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Documentation Index

Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://mintlify.com/apursley2012/old-windows/llms.txt

Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

Getting Old Windows running locally takes about two minutes. The project is a pure client-side React app bundled by Vite — there is no server, no database, and no build-time environment variables required. Once the dev server starts you will see the Win98 teal desktop with all nine icons ready to open.

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Prerequisites

  • Node.js 18+ — Vite 5 and React 18 both require Node 18 or later.
  • A package manager: npm (bundled with Node), yarn, or pnpm.
  • Git, to clone the repository.

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Installation

1

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/apursley2012/old-windows.git && cd old-windows
2

Install dependencies

npm install
3

Start the dev server

npm run dev
Vite starts a hot-reloading dev server at http://localhost:5173. Open that URL in any modern browser to see the desktop.
4

Build for production

npm run build
Vite compiles everything into a dist/ folder. The output is a self-contained static site — an index.html that loads pre-built JS and CSS assets. No Node server is needed to serve it.

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What you’ll see after install

When the browser loads, the Win98 desktop renders immediately:
  • Nine desktop icons appear in the top-left column, each labelled with its retro filename (index.html, about_me.html, my_projects/, and so on).
  • Single-click any icon to select it (the label gets a dotted navy highlight).
  • Double-click any icon to open that window. The window animates in from scale 0.9 and opacity 0 using Framer Motion.
  • The taskbar at the bottom shows a Start button, a button for every open window, and a live clock in the system tray.
  • A CRT scanline overlay and subtle flicker animation cover the entire viewport for full retro effect.
  • A visitor counter in the bottom-right corner displays 001337 in the retro green-on-black style.

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Deploying the static build

The dist/ folder produced by npm run build is a fully static site. You can host it anywhere that serves static files:
PlatformSteps
GitHub PagesPush dist/ to the gh-pages branch (or configure GitHub Actions to do so)
NetlifyDrag-and-drop dist/ in the Netlify dashboard, or connect the repo and set build command npm run build, publish directory dist
VercelImport the repo; Vercel auto-detects Vite and sets the correct output directory
Any CDN / S3Upload the contents of dist/ and configure the bucket for static website hosting
A .nojekyll file is already included in the project root. This tells GitHub Pages to serve the site as-is without running it through Jekyll, which is necessary because Vite’s output uses underscore-prefixed asset folders that Jekyll would otherwise ignore.

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Customizing your content

After the dev server is running, open config/apps.js to see the apps array. Each entry in that array defines one desktop icon and its corresponding window. Add a new object to register your own window, or replace the existing component references with your own React components. See App Config for the full field reference.

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