browservice VS ExplorerPatcher

Browservice - proxy but goes one step further and renders the page and actually only sends back a clickable image to the browser on the old machine. Almost like screensharing.

I have a [Browservice](https://github.com/ttalvitie/browservice) server set up for the faster machines, which basically streams images, and a [retroproxy](https://github.com/humbertocsjr/retroproxy) service for the slower machines :)

Original iMac G3 (the very first) running Mac OS X 10.1 and Netscape 7.01. The magic comes from this program : https://github.com/ttalvitie/browservice

Browservice may be suitable if you have to use IE6 and you're OK using a proxy system.

"browservice" will render web pages server-side and then deliver them to your browser as an image with simple javascript.

It works in virtually all "old" browsers and can be very useful for older computers.

https://github.com/ttalvitie/browservice

TL;DR: Read the entirety of Readme.md (it's at the bottom of https://github.com/ttalvitie/browservice). If you still have specific questions, i'll try to help.

Check out browservice; either run it on your host, or in another VM.

A 4th gen i7, the VM gets 2.3 GB, but I've done similarly stupid stuff on an AMD Athlon 64 (sluggish but usable, 720p YT dropping frames but watchable). Browservice running in a VM to serve XP's IE8 is another fun Goldbergian trick.

You can use https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher to change the hotkey

> Windows 11 brings absolutely nothing on the table

It also removes a leg from the table, the one labelled 'usability'.

Attaching a 3rd-party leg to fill the gap helps (https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher), but it's not an ideal solution

ExplorerPatcher

I had more problems with it being wide, merging all app windows in a single icon, showing only icon rather then app title, and not being able to move to top of screen

That may be fixed with https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher which restores win10 bar, there's no builtin solution to any of the above afaik

Thanks for letting me know. I looked into it, and apparently it's still even possible to activate on later versions of Windows with registry edits and helper software: https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher/discussions/167

Not going to install something that seems so vague, but I do use ExplorerPatcher [1] on my Windows 11 machines to basically re-create Windows 10 UI and fix all of the annoyances I have with Windows 11. I've got the old right click menu, the old task bar, the old alt-tab interface, pretty much the whole thing. Only reason I use Windows 11 over Windows 10 is because Windows 11 seems to handle my triple monitor setup better, especially when waking up from sleep.

[1] - https://github.com/valinet/ExplorerPatcher