Windows 98 Web Edition

A pixel-perfect recreation attempt of Windows 98 desktop GUI using just HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Many of the default programs and features of Windows 98 are also included, either recreated from scratch or embedding existing open source ports.

Live Demo

Experience Windows 98 Web Edition live: Windows 98 Web Edition

Screenshots

Default Desktop

Desktop with Clippy and Notepad

Desktop with Winamp and App Maker

Desktop Context Menu with Theme Options

Features

• Windows Classic Desktop Experience: Pixel-perfect remake attempt of Windows 98 desktop shell components and animations.

• Desktop Themes: Featuring all of the original Windows 98 desktop themes, complete with color schemes, wallpapers, icon sets, and sound sets (screensavers are WIP).

• Theme Customization: Upload your own .theme files and wallpapers to apply to the desktop. Change the colors, set wallpaper to stretch, tile, or center. All are saved privately to your cache. (WIP).

• Programs and Games: Ports of popular software used in Windows 98 are included here. Most of them are existing ports and remakes made by other people, but some of them are made by myself. See Featured Applications for more info.

• Progressive Web App: Install it on your machine as a desktop application.

• Free: Use it, download the source, fork it, add your own themes and apps and games, make it your own. I don't really care. Credit and attribution are nice though.

Featured Applications

• Assistant: Clippy the Office Assistant has been resurrected, now powered with AI. Ask any question about Windows 98. Can even give you a short tour of the OS. For more details, see the Clippy App README.
• Notepad: Your basic text editor, now with added syntax highlighting, code formatting, and Markdown preview. For more details, see the Notepad App README.
• Winamp: Play your favorite songs and playlists here. Customize with your own skins. A faithful recreation of the classic Winamp music player that runs directly on the desktop. For more details, see the Webamp App README.
• Internet Explorer: Surf the Internet like it was 1998. With Retro Mode enabled, you will be brought to 1998 archived version of your favorite websites.
• Pinball: A web port of Space Cadet Pinball.

For a full list of applications and instructions on how to create your own, refer to the Application Development Guide.

Technologies Used

• Frontend Framework: Vanilla JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
• Development Server: Vite for a fast and modern development experience.
• UI Libraries:
  • 98.css: A CSS library for recreating the Windows 98 GUI.
  • os-gui: A library for building retro desktop GUI components.     Note that both libraries have been heavily modified to combine their features and fit the needs of this project.
• AI Assistant:
  • Clippy.js: The frontend library for the Clippy agent. This also has been heavily modified with TTS and Ask functionality.
  • Resume Chat API: A custom API for processing natural language questions. This has its own repository at resume-chat-api. I made this specifically to manage LLM feature for the assistant.
• External Libraries:
  • Webamp: The web-based Winamp player.
  • highlight.js: For syntax highlighting in Notepad.
  • Prettier: For code formatting.
  • Marked.js: For Markdown to HTML conversion.
  • and many more.

Getting Started

To run this project locally, follow these steps:

1.  Install Dependencies: bash npm install

2.  Run the Development Server: bash npm run dev The application will be available at http://localhost:5173 (or another port if 5173 is in use).

Future plans

• Command prompt (MS-DOS).
• BIOS setup.
• Calculator app.
• Disk Defragmenter simulator.
• More Windows 98 screensaver recreations.
• More web ports and DOS games.
• Let me know if you have ideas!

Asset Sources

Windows 98 Web Edition uses a mixture of:

• original assets created specifically for this project,
• third-party open-source recreations
• visual elements derived from classic Windows operating systems for the purpose of historical interface recreation and compatibility.

Some graphical elements may have been redrawn, color-corrected, resized, or otherwise transformed from their original form to ensure they render correctly in modern browsers.

These assets are provided strictly for:

• educational
• archival
• non-commercial
• fair-use–oriented

purposes.

• Sound Effect by freesound_community from Pixabay

All rights to the original Windows artwork, icons, cursors, and media belong to Microsoft Corporation.