasure of a nostalgic walk through the computer science of the first decade of this century. Either for those who lived it or for those who did not and want to get an idea of how Windows was using at that time.