Can we also get a Windows Vista version? That was the BEST Windows ever! I liked it so much!
There is a Windows 7 version mentioned above.
98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
81–90 of 185 posts
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
There was no dark mode fad in 1998. Different color schemes for visually impaired people existed, but they were most often not very aesthetic.
You are correct. There was no OOTB dark mode in 1998. I remember it well because I wasted some time every now and then trying to make one using the appearance control panel. It was frustrating because I could come very close to a universal dark mode. But I remember certain types of text couldn't have their color independently set. One of them (body text? can't remember) used the same color as title bars. Which would…
Microsoft did actually make a "dark" XP theme. It was available "officially" available but they didn't really market it and it had limited adoption. I stumbled upon it and thought I was v cool for using it.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honest question, because I don’t remember: does Windows 98? I know you could edit the theme around to set the UI scheme colours to a darker one, but as a kid I could never make it look nice
You could come close to a proper dark mode, but would fall short. That's with using the color scheme editor in the control panels. I wasted too much time back in '98 trying to make a proper dark mode. Not that we called it that back then. The downfall was a type of text (body text?) which used the same color as the titlebar. It couldn't be independently set. Was a bit frustrating back then. There were the high contra…
Yeah that’s exactly what I remembered: you could make some of the UI dark for sure, but it wasn’t a real dark mode like we expect today; there was still a fair bit of light colouring because it didn’t have enough flexibility?
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#84Hey HN - author here. This was my burnout recovery project in April of 2020. Very much a labor of love and a surprising way to realize I still liked programming. I wrote some scattered thoughts here [0] I also "run" this project quite differently than I usually do - when I receive a pull request instead of merging it I do a quick glance through the user's github to make sure they're not a spammer before giving them _…
This is awesome that it was so therapeutic to you! I have several such personal projects that I occasionally work on for similar reasons, moreover to experience the joy of pure programming as opposed to the daily BS I deal with.
One critique (more of a suggested improvement) - the dropdown boxes don’t look/behave as they did in Win 98. They actually render as native select tags on my browser when focused and it kind of breaks the immersion. I’m pretty sure implementing this to simulate the 98 version would be a bit difficult and would involve some JavaScript (which I know you want to avoid), but it may be a neat challenge to tinker with.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Windows 98 used a gradient for its title bar [1]: https://microsoft.fandom.com/wiki/Windows_98?file=W98-2.png
I must have misremembered, then; my apologies. Perhaps it was a Win98 vs Win98 SE difference?
Maybe it also required GPU drivers to be installed? I clearly remember the gradient bars.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#86Hey HN - author here. This was my burnout recovery project in April of 2020. Very much a labor of love and a surprising way to realize I still liked programming. I wrote some scattered thoughts here [0] I also "run" this project quite differently than I usually do - when I receive a pull request instead of merging it I do a quick glance through the user's github to make sure they're not a spammer before giving them _…
Seeing the "hello world from VB4" brought back many fond memories. Definitely integrating this into some projects!
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#87When I click one of the "Click me", "Submit", "Preset" buttons in Components/Button section, entire page jumps with 1 pixel. Looks bad.
Checkbox labels text is selectable. Should not happen in UI. Same about title bars. Title bars also do not set cursor: pointer. Also happens in some other components.
Dropdown contents have wrong colors. I think they use default browser styling or something like that.
Those are minor nitpicks, of course. This style is very nostalgic, thanks for making it. I thought about using this kind of UI for some web app, I think I'll reimplement it myself (because that's the fun), but I'll keep this style in mind.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
You are correct. There was no OOTB dark mode in 1998. I remember it well because I wasted some time every now and then trying to make one using the appearance control panel. It was frustrating because I could come very close to a universal dark mode. But I remember certain types of text couldn't have their color independently set. One of them (body text? can't remember) used the same color as title bars. Which would…
Microsoft did actually make a "dark" XP theme. It was available "officially" available but they didn't really market it and it had limited adoption. I stumbled upon it and thought I was v cool for using it. https://archive.org/details/WindowsXPRoyaleNoirTheme
I didn't know about that one. Looks nicer than the one I ended up using.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#89Earlier quoted context omitted.
You could come close to a proper dark mode, but would fall short. That's with using the color scheme editor in the control panels. I wasted too much time back in '98 trying to make a proper dark mode. Not that we called it that back then. The downfall was a type of text (body text?) which used the same color as the titlebar. It couldn't be independently set. Was a bit frustrating back then. There were the high contra…
Yeah that’s exactly what I remembered: you could make some of the UI dark for sure, but it wasn’t a real dark mode like we expect today; there was still a fair bit of light colouring because it didn’t have enough flexibility?
Definitely was stuck with either light coloring somewhere, or difficult to read text. I remember experimenting with different shades of gray for either the background or the text, but couldn't find one which would work on both dark and light backgrounds. And you'd always have a light background popping up somewhere.
In retrospect, it's a little funny. Apparently the coders & designers at Microsoft in the 90's never anticipated someone wanting a mostly dark desktop. They'd come up with crazy color schemes like Hot Dog, but never any gray & black schemes.
Re: 98.css – design system for building faithful recreations of Windows 98 UIs
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
Windows 98 used a gradient for its title bar [1]: https://microsoft.fandom.com/wiki/Windows_98?file=W98-2.png
I must have misremembered, then; my apologies. Perhaps it was a Win98 vs Win98 SE difference?
Given the deep integration of Internet Explorer I wonder if an IE update did it?