Hacker News

Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

45 points by jalev ago | 17 comments

Aardwolf |next [-]

My only complaint is the esc button you need in some of the games, make the fullscreen go to the small display again

xavortm |next |previous [-]

Look at how fast Excel loads. Compare to modern high-end PC with it's latest version.

bitwize |root |parent |next [-]

Office really chugged on the PCs of the time though. We can debate whether modern Excel actually delivers enough more value than historical Excel to justify being as more resource-hungry, thus slower to load, as it is. But historical Excel appears fast on modern hardware, even in emulation, because the CPU, RAM, and permanent storage have had 30 years to evolve since it was released. Contemporary 386s and 486s would not have been that snappy.

pjerem |root |parent |previous [-]

I came to write exactly this comment.

The thing runs instantly. And that's in a VM in Javascript.

VerifiedReports |next |previous [-]

"For the best experience, use Chrome."

That's not Windows 3.11. That kind of thing is circa 2000, and a state none of us should want the Web to return to.

ktm5j |root |parent [-]

If this were a commercial project then I could understand the complaint.. but this is just a small, for-fun project and they have little motivation to put the extra effort into support for all browsers.

userbinator |root |parent [-]

Bellard (yes, him) already had a working VM of Windows 2000 in the browser around a decade ago, with no specific "support for all browsers" (whatever that means):

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

achairapart |next |previous [-]

Exited to dos, found Bubble Bobble in GAMES directory and started to play. And that's mostly what I used to do as a kid at the times of Windows 3.11!

canjobear |next |previous [-]

I was expecting it to boot to DOS and then having to typing "win"

absynth |next |previous [-]

Plenty of people would have used this purely for Cardfile.

em-dosbox is a good project.

smusamashah |next |previous [-]

Can we have icons like these again please.

I started from Windows 98 and always loved the icons. They actually represented the application and purpose. These days they are more focused on looking modern. Lots of times they are not even distinguishable between each other.

rzzzt |root |parent [-]

C:\Windows\System32\moricons.dll is still available, you can set them on shortcuts in Properties with the "Change icon" button.

mr_tox |next |previous [-]

what is this feeling? oh, yes, it's damn nostalgia

dintech |next |previous [-]

I loved messing around with this for a short time. Very nostalgic.

ranger_danger |next |previous [-]

Just a black screen for me.

jalev |previous [-]

I've been playing freecell on it for the last hour or so

avadodin |root |parent [-]

Freecell is actually a 32-bit Windows application running through a Wine-like compatibility layer called Win32s on 16-bit Windows.