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AI Bubble –> AI Winter

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AI_winter
1•baalimago•1m ago•0 comments

Using MacBook sensor API to make screen hinge sound like old wooden door

https://twitter.com/samhenrigold/status/1964428927159382261
1•adityaathalye•15m ago•1 comments

Need help with FAANG-o-meter

https://sagastar.com?redeem_invite=beta100
1•kind-serge•17m ago•0 comments

When Australian scientists almost brought back the extinct gastric brooding frog

https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-09-06/gastric-brooding-frog-project-lazarus-deextinction...
1•stubish•20m ago•0 comments

How Much of Indian Medicine Is Bad?

https://sayacare.in/blogs/how-much-of-indian-medicines-is-bad
1•himanshu7net•20m ago•0 comments

Longhorn – A Kubernetes-Native Filesystem

https://vegard.blog.engen.priv.no/?p=518
3•jandeboevrie•21m ago•0 comments

Aspected Orinted Programming and Structured Logging

1•JasmineAs•23m ago•0 comments

Nvidia-backed U.S. atomic fusion firm eyes reactor in Japan

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/business/2025/09/04/companies/us-nuclear-fusion-firm-eyes-japan-reac...
1•breve•25m ago•0 comments

Platypuses glow under UV light and we have no idea why (2020)

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/13/science/platypus-glow-ultraviolet.html
1•spectraldrift•28m ago•0 comments

Building Towards AGI

https://poolside.ai/vision/research
2•matesz•29m ago•0 comments

The "impossibly small" Microdot web framework

https://lwn.net/Articles/1034121/
1•pykello•32m ago•0 comments

The Garden Speaks: On Cucumbers, Mildew, and Projects

https://zakelfassi.com/blog/2025/2025-09-06-garden-speaks-cucumbers-mildew-projects
1•zakelfassi•34m ago•0 comments

Wix

2•dadin•34m ago•0 comments

Patterns, PREDICTIONS, AND ACTIONS A story about machine learning [pdf]

https://mlstory.org/pdf/patterns.pdf
1•tzury•40m ago•0 comments

Facing stiff competition, remote workers up their game

https://apnews.com/article/finding-remote-jobs-employment-tips-76a61cc6a646493dc3f5e0bfa733160c
1•petethomas•40m ago•0 comments

Forget love triangles. Meet the 'polycule' with 80 people in it

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/sex-relationships/article/polyamory-polycule-somerville-capit...
1•kensai•41m ago•0 comments

Magnetic Bubble Memory

https://www.smbaker.com/magnetic-bubble-memory-mega-post
2•dmitrygr•42m ago•0 comments

Performant girl and performative male in SF

1•ThatDumbGirl•47m ago•0 comments

What the Next 5 to 10 Years Look Like – Prof. Jiang Xueqin [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_4HYxYF4998
1•hkhn•52m ago•1 comments

Liberalism Without Illusions

https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/77/liberalism-without-illusions/
1•hkhn•52m ago•0 comments

Resources, Laziness, and Continuation-Passing Style

https://journal.infinitenegativeutility.com/resources-laziness-and-continuation-passing-style
2•Bogdanp•54m ago•0 comments

Elizabeth Gilbert on Distinguishing Between Hobbies, Jobs, Careers, & Vocation [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0g7ARarFNnw
1•adityaathalye•57m ago•0 comments

MVC: Xerox PARC 1978-79 – Trygve Reenskaug

https://folk.universitetetioslo.no/trygver/themes/mvc/mvc-index.html
1•lioeters•1h ago•0 comments

The Lunar Cowboy: Introducing unittest-fixtures

https://lunarcowboy.com/introducing-unittest-fixtures.html
1•PaulHoule•1h ago•0 comments

Postal traffic to U.S. fell 80% after gov stopped exemption on low-value parcels

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/postal-traffic-us-fell-trump-administration-stopped-exemption-low-va...
1•mraniki•1h ago•1 comments

Show HN: CRoM – Context Rot Mitigation System for RAG-Based LLMs

https://github.com/Flamehaven/CRoM-Context-Rot-Mitigation--EfficientLLM
1•Flamehaven01•1h ago•0 comments

Dream: Visual Decoding from Reversing Human Visual System

https://github.com/weihaox/DREAM
1•felipelalli•1h ago•0 comments

Tickets win $1.787B Powerball jackpot

https://www.powerball.com/tickets-in-missouri-and-texas-win-1.787-billion-powerball-jackpot
4•vyrotek•1h ago•0 comments

Macaws learn by watching interactions, a skill never seen in animals before

https://phys.org/news/2025-09-macaws-interactions-skill-animals.html
3•geox•1h ago•0 comments

Ask HN: I'm building an AI database client for macOS in Swift. Is it a bad idea?

2•m2fauzaan•1h ago•1 comments
Open in hackernews

Show HN: I recreated Windows XP as my portfolio

https://mitchivin.com/
323•mitchivin•4h ago
Years ago I stumbled across a basic version of this concept and it stuck with me. I knew if I was ever going to take on such a project, it would need to be flawless, but without coding experience it was just another idea that would never happen. By the end of 2024, as AI coding tools exploded everywhere, I finally had a way to make it real.

I started from zero knowledge and spent months collaborating with AI agents as a learning experience. Every pixel and every function went through me. The AI translated what I asked for into code, but every decision was human. I didn't use existing OS frameworks because the goal was learning how basic coding languages worked while also developing my skills with AI collaboration. Apart from basic libraries like xp.css and paint.js, it's all original code.

The result is a fully functional Windows XP recreation running in your browser. Complete experience with sounds, animations, and working applications. Even works properly on mobile, which required rebuilding everything to maintain the authentic feel without becoming unusable on touchscreens.

This project taught me more about coding and AI collaboration than I ever expected. Would love to hear your thoughts on the execution and any feedback on the technical approach.

Comments

pbohun•5h ago
This is cool! I like how you can toggle the pixel effect. A lot of great attention to detail.
mitchivin•4h ago
personally, I prefer it on but I'd had some complaints and it does have some impact on performance so better to give the choice, right?
tptacek•5h ago
You got this far have DIR print something!
chatmasta•3h ago
I was so proud of myself for remembering it’s DIR and not ls. But at least `help` worked.
giveita•2h ago
although not much I still use the windows command line (not powershell). XCOPY being my favourite (although rsync is nicer but xcopy still rocks)
zb3•5h ago
The "recently used" part was clever :)
mitchivin•4h ago
hey haha I tried to post this a few weeks ago but my post didn't go through - i'm glad you guys are enjoying it!

edit: I'm new here! let me get some of that sweet sweet karma!

pryelluw•4h ago
Beautiful work.
esseph•4h ago
This is really well done. Excellent work!
sibeliuss•4h ago
Cannot believe how well done this is! great work
dang•4h ago
(I'm one of the mods here) - I've re-upped your original Show HN and merged the comments hither.

I've also marked your account legit so it won't get misassessed by those nasty spam filters in the future!

mitchivin•4h ago
thanks for that! I was a fresh account when I originally posted it so I completely understand. cheers!
mkl•4h ago
For me, the start menu takes a couple of seconds to appear, and disappears again after a fraction of a second (Chrome 138 on Windows 10).
mitchivin•4h ago
interesting, if you can be bothered - could you let me know if disabling the screen effect via the system tray toggle makes any difference? thanks for letting me know
mkl•4h ago
That makes it work 30-50% of the time, after flickering closed briefly.

After reloading the page and leaving the CRT effect on, it worked once (the first time) then not.

Reloading the page and turning the CRT effect off immediately, it seems to work every time, but flickers.

mitchivin•4h ago
thanks for testing - thats really strange, i've never experienced anything like that myself or had anyone else mention it. ill try and recreate it with the info you gave me - thanks mate
keepamovin•2h ago
Really polished! And it really captures that windows XP aesthetic, but also the spirit of that aesthetic.

If Windows XP had had some kind of super professional “create a portfolio” app that would output an executable binary that you could download it would’ve been lauded as amazing and beautiful if it looked like what you created.

This is great. It shows your skills, but also brings back the beauty of Windows XP, in a contemporary but historically accurate format.

mitchivin•2h ago
haha wow, thank you so much :)
xp84•9m ago
In an alternate timeline where malware never existed and Apple had gone out of business in the 90s, all portfolios , presentations, and resumes would be packaged as .exe files as a de facto standard. It’s a great and flexible exchange format!
wewewedxfgdf•1h ago
>> let me get some of that sweet sweet karma!

You are going to be a wealthy man very soon now from all that karma.

mitchivin•22m ago
Im just looking to go from broke to stable dude haha, its been a long journey
VitoVan•4h ago
I need to right-click and refresh the desktop, please.
mitchivin•4h ago
If I glance over at my TODO's its pretty close to next on the list - stay tuned
oslem•4h ago
Mind Your Manners brought back some seriously nostalgic memories. Thank you!
mitchivin•4h ago
It'll defintely be in my MitchIvinXP Wrapped this year
chatmasta•3h ago
If you didn’t know, Chiddy has been releasing new music. It’s just him now, no Xaphoon, but still pretty decent.
mitchivin•2h ago
I actually didn't know that, but my favourite part of this comment is seeing Xaphoon mentioned. I love Xaphoon! I still listen to some of his old remixes on youtube some times haha
skwashd•4h ago
Very cool. There's an impressive number of little details. My favourite is that the Paint app actually works.
mitchivin•4h ago
Vyvanse is a hell of a drug
windows_hater_7•3h ago
Amen
mitchivin•2h ago
IYKYK
rvz•4h ago
Great portfolio site.

Now try windows93 [0]

enjoy.

[0] https://www.windows93.net

indigodaddy•4h ago
Holy shit!
JeliHacker•4h ago
Love this! The nostalgia hit hard, I immediately felt the urge to play Raft Wars on Miniclip
mitchivin•4h ago
I wonder if im doing some psychology trick on recruiters, they love windows xp = they love my site = they love me = they hire me? right.. right?!
utyop22•4h ago
It’s all about how you make someone feel ;)
sethops1•4h ago
I miss the Windows XP look & feel so, so much.
cr125rider•4h ago
This works incredibly well on mobile too. Awesome job
mitchivin•4h ago
thank you!
utyop22•4h ago
Did you make this all by yourself?
mitchivin•4h ago
yeah, its been my obsession for the past 6 months. Im a junior graphic designer so I decided I would try something out of the box to try and grab recruiters attention, since my actual projects wouldn't be enough
thefourthchime•3h ago
man when I hear young people saying they can't get a head start or no one will hire them, I say go make something show off what you can do and you really nailed it here!
petermcneeley•4h ago
The paint app is very accurate. Kinda shocking really.
mitchivin•4h ago
that is something I cannot take credit for - https://jspaint.app/#local:58ec4c22cf9878

I just had to make some small changes so it would blend in better with my site

shrinks99•4h ago
No way to save my creations though :(
mitchivin•4h ago
nah I removed that from my version, I can't remember why though so I might try and bring it back - if you look up jspaint or paintjs theres some really cool ones available
petermcneeley•2h ago
you ever see this https://puter.com/
mitchivin•1h ago
thats sick, I hadn't seen it
souldzin•3h ago
In my head, I heard videogamedunkey saying: “Ohhh... they've got the original paint on this one! I didn’t know this was a slick-type website!”
stevenfoster•4h ago
This made me immediately want to play Age of Empires and drink a Mountain Dew. Well done sir.
mitchivin•4h ago
do it!
adastra22•4h ago
No minesweeper?! I’m severely disappointed.
mitchivin•4h ago
it's on my list!
adastra22•4h ago
Awesome job btw. Impressed by hell well it works on mobile. (Can even type in the terminal!)
mitchivin•3h ago
thank you so much

only since a few days ago haha

poundtown•4h ago
pretty badass sir...cheers to you.
poundtown•4h ago
pretty badass sir! cheers!
mitchivin•4h ago
thanks boss!
tombert•4h ago
Pretty cool stuff.

Every time I see it, a part of me misses the styling of Windows XP. It was kind of the only well-regarded windows that tried to actually be fun; the fact that there was a little dog mascot in the search results, the fact that the bar on the bottom kind of looks like a Fisher Price toy, Clippy!

I kind of miss when professional programs were allowed to be goofy.

As a side note, I really like your avatar; has kind of a Simpsons/Bob's Burgers vibe that I find appealing.

mitchivin•3h ago
aside from the frustration it's been pretty cool building it, its almost like im back in 2006
msephton•4h ago
Phenomenal work. Excellent!
mitchivin•4h ago
thank you so much
zx8080•4h ago
To me, the CRT effect looks like an early LCD (TFT panel) one. CRT monitors picture did not look like made of dots from what I can remember (maybe not for all monitors). Except maybe the Trinitron ones.

Great site, thanks for nostalgia!

mitchivin•4h ago
you're probably right and I've actually had someone tell me that no monitor during the XP era would've been a CRT one haha so the whole things a bit off but I think people can let it slide
zx8080•3h ago
> no monitor during the XP era would've been a CRT one haha

Well, not really, and it depended highly on the place of work/study and country/state. For example, my University replaced the CRT ones with LCDs only in 2005-06 (they've used XP in computer rooms for quite a long time, skipping Vista and 8).

I myself used the CRT monitor with winXP until the late 2004.

mitchivin•3h ago
some of those redditors don't know what they're saying then, huh? thats such a good point - couldn't I run XP on a CRT monitor today if i wanted to
OmarAssadi•33m ago
Nothing stopping you from using one with totally modern systems as well, except for the ever increasing prices, I guess. Anyway, yeah, same as some of the others already mentioned, but I don't think I actually owned any sort of standalone display—be it a monitor or television—that wasn't CRT until ~2009 or so?

I used my mom's iMac G3 (CRT) probably until 2004 or so, because I distinctly remember getting stuck on Tutorial Island on RuneScape as a kid, since you had to Right-click -> "Prospect Rock", and at the time, I had no idea how to actually do it with Apple's single-button mice lmao.

Aside from the couple of laptops that came later, I don't think I had moved on [for the worse] until a bit after I put together my first DIY computer (Phenom II 920, etc); I still had a CRT TV in my room long enough to have been using it when Halo Reach came out.

raspasov•3h ago
I grew up in Bulgaria and when Windows XP was released almost everyone had a CRT monitor.

As a former Windows XP user: this is amazingly detailed and well done! The CRT effect is spot on for me.

mitchivin•3h ago
i'll remember that next time someone says anything! thanks dude!
neumann•3h ago
oh, I was definitely rocking a 17" CRT in 2001! Pickup up 2 other guys with CRTs and lugging it to a friends for a LAN party we couldn't fit them in the boot of the Ford Meteor and had to cram them in with the passengers in the back seat.
mrandish•3h ago
> I've actually had someone tell me that no monitor during the XP era would've been a CRT

That person is incorrect. WinXP started selling at retail in Oct 2001. I started using it at work in early 2002 and as a senior employee in a tech company I had a pretty deluxe 21-inch Viewsonic CRT which ran at 2048 x 1536 resolution. That Viewsonic cost $1600 new in 2000 and looked great. The company didn't upgrade to flat screens until about 2006 when the Viewsonic was replaced with a 20-inch Dell 2005fpw with native 1680 x 1050 resolution for $800. That's the year Windows Vista came out.

Even in 2006 corporate priced LCDs at the 20-inch size didn't look quite as good as the high-quality CRT I switched from. In some ways (like sharpness) a good LCD could look better but in other ways (like contrast) it wasn't as good yet - so it was still a mixed bag. About 2004 the company started buying newly hired entry-level employees 15 or 17-inch LCDs but they were typically 1024 x 768 and the quality wasn't great. A designer like you would definitely have stuck with a CRT longer both for quality and screen size at a reasonable price.

mitchivin•2h ago
noted and I appreciate the detail!
QuantumNomad_•2h ago
Got my first own computer in 2002. It ran Windows XP and had a CRT, as did the home computers my friends had too at the time :)
mitchivin•2h ago
whoever tell me it's wrong next is going to be hit with multiple real life testimonies, they'll never expect it
nwellinghoff•1h ago
Confirm. I used xp on a silicon graphics 21” crt for a longgggg time. Was freaking heavy as hell to lug around, but it was a great monitor even well into the lcd era.
xp84•6m ago
Yeah XP did use a flatscreen for some of its iconography, but that was to look cute. Nearly everyone but rich people were using CRTs for the first half of XP’s heyday.
lurquer•4h ago
Very cool
StrangeDoctor•3h ago
This looks and feels really good, nice work.

Makes me wonder what windows mobile could have been

mitchivin•3h ago
cease and desist followed by the announcement of windows on mobile any day now
jolmg•3h ago
Extreme nitpick, but the progress bar animation on bootup was stepped, IIRC.
mitchivin•3h ago
the site is built on extreme nitpicking my friend, its welcomed and encouraged. I'll look into it!
scripper1•3h ago
That CRT effect is dope. It's amazing it's even possible.
mitchivin•3h ago
fun fact: this whole journey started because of that effect. I had that and was trying to think how I could use it haha
carlsborg•3h ago
Arguably the most familiar desktop user interface on the planet. I often wonder why complex web apps do not use this searchable start menu format.
mitchivin•3h ago
i've got no statistics to back it but I'd bet my life savings on it being exactly that (its $0, but still)
clbrmbr•3h ago
Wow. You are going places, Mitch. Epic design skills. Listening to Unwritten and loading up that email form… can’t wait to see what you build.
mitchivin•3h ago
thank you so much for the kind words, appreciate it more than you probably realize :)
busymom0•3h ago
Would be cool if the contact you page let me send you an email from your site itself instead of trying to launch my default mail app. I typed out an email and filled in my email but it tried to launch mail app when I tried to send it.
mitchivin•3h ago
yeah I would also love to get that working - at one point that was the plan but things changed. It's something i'll look into updated, thanks for the suggestion.

btw, if you let your mail app open - whatever you typed into my contact me app will be pre-filled in a new message ready to send

QuantumNomad_•2h ago
Might not apply to most people, but on some of my machines I have left the mail app unconfigured and so the few times something uses a mail link launching the app will just land me on the setup screen. It’s rare enough that anyone uses those sort of mailto: links that I haven’t bothered doing anything about it. And it might be that most other people have their email program set up already so only me and a handful of others run into any sort of issue with that :p
mitchivin•1h ago
funny you say that, you are the first to mention it but I personally use Gmail installed as an app from my browser, so I encounter this exact issue hahah. Even worse, there was a time where I uninstalled outlook completely. It was also pretty messy in that instance

I kind of assumed that if someone found themselves in that position they would contact me another way and it shouldn't be a dealbreaker haha

zx8080•3h ago
Consider using the display/monitor icon in tray to manage CRT effect on/off instead of the Windows Defender icon.
mitchivin•3h ago
fair call! the CRT toggle was fairly recent in comparison to the full screen toggle so it was a case of seniority haha but I'm at the point now were I can spend time on things like that and the icons will be getting a refresh at some stage so i'll remember this.

thanks

oceanhaiyang•3h ago
> I started from zero knowledge and spent months collaborating with AI agents as a learning experience. Every pixel and every function went through me. The AI translated what I asked for into code, but every decision was human.

This is so absurdly cringe and absolutely not coding. It’s like saying I spent absolutely trying to get ChatGPT to write my college essay for me. At the end of the writing period, I wrote nothing but decided which ai goop I liked best.

daemonologist•3h ago
If OP were a front end engineer or something I might agree, but this is a graphic design portfolio. I think it's completely reasonable to rely on outside assistance for the scripting and interactive stuff.
ChrisArchitect•1h ago
+1

Who's hiring a graphic designer based on a Windows XP aesthetic that they didn't even produce? Of course novelty. But then what. Not really promoting the graphic design side. Not really promoting the development site. Bizarre noob accounts here loving it.

He cooked. (But not really) And we're all cooked.

initramfs•3h ago
Give this man a job! (If he doesn't have one already)
mitchivin•3h ago
I might have to re-elevate the goals after this haha, I thought it was cool personally but truly didn't expect this kind of reaction
sangeeth96•3h ago
Quite honestly, super cool! Telling that you probably managed to wield AI tools quite well if you managed to get this far with it.

Only pet peeve I have is with the obvious AI generated art (including the wallpaper?) — still can't get onboard with them.

mitchivin•3h ago
It was definitely a long fought battle haha

Yeah for sure, I completely get it - I can genuinely understand the large majority of reasons people have for holding that opinion and I don't even necessarily disagree with many of them. I will admit, I do find it wildly entertaining and having the ability to turn an idea into something tangible almost instantly allows me to produce more high quality work.

Aside from personal opinions, I just think that it's pretty clear where the world's going and since money doesn't care about feelings - companies are going to use it. so I feel like it probably helps, or at least will start to help more and more as time goes on having it clear that I can and do use these AI tools they keep hearing about.

muststopmyths•3h ago
very cool !

On my dell XPS13 (Windows) the high DPI scaling makes the page display "please rotate your device back to portrait mode" . If I zoom out a few steps (ctrl-minus in the browser), it loads fine.

mitchivin•3h ago
thanks for letting me know! i've had someone else mention that it didnt work on folding devices, but considering i've never even held one this makes more sense to me so ill look into it
felarof•3h ago
Wow, this is cool!

You should open source this and let other people contribute and build apps that work inside this sim. I would love to build a version of our browser into this. (https://github.com/browseros-ai/BrowserOS)

DustinBrett•3h ago
Good stuff! Desktop environments are so much fun to make.
phendrenad2•3h ago
I can tell this was a ton of work, and a ton of fun. Congrats!
mitchivin•3h ago
thank you!
billdybas•3h ago
Really cool! Added to my collection of personal websites @ https://personal.network/
haloblue•3h ago
Absolutely brilliant.
_-_-__-_-_-•3h ago
This is wonderful. You should be proud. It's a fun recreation and it was fun to use. Back when I was using XP (2004-2010), I had a 19" black CRT monitor. Once I got a laptop, it became a second monitor. I got whatever the family didn't want and the few things I scrounged from used computer stores. In 2010, I jumped to Windows 7. The theming of Windows XP always reminds me of seeing it for the first time, how colourful and inviting it looked.
mitchivin•3h ago
if they remember the site, they'll remember me :) kinda?
ChuckMcM•3h ago
Interesting that you vibe coded the whole thing.
nurettin•3h ago
He said it took months, so perhaps we need to coin a new term for it. Maybe AI crawling?
mitchivin•3h ago
its been a nightmare trying to word it... haha. I really do feel like it's something that nobody else is really doing, at least that I have seen. but if I really think about, why would anyone do this? hahaha
ChuckMcM•2h ago
"vibe designed"?

I suspect that this sort of design wouldn't come up a lot, but do you think about the difference between this experience and the experience of designing something where you used a workflow that you were familiar with? Or put another way, if you did this again, would it go faster or would it take the same amount of time?

mitchivin•2h ago
It would definitely go faster based on a few things. One being that these models are continually improving - an ungodly amount of time was spent trying to connect the dots between what I was seeing and what the agent was seeing/understanding.

But aside from that, I would still say yes. I've learned a lot (it's just hard to put into words when I'm missing some of the technical language) and I've gained so much confidence in even dealing with code.

I've actually started doing some work for someone after they saw my site on Reddit, which I could never have done before. It involves Docker, a bit of Python, and working on a codebase with multiple contributors. It's both exciting and terrifying at the same time.

pxc•1h ago
I don't think it counts as vibe coding, since the author read every line of code and presumably also asked questions about them and looked things up about the meanings of unfamiliar keywords and functions and so on.

It might be spiritually close to vibe coding in some ways because the author wasn't previously a programmer, so this code was never reviewed by a professional or trained developer.

But it was a high-effort project that involved inspecting and trying to understand the code, which isn't what vibe coding is about.

Whatever we want to call it, I think it's awesome! This is a good use of LLMs to help laypeople break into writing code imo, and the result is great.

mitchivin•15m ago
yeah, I've had a tough time finding the right wording so I've even called it vibe coding since its definitely not at the other end of the spectrum. I think its somewhere in the middle, like a developer version of Ratatouille
djshah•3h ago
This is amazing! Really enjoyed the trip down memory lane.

It would be wonderful if you could also share or write a post about your vibe coding journey to put this together!

mitchivin•3h ago
just like the site itself, I'm slowly trying to piece something together in a coherent way when the process itself was the complete opposite. When I do figure it out I'll do a post/series of posts on LinkedIn most likely. there's a few posts already on there about it, but nothing super in-depth

im open to all connections btw :) i'm just getting started!

RobertEva•2h ago
Delightful.The XP vibe is spot on, the startup sound and taskbar feel right.
mitchivin•2h ago
it's all about the feels
celeritascelery•2h ago
I love the little things, like the paint program and music player. This was so fun.
meq1986•2h ago
There’s even a command line where you can run commands, that’s really nice!
garganzol•2h ago
In general, it is even smoother than the real Windows XP. Kind of a magnetizing experience, and I do not know why. There is something attractive in this idea in terms of UI/UX, aside from the obvious nostalgia.

Another interesting aspect of this particular implementation is that it blends naturally with a browser tab hierarchy, it does not try to overrule it, it just blends in. Probably thanks to a distinctive taskbar, or maybe it is due to the startup screen/login/sound that set up a distinctive boundary "you are here now, and this is a friendly place to be".

mitchivin•2h ago
obviously the nostalgia is a huge factor but you might be onto something with the login sound haha. did you try logging out? :)
giveita•2h ago
Windows (or anything) is nice when its fast. Most things should work in under 20ms so I don't notice a delay.
scosman•2h ago
Great work
Dwedit•2h ago
No right-click menus anywhere. How am I supposed to Lock The Taskbar? (As seen in https://madeupandprobablydoesnotexist.com/taskbar/)
mitchivin•1h ago
i've been putting together a list of things for the right click menu, thanks for that one.
l8again•1h ago
Looking at your resume, I am curious how you are intimately familiar with XP. Seems like it should be before your time.
mitchivin•1h ago
It should be based on my resume, you're right haha - a peak behind the curtain reveals a decade of struggles finding my place in the world before saying fuck it and following my gut. I'm 30, whoooops - if you do the math on my graduation you should be able to get there, not hiding it - but didn't want to shout it from the rooftops either haha
ldbooth•1h ago
I'd love to see that command line working for some Easter eggs.
mitchivin•1h ago
hit me with some idea's. in terms of novelty ideas ive thought maybe unlocking extra songs in the music player, or opening a different version of my projects that looks like it should (internet explorer) showing my wow logs or something lame hahah just some for the ones who would respect it
unop•43m ago
Maybe cmd.exe launch into "your terminal" - styled with starship or whatever, your shell aliases but taking the user into your (code?) projects' directories that they can have a nosey around with (mirroring github repos?)
StarterPro•1h ago
"AI agents " I KNEW something was up with it. Wrap it up.
mitchivin•1h ago
its nice and warm in here, come on.. join us
wild_pointer•1h ago
Wasted opportunity: shut down -> orange "now it's safe to turn off your computer"
jonathanlb•40m ago
Wasn't that just Windows 95 and 98? I think I remember XP having the Windows logo and the "It is now safe to turn off your computer" text in white.
xp84•3m ago
Evidence you’re right: this video at 1:10

https://youtu.be/1N8MSI0mB04

m4houk•1h ago
I love this. As a former XP user, here are some pedantic inaccuracies you've got:

- The taskbar tabs are slightly off from how they looked in the real XP (must be the borders? It's the same issue with the windows as well).

- The close/maximize/minimize buttons never had hover transitions

- By default, desktop icons didn't have any hover effects in the real XP

- I'm surprised you didn't recreate the XP mouse cursor!

- IE6:

    - The address bar didn't show progress
    - The buttons in the toolbar at the top never had any transition effect on hover
mitchivin•1h ago
taskbar tabs - correct and I spent a crazy amount of time trying to figure out why they look off, admittedly I accepted defeat at where we landed but I think its pretty damn close!

the rest, are all aesthetic decisions haha but I was aware of some of them - I'm surprised you missed the biggest one of them all though.. also that nobody else has mentioned it yet - maybe its because nobody has tried it

the drag selection over desktop icons highlights the icons in a way much closer to windows 11 than XP... i really just thought it deserved an upgrade

edit: did i miss it or did you just add the thing about selection? you're right though

keepamovin•54m ago
I think of this as a homage or appropriation, a gentle upgrade of classic Windows XP aesthetic into a form that merges a few contemporary affordances and new polish. It's a classic way of keeping art and styles fresh and how aesthetics evolve while retaining a clear lineage that respects their roots.
mitchivin•20m ago
this ^ while also completely disregarding portfolio conventions. some have even said "If i was a recruiter I would instantly click off because it takes too long to load" hahah
nothrowaways•1h ago
I love the 'recently used' in the start menu.
mitchivin•1h ago
thanks!
tayo42•40m ago
I've gotten so used to instant loading operating systems, I've forgotten about those loading screens.
zeroCalories•37m ago
Very cool. I'm on mobile and on your projects page I couldn't scroll down to read the details of some projects. Otherwise worked well but I would double check.
cylemons•35m ago
Works very smoothly on my phone
mitchivin•19m ago
love to hear it :)
calf•34m ago
I don't understand the claim, is it recreating the actual operating system and kernel, and it can run and install programs like an emulator? Or is it just superficially the UI?
mitchivin•15m ago
purely UI - HTML, CSS, JS
nategreb•32m ago
this is sick
ghoshbishakh•31m ago
I salute your tenacity.
mitchivin•21m ago
it can't be understated, truly - people would think im insane
srini_reddy•15m ago
Windows XP is an emotion for me. You have rekindled the memories of 2005 .
adithyassekhar•14m ago
This is awesome, I found a tiny bug. On mobile, if I open CMD and the keyboard opens, the browser thinks I'm in landscape and blocks the UI till I close the keyboard.
MintPaw•10m ago
Windows didn't fade in and out in Windows XP.