Developer uses Claude to vibe code a Windows 3.1 shell in an hour — reanimated 12MB retro launcher runs on both Windows 11 and Apple Silicon

ReProgman screenshot — (Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

If you are yearning for a quick-shot retro Windows experience on your modern Windows 11 or macOS system, then there’s a new vibe-coded clone of the Windows 3.1 Program Manager that may interest you. Developer Mayuki has released a neat little nostalgia project dubbed ReProgman – named after the ancient Windows 3.1 ‘progman.exe ’, which was the primary shell of the era – until Windows 95 swept it away three decades ago.

ReProgman macOS screenshot (Image credit: Developer Mayuki on GitHub)

ReProgman looks pretty authentic to my eyes, and it brought back memories of why I wasn’t sad to see it shrivel away from Windows machines. In a social media post about the release of ReProgman, Mayuki seems to agree with my sentiments. “I asked Claude to create a clone of the Windows 3.1 Program Manager,” wrote the developer (machine translation). “I think you'll enjoy reminiscing with it for about 30 seconds.”

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The end-user-ready releases of ReProgman weigh in at between 12 and 16MB, so they are quite a trivial download and don’t need installing. Thus, it isn’t very taxing to give them a try for a spot of nostalgia-tinted navigation around your present system’s programs and files. Mayuki says that building and running this application needs the .NET SDK 10.0+. The code has been released on GitHub under the MIT license.

In conclusion, Miyuki’s ReProgman provides an easy trip down personal computing's memory lane, specifically to the Windows 3.X era of the early to mid-1990s. However, some will prefer to get their retro computing kicks by running the actual MS-DOS/Windows 3.1 combo on real hardware. As we discovered recently, that doesn’t limit users to dusting off an old i486 or similar. Back in April, an enthusiast demoed Windows 3.1X on ultra-modern bare metal with a system using a Ryzen 9 9900X and RTX 5060 Ti.

Mark Tyson is a news editor at Tom's Hardware. He enjoys covering the full breadth of PC tech; from business and semiconductor design to products approaching the edge of reason.

12 Comments Comment from the forums

Zaranthos

I remember up to Windows XP I could change the registry to make Progman.exe the default UI from a Windows recovery environment boot CD. Handy trick if virus or malware had destroyed Windows ability to boot due usually to corruption and hijacking of Windows explorer. Then you still had a GUI from which to launch anti-virus tools or things like Malwarebytes and clean the computer enough to re-install Internet Explorer before re-enabling the original UI again. But XP also had the ability to run a repair install as well.

AI coding tools are enabling all kinds of neat new things to get done. They're only going to get faster, better, cheaper, and easier for people to use. We can dream or imagine and use AI to make it happen. Artistic expression may very well extend into new digital domains through the power of AI.
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PEnns

Oh, for the sake of Pete!! "Vibe Code" has entered the computer Science universe and someone forgot to tell us what that meant!! I had to Google it....

Now, I might vibe-code an Abacus for nostalgic reasons, as well as "a quick retro-Abacus experience".....😜
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Chokkymalk

you're the real victim of this story!
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Joomsy

PEnns said:
Oh, for the sake of Pete!! "Vibe Code" has entered the computer Science universe and someone forgot to tell us what that meant!! I had to Google it....
Where have you been for the past two years? It's been a commonly used term for a while now.
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PEnns

Joomsy said:
Where have you been for the past two years? It's been a commonly used term for a while now.

Hmmm, maybe because unlike some people, I don't study every piece of AI drivel religiously.

Vibe code. How original!
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adamXpeter

How many megawatts and tons of water gone?

Meanwhile: https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/1t77awh/transforming_windows_11_into_a_windows_31_retro/
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alan.campbell99

I had to deal with 3.1 during my tertiary education, can't say the memories are all that fond.
Reply
SonoraTechnical

PEnns said:
Hmmm, maybe because unlike some people, I don't study every piece of AI drivel religiously.

Vibe code. How original!
Joomsy said:
Where have you been for the past two years? It's been a commonly used term for a while now.
Oh my... He's such a dinosaur... He's like, so 2024.... :rolleyes:
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usertests

SonoraTechnical said:
Oh my... He's such a dinosaur... He's like, so 2024.... :rolleyes:
Get with the vibes, dude.
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John musbach

Admin said:
There’s a new vibe-coded clone of the Windows 3.1 Program Manager that runs on modern Windows 11 or macOS systems.

Developer uses Claude to vibe code a Windows 3.1 shell in an hour — reanimated 12MB retro launcher runs on both Windows 11 and Apple Silicon : Read more
It's fun to have it open sources now at least but program manager was actually included with consumer windows release for quite some time for free
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