A Windows 95–style desktop environment that actually works — built entirely with Dear ImGui's DrawList API.
Teal desktop, beveled chrome, a real file manager over your actual filesystem, and an MS-DOS Prompt running a live shell (your zsh) through a pty — every bevel, caption bar, scrollbar and icon drawn by hand, pixel by pixel. No stock ImGui styling, no image assets, no web views.
- Theme95 rendering layer — the 1995 visual language reproduced from
research: the 16-color system palette (
#C0C0C0chrome,#000080captions,#008080desktop), the four 3D bevel conventions (raised, pressed, sunken field, window frame — each with its distinct edge-color order), 18px captions, 16×14 caption buttons, procedurally drawn icons. - Real window management — drag, resize, minimize to taskbar, maximize/restore with saved geometry, double-click captions, and the full system menu on the caption icon (double-click it to close, like the original).
- Explorer — browse your real filesystem: Details view with sortable columns (folders first, KB sizes right-aligned), Large Icons view, Up button, address well, status bar, custom Win95 scrollbars with arrow buttons and dithered tracks. Open as many windows as you like.
- MS-DOS Prompt — a genuine interactive shell (
$SHELL) on a POSIX pty in an authentic fixed 80×25 terminal: VT100/xterm-subset emulation, 16-color SGR (with 256-color mapping), OSC window titles, scrollback, Ctrl+C that actually interrupts. The window closes when the shell exits — just like 1995, except this one runs zsh. (macOS/Linux) - Taskbar & Start menu — live clock, per-window task buttons with pressed/active states, and a working Start menu: Programs (MS-DOS Prompt), Documents / Find (Explorer), Settings (Display Properties), Help (About), Run… (a real Run box — type a folder to open it, or a command to run in a DOS prompt), Shut Down… (the iconic dithered screen-fade dialog).
- UI zoom — Ctrl/Cmd + mouse-wheel (or
+/-/0on a US keyboard) scales the whole desktop through 1×–3×, with fonts re-rasterized at each level so text stays crisp (no bitmap blur). Handy on 4K/5K displays. - Display Properties (Start ▸ Settings) — recolor the desktop from the classic 16-color picker, with a live monitor preview, OK/Cancel semantics included.
- Crisp on Retina — native-resolution rendering with the UI font (Tahoma / Microsoft Sans Serif / DejaVu, probed from your system) rasterized at monitor density. Fixed 96-dpi metrics, like the original.
Prebuilt binaries for every release are on the Releases page:
- macOS — universal (Apple silicon + Intel)
BevelDesk.app. Unsigned: right-click ▸ Open on first launch, orxattr -d com.apple.quarantine BevelDesk.app. - Linux x86_64 — needs OpenGL and X11/Wayland runtime libraries.
- Windows x86_64 — note: the MS-DOS Prompt is POSIX-only for now.
Requirements: CMake ≥ 3.16, a C++17 compiler, network on first configure (dependencies fetched via FetchContent: GLFW 3.4, Dear ImGui 1.92.8, stb).
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j
./build/beveldesk # or double-click "build/BevelDesk.app"sudo apt install build-essential cmake libgl1-mesa-dev xorg-dev
cmake -S . -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
cmake --build build -j
./build/beveldeskcmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build --config Release
build\Release\beveldesk.exe(The MS-DOS Prompt is POSIX-only for now — a ConPTY port is a welcome PR.)
| Command | Effect |
|---|---|
./build/beveldesk |
normal 1024×768 window (--windowed WxH picks another size) |
./build/beveldesk --fullscreen |
total immersion — no host chrome; exit via Start ▸ Shut Down… or Cmd/Ctrl+Q |
./build/beveldesk --borderless |
square-cornered undecorated window; drag it by the taskbar's empty area, Cmd+M minimizes |
./build/beveldesk --zoom 1.5 |
start at a UI zoom level (also Ctrl/Cmd +/-/0 at runtime) |
./build/beveldesk --screenshot [out.png] |
headless QA: renders 10 frames, writes a PNG, exits |
…--screenshot s.png --demo start|max|nav|icons|shutdown|dos|sysmenu |
screenshot specific UI states (dos runs a live shell for ~1.4 s first) |
Double-click My Computer to browse /, Recycle Bin for ~/.Trash.
Start ▸ MS-DOS Prompt opens a shell. Inside Explorer: double-click folders
to navigate, click column headers to sort, toolbar buttons switch view modes.
src/
main.cpp entry point: GLFW/ImGui boot, main loop, CLI flags
app/ the model — AppState, windows, terminal emulator (no drawing)
theme95/ the Windows 95 visual language (reusable, app-agnostic)
palette.h system colors + metrics
bevel.* the four 3D edge conventions + dither fill
widgets.* Button, Radio, ToolButton, CaptionButton, ScrollBarV
window.* window chrome, system menu, dialogs
style.* icons95.* global style; procedural icons
shell/ the desktop environment, one component per surface
desktop.* taskbar.* explorer.* dosprompt.* shutdown.*
platform/ OS glue: fonts, pty (forkpty), GL textures, screenshots
A future theme (NeXTSTEP, System 7, CDE…) slots in as a sibling of
theme95/; a new program (Notepad, Minesweeper…) is one new shell/
component drawing inside t95::BeginWindow95.
The repo ships its own institutional memory — the build was run as an autonomous agent mission with a strict research → build → self-critique loop:
PLAN.md— the Win95 visual-language research (palette, bevels, metrics, Explorer anatomy)DECISIONS.md— every ambiguity resolved, numbered, with reasoningCRITIQUE.md— the compile → screenshot → inspect → fix iterations, including the bugs only play-testing foundSTATUS.md— what works, known limitations, roadmap.claude/skills/imgui-os/SKILL.md— the contributor's field guide: architecture seams, authenticity rules, and the ImGui gotchas that each cost a debugging round
Windows and Windows 95 are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. BevelDesk is
an independent homage that reproduces the style of the era for educational
and nostalgic purposes; it ships no Microsoft assets, fonts, or code. Fonts
are probed from your operating system at runtime. Menus deliberately cast no
drop shadow (that's Windows 3.1 / Windows 2000 — see DECISIONS.md #13b).