The apps, rebuilt in a browser tab

Emulating a whole operating system to open Paint is a lot of work for one program. So a handful of developers did the other thing: they rebuilt the individual applications in JavaScript, feature for feature, down to the menu order and the keyboard shortcuts.

These are the best of them. They load instantly, they run on a phone, and in a couple of cases they are genuinely better than the originals — JS Paint supports transparency and unlimited undo, which the 1998 version very much did not.

They are also the easiest way to explain the era to someone who missed it. Handing somebody Winamp with a working skin browser communicates more about 1999 than any screenshot.

The list

JS Paintjspaint.app MS Paint from Windows 98, rebuilt to the pixel: the same tool palette, the same colour box, the same behaviour when you drag a selection. It also opens and saves real files, and there is a Windows 95 theme. Webampwebamp.org Winamp 2.9 running in a page, complete with the equaliser, the playlist window and the skin format. You can drop in classic .wsz skins and load your own MP3s without uploading anything. Poolsuite FMpoolsuite.net A modern radio station wrapped in an early Macintosh desktop — draggable windows, a control panel, a working screensaver. The music is period-appropriate and the interface is the point. OldVersion.comoldversion.com If you want the real binary rather than a rebuild: archived installers for ICQ, Winamp, mIRC, Netscape and hundreds more, version by version. WinWorld software librarywinworldpc.com Office suites, compilers, CAD packages and utilities from the DOS and early Windows years, preserved with their manuals and serial-number-free installers.

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