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Comments (40)

• pathartl
  I had a not-really-similar idea of hooking Windows GUI APIs and exposing them over websockets to create a psuedo-RDP and rendering the UI in the browser. My purpose was to provide a remote interface for old dedicated game servers that can only be controlled via a GUI.
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  chromehearts
  This is so cool & I'm really amazed by it but I couldn't help laugh at the readme> We strongly recommend contributing with Claude Code or similar AI coding tools. [...] Of course, coding by hand is also welcome.Funny time we live in lol
• lqs_
  Hidden feature: right-click any executable and select "View Resources" to browse its embedded resources like icons, bitmaps, dialogs, and version info. It even supports viewing Delphi forms (though Delphi programs can't actually run yet). Think of it as a browser-based Resource Hacker or eXeScope.
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  butokai
  Just a couple of hours ago I was thinking about this project from some time ago doing the same thing: https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32I wondered how much of this could be done with an LLM agent, and here we have the answer
• realityfactchex
  Cool concept. I tried six different old Windows executables from programs I wrote way back when.FWIW:* My old VB 6 .exe apps all fail with "Reason: Unimplemented API: MSVBVM60.DLL..."* My old QuickBASIC .exe apps fail in various other ways ("Illegal function call", etc.).Keep on hacking.
• maniazi83
  This is seriously impressive. Emulating x86 + stubbing enough Win32 APIs in the browser is not trivial.How are you handling system calls that expect filesystem or registry access? Are those fully stubbed/mocked, or mapped to some in-browser virtual layer?Also curious how you’re handling performance for heavier binaries — interpreted JS/WASM core?
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  jeroenhd
  Seems to run a lot faster than the previous proof-of-concept I've found (https://www.boxedwine.org/app). Then again, that website runs an entire Linux VM to support Wine.
• hard_times
  I wonder if this is the future of "I need to run my legacy Windows enterprise app on modern hardware"?I suppose we're also not limited to WinNT look and feel, and can render dialogs, buttons, windows with any CSS framework?Although, as the cost of building software is tumbling down, it will make more sense to re-build from scratch, targeting whatever runtime or platform you need.
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  LinusU
  This is super cool!Checkout retrowin32 for something similar but written in Rust and not specifically targeting the web: https://github.com/evmar/retrowin32
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  Tepix
  Tried it with REVERSI.EXE from Windows 3.0 from https://winworldpc.com/download/c2bbc28f-177a-c2b2-5311-c3a4... DISK02.IMG(you have to first uncompress it, for example with 7zip). $ sha256sum REVERSI.EXE a9e319c8f479d1568beec03858fdbb27c71747b2bbed6cd7c9f5e2daa23b40e9 REVERSI.EXE Result:The game starts, it begins rendering the board, but then hangs.
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  TechSquidTV
  Please let me plan Sim Theme Park. I can't seem to run it on Crossover on my mac.
• itintheory
  Seems like the .scr files trigger CrowdStrike Falcon. Not clear where the executables run here come from...
• stuaxo
  Not sure shift is working. I tried using QBASIC but couldn't type : only ; because of that.Then I tried running the program SHELL and it crashed.
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  ale42
  Funny project...Tried to run SHELL from QBASIC, but it crashes: D:\qbasic.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. Reason: illegal instruction Address: 0x00002fee
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  haonnoah
  Pretty cool. The pipes program doesn't seem to have color. Thoughts on making programs launch from a URL parameter? IE Launching a screensaver or game?
• em3rgent0rdr
  Impressive. Noting however that double-clicking is not working in Minesweeper. :)
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  b3lvedere
  Aww. The FreeCell cheats don't work, except for -1 and -2 :)
• tty456
  Winamp 2.x would be great to add if allowed!
• KellyCriterion
  they even have SSMAZE.SCR, that 2.5D rendering screensaver! :D
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  Dwedit
  Not enough Shell32 to run Winfile or Notepad.Also the command prompt won't list directories for some reason.
• alfiedotwtf
  Whoa, this is pretty sick!!
• wertyu123
  Nice
• octoclaw
  [dead]