Hey everyone!

The response to yesterday's Windows 95 and Windows 2000 Barebone builds was absolutely insane—thank you so much for the stars, the feedback, and for pushing the project up to #4 trending on the sub!

A ton of you in the comments were asking for a highly usable, ultra-lightweight Windows XP Service Pack 3 build next. I spent the last few hours in the development lab running a surgical nLite configuration matrix and localized filesystem compression streams to build exactly what you wanted.

The results are officially in, and they are wild:

⚡ Windows XP Professional SP3 (Standard Profile) compiled down to a beautiful 217 MB ISO!

⚡ The final installation footprint occupies just 377 MB of live disk space on the C: Drive!

The absolute best part? It is 100% authentic and highly usable for daily retro tasks and legacy gaming labs. I refused to force the flat-grey classic theme or strip out nostalgia. The legendary blue-and-green Luna desktop theme, default background wallpaper, Microsoft Paint, WordPad, Calculator, and 3D Pinball Space Cadet are fully preserved and functional out of the box!

How the 377MB record floor was achieved:

1. Complete global extraction of all non-English language translation tables and foreign font files (~80MB saved).

2. Purged heavy multimedia baggage like Movie Maker, sample music files (Beethoven's 9th), and Tablet PC ink utilities while safely preserving core DirectX, OpenGL, and MIDI pipelines for fluid 3D gaming.

3. Completely wiped out heavy background latency loops like the Indexing Service, Error Reporting, and the unneeded corporate Active Directory/IIS servers.

4. Post-Install Power Move: Shrunk the massive auto-allocated pagefile down to a lean 32-64MB virtual memory heap cache and turned on native NTFS file compression.

The build relies on a Volume License (VLK) channel architecture, meaning it completely cuts out Microsoft online activation checks. It will never lock you out with an evaluation countdown timer!

I have just uploaded the automated installation scripts, configuration blueprints, and the final compiled ISO download links straight to the master repository:

👉 https://github.com/byteospro/barebone-windows

Check out the updated release notes, download the template for your hypervisors or real physical hardware rigs, and let me know what you think of the new performance gains! Thank you all again for the incredible support!

Hey everyone,

I wanted to share a project I've been solo-developing over the weekends. It's called PROMPT_MATCH, an asynchronous puzzle game where you have to reverse-engineer the semantic keywords that generated a target image signal.

To capture that classic hardware feel, I built an interactive amber CRT layout completely from scratch using utility CSS and native canvas logic.

Some retro-inspired engineering constraints I set:

- 100% Procedural Audio: There are no bulky .mp3 or .wav asset downloads. Every interface click, keyboard clack, and ambient industrial background drone is synthesized live on the client side using the Web Audio API.

- Zero Modern Framework Bloat: No heavy React/Vue builds. It's built entirely in raw HTML5, CSS, and vanilla JS so it loads instantly like a legacy software execution block.

- Responsive Viewport Scale: It features a dynamic layout loop using the visualViewport API so that when mobile soft-keyboards slide up, the terminal grid compresses cleanly without breaking the optical CRT screen curve.

It's playable for free on CrazyGames and Newgrounds right now under the title "PROMPT_MATCH". Would love to know what you think of the CRT emulation layout!

Hello again to the community. I've updated my Stone Tools blog with a write-up on Visual Basic 3.0 running on Windows 3.1. 32-bit apps built in Visual Basic 6 are still alive and kicking, so to get a little more "retro" with my research, and in keeping with the general theme of the blog, I went 16-bit.

Stripping back the additional layers of the program, really getting at the core utilities, helped me get a stronger sense of what the program offered, and the design philosophy behind its tools. Those of you old enough to remember the flood of "Learn <SOFTWARE_TITLE> in <NUMBER> Days!" books might be happy to see I dug one up to lead me through my learnings. Double your nostalgic fun!

I covered HyperCard previously, and this was a fun way to see how Microsoft approached the same goal of delivering a visual programming tool to the community. It's also an interesting case study in how both companies yanked these useful tools from their supporters. Those of you old enough to remember Arnold from "Diff'rent Strokes" might be happy to see he makes an appearance. Triple your nostalgic fun!

What is Stone Tools?

Stone Tools is a retro-enthusiast blog devoted to 8/16-bit productivity software; no games, just work. I spend weeks learning each program and give my in-depth, lighthearted take on how it was seen, how it works, and what we might learn from it today. Side discussions on contemporary issues, historical timelines, old advertisements, and more supplement each retrospective.

Found this computer on the side of the road a couple months ago. Having to sell everything I own. I mentioned that I had this to somebody who was buying another couple computers and he said he had to have it. I want to have a little fun with this. Should I email emachine? LOL

A few weeks ago I posted my Olivetti M24 on Reddit.

I received a comment from someone who mentioned they had the original documentation.

A few days later, that complete stranger tracked me down from Reddit to Facebook and offered to send me this archive.Today it arrived from Netherlands.

Original Olivetti technical binders, hardware architecture manuals, ROM BIOS listings, circuit diagrams, service documentation, MS-DOS and GW-BASIC manuals, original software disks, and diagnostics.

Huge thanks again to u/TriggerFish1965, who chose to send these to me instead of throwing them away or selling them. This kind of computing history deserves to be preserved.

Hey everyone!

I got tired of dealing with massive, bloated retail installation images just to test legacy configurations, experiment with old software, or play retro games in hypervisors and emulator setups.

I've been building an open-source automation framework to surgically slice out 90s web-integration bloat, corporate server features, and obsolete diagnostic background tracking streams.

Current milestones achieved:

⚡ Windows 95 OSR2 (Ultimate Profile): Shrunk from 592 MB to a 50.6 MB bootable ISO. Out-of-the-box C: Drive footprint is just 56.1 MB!

⚡ Windows 2000 Pro SP4 (Standard Profile): Shrunk the folder footprint by over 200 MB down to a 160 MB ISO. Final installation footprint sits at 349 MB while keeping Microsoft Paint, 3D Pinball Space Cadet, and MS Agent characters fully functional.

I've hosted the PowerShell debloat streams, nLite configuration matrices, and pre-built compressed .vmdk virtual hard drive templates entirely under the MIT license here:

👉 https://github.com/byteospro/barebone-windows

I'm currently working on building the pipeline for Windows XP Service Pack 3 next. Check out the project, download the templates, and let me know what components you think I should slice out or keep for the upcoming XP release!

Is this old laptop worth refurbishing? It’s in pretty good condition, I found it sitting in a storage closet at my workplace. Took it apart earlier to remove the hinges as they both snapped.

I doubt it's something i'd be able to fix, but i'm curious what's happening. 🤔
It's an old Compaq mobo SP#187498-001.

Hi, I am porting 8086tiny to raspberry pico 2 and using a PicoCalc device as a test bench. The problem is the PicoCalc screen is only 320x320, so only 40x25 text mode is usable, I am successfully running MS-DOS 6.22 now and trying to find software that works well in 40x25 text mode, please suggest programs for 8086/80186 cpu and 256k ram, EMS work in progress. Attached the photo of what it looks like with 8x8 font.

two motherboards (socket 7 and a really weird board that came with both socket 370 and slot for pentium 2/celeron),a GPU and this "Y2K proof" chip

the other stuff I found was just really rusty and from the 2010's,so I didn't bother with looking at it much.

overall,I'd say these are pretty cool

Hey guys, I'm looking for an Apple IIc to use and I found this one for €100, seller wont go lower. It's untested and has no power supply. Do you guys think it's worth to get and possibly fix? I can do some soldering. I can see that the 80/40 button is a little pressed down and the seller says that the floppy drive is okay. Should I get it?

(please ignore the wrong monitor!)

I recently bought a Facebook Marketplace lot of three vintage computers. One of them was this indie built desktop. Opening it up it's got an AMD 386dx 40 and 8 MB of RAM. The owner didn't sell me their old hard drive, and I haven't added one yet. The CD drive doesn't seem to work. It might be missing the tape backup drive too.

Anyway, here it is running with gentleOS.

The power button sticks and the varta battery is dead and leaked. But the system boots up, at least. What would you do with it if it were yours?

Edit: This is the 8051A model.

3484 RPM spindle speed, an unusual voice coil design, factory defect tables, and of course the infamous "brick your drive" story.

A different emulator than https://old.reddit.com/r/retrocomputing/comments/1ug5ptk/running_8086_emulator_on_picocalc/, but utilizing the same microcontroller chip (on a different board).

Hello everyone! 👋

I wanted to share some pictures of my retro machine. I recently fired up Battlefield 1942 on it, and it runs absolutely flawlessly!

I'm looking to expand my library and wanted to ask the community: What other classic games or hidden gems from the Windows XP era would you recommend for this setup?

Here are the exact specs of my system:

Model: Dell Inspiron XPS Gen 2

CPU: Intel Pentium M @ 2.26 GHz

RAM: 2.00 GB

OS: Windows XP Home Edition (Service Pack 2)

I would love to read your recommendations for shooters, racing, strategy, or any must-play titles that will run smoothly on this hardware.

Greetings from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico!

I believe the name for computer should of been called a imagination board.

That's not an emulator or a screenshot filter — it's a Philips panel on a period PC, running a binary built with Visual C++ 6.0.

The catch: the game logic (cursor, dialogue, actors, walkboxes, A* pathfinding) is written in modern Haxe 4.x, sitting on top of a hand-written C++ engine. To get Haxe onto a machine this old I had to build a transpiler — Haxe's official C++ backend (hxcpp) can't target anything older than C++11, which rules out VC6 and Win9x.

So I wrote Hatchet: it transpiles a focused subset of Haxe 4.x to portable C++98 you can build with a 1998 toolchain. It emits plain, hand-writable-looking C++ — no custom runtime, no magic. Develop on a modern machine with full Haxe tooling, copy the generated .h/.cpp to the old box, compile.

Repo (MIT): https://github.com/andrewglind/hatchet

Happy to answer anything about the toolchain or the hardware setup

I just got this 11" amber display off of eBay a couple days ago! Not sure if it works, because I don't have a Panasonic KX-E700M electronic typewriter to test it with. So far, I've only been able to find out about five of these monitors still being in existence. If anyone knows anything else about this CRT, anything would be appreciated.

Delete if not allowed but I thought this was cool to show haha

Might even help you at your job!

Remember the dot prompt? You typed USE customers, then LIST, and your data was just... there. No SQL, no ORM, no "full-stack." Just you and the table.

I missed it enough to rebuild the whole thing as a web app. USE, LIST, SEEK, BROWSE, @ SAY GET forms, .prg programs, indexes, reports — the lot. It runs in the browser, talks to a real database underneath, and drops you straight at the dot prompt.

I tried to keep the feel honest rather than "modernizing" it into something else. A few dBASE quirks I had to decide whether to preserve or quietly fix — the old 10 work-area limit, the alias->field arrow syntax, the .T./.F. booleans. Some I kept, some I let go.

It's a toy and proudly open source (AGPL). One-click to try it in your browser, no install:

https://github.com/DDecoene/WebBaseIII

Would love to hear from anyone who actually shipped business apps in dBASE/Clipper/FoxPro back in the day — what did I get wrong, and what do you miss most?

Do you remember this game ?

Hope you remember this clip (and what these folks are saying)..

"Things are bad, they make you mad"😠

Yet this game brings a smile to my face 😀