Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser • Hacker News Board

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#11

Post by userbinator » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 9:30 PM UTC

ktm5j wrote: post #5

VerifiedReports wrote: post #3

"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.

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.

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...

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#12

Post by mr_tox » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 9:38 PM UTC

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

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#13

Post by avadodin » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 9:41 PM UTC

jalev wrote: post #2

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

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

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#14

Post by bitwize » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 9:51 PM UTC

xavortm wrote: post #6

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

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.

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#15

Post by absynth » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 9:59 PM UTC

Plenty of people would have used this purely for Cardfile.

em-dosbox is a good project.

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#16

Post by dintech » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 10:07 PM UTC

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

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#17

Post by rzzzt » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 10:42 PM UTC

smusamashah wrote: post #9

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.

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

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#18

Post by Aardwolf » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 11:02 PM UTC

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

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#19

Post by ChrisArchitect » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 11:20 PM UTC

Some previous discussion:

2024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42104531

Re: Emulated Windows 3.11 in the Browser

#20

Post by cyberax » Sun, Feb 22, 2026, 11:27 PM UTC

Ah. Every time I look at the UI, I realize just how much the modern UI/UX degraded.

We had clear colorful icons, text labels, scrollbars, clearly distinguishable checkboxes. And now we have UI that actively promotes "rebelliousness" and "being in the know".