Windows 98 Icons (2015)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Overall reaction to the Windows 98 icons

  • Many commenters express strong nostalgia and enjoyment; the icons feel clear, legible, and “tool-like” compared to modern flat, monochrome sets.
  • Some argue this isn’t just nostalgia: pixel-level shading and contrast make functions quickly recognizable, whereas current “hieroglyph” icons often require reading labels.
  • Others note weaknesses: inconsistency in style, perspective, colors, and proportions across the Windows icon set, and some icons feeling confusing or too similar.

Comparisons to other UI/icon eras

  • Windows 2000 and classic Windows 98 themes are praised as high points; Windows XP’s default “Fisher-Price” look is viewed by several as a visual downgrade despite being a better OS.
  • Linux themes like Bluecurve, Crystal, and Enlightenment-era desktops are remembered as futuristic, polished, and playful versus Windows’ more “classic” look.
  • Classic Mac OS “Platinum” and early Mac OS X “Aqua” icons are cited as iconic; later flat Jony Ive–era designs are seen as a jarring shift.
  • BeOS / Haiku and OS/2 icon sets are mentioned as particularly consistent and appealing.

Technical details and icon sources

  • Discussion of legacy icon libraries like moricons.dll and pifmgr.dll; these files persisted across many Windows versions but are not fully represented on the site.
  • Some icons in the collection appear to come from Windows 2000/ME or Windows 95 Plus! packs and 98 betas (“cool” variants).
  • Duplicates arise from: different color depths (4/8/16bpp), different states (e.g., recycle bin), crude animations, and backward compatibility.
  • There is disagreement over when “true color” icons were actually supported (Windows 95 + Plus! vs 98), but registry tweaks and Shell Icon BPP are mentioned.

Pixel art, constraints, and iconography

  • Commenters highlight how hard good icons are: every pixel counts, constraints increase creativity, and early designers (e.g., black‑and‑white 32×32 icons) had to invent visual language from scratch.
  • Links and anecdotes surface around pixel art, palette cycling landscapes, and ANSI art as related crafts.
  • There is reflection on obsolete physical metaphors (floppy, camcorder, modem, rotary phone) that younger users may not recognize, yet still function as powerful symbols.

Modern use, scaling, and legality

  • Some worry fixed-size pixel icons don’t scale well to HiDPI displays, making them impractical as a primary modern UI.
  • Others share CSS tricks to view the sprite sheet with crisp nearest-neighbor scaling.
  • Questions arise about copyright and whether using these icons on personal sites is legally safe; no clear answer emerges.
  • A few wish for a complete, high-resolution library including Office/Visual Studio toolbar icons, possibly generated by fine‑tuned image models in the future.