A Whole Operating System. In Your Browser Tab.
The taskbar loads. The desktop appears. You right-click and a context menu pops up — the real one, with the right options in the right places. Win 11 in React is yanthomasandrade’s open-source love letter to Windows 11, built entirely in React.js and running completely in your browser. Open a working Calculator. Write something in Notepad. Browse the File Explorer. Drag windows around the desktop, resize them, snap them to corners. It’s remarkably accurate — the kind of project that went viral on GitHub because developers couldn’t believe someone actually built it.
Every App Is Actually Working
The Settings panel opens. The Start menu animates exactly right. And then you find the Minesweeper — a fully playable game nested inside the simulation, which has become a community favorite easter egg. The technical achievement here is the layering: each "window" is a React component with its own state, the taskbar tracks which apps are open, and the whole desktop behaves with the responsiveness you’d expect from a real operating system. It’s the kind of thing you show someone and watch their face cycle through disbelief and delight.
For Developers, Nostalgists, and the Curious
This one isn’t a traditional game in the scoring-and-winning sense. It’s a playground — equal parts technical showcase and interactive novelty. Developers appreciate the architectural cleverness. Everyone else appreciates being able to open Notepad in a browser and feel, briefly, like they’ve broken some fundamental law of computing. Poke around. Find the hidden apps. See how far the simulation goes. The answer is further than you expect.
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