Release 1.0

Hello. Windows Poop Edition 5 is now out of beta (for whatever that means). I know the internet nowadays is mostly comprised of unsupervised children for whom reading even 2 paragraphs feels like a lifelong commitment, but still, bear with me as I explain why it took so long for this to happen. (The TL;DR, though, is lack of motivation.)

So it’s been well over a year since the release of Beta 7.0, intended to be the last beta version before Release 1.0 (“release” being a frankly meaningless distinction since this thing’s already publicly available).

And in general, you’ve certainly noticed it took a very long time to develop this thing: nearly 3 years by this point. And that’s certainly not because Windows PE 5 is the most exciting thing in the history of the universe with tons and tons of new features.

The real reason Windows PE 5 is still in development after such a long time is simple: a lack of motivation. I am a single person who makes things for fun and who may have a kjfsillion different projects at any given time and who also has executive dysfunction. Thus, neglecting a project for months or years at a time is only inevitable. And I can’t exactly control the amount of motivation I have to work on any given project. My interest in the genre of fake/parody OSes is rather sporadic, and therefore so is my interest in developing Windows PE 5.

That being said, I did make quite a bit of progress on Release 1.0; a handful of new/revamped apps, and many smaller tweaks, fixes, and QOL improvements. I did intend to add a lot more things, but it’s quite clear at this point that I am not going to have the motivation to do that. So I figured I might as well just get it out the door so that I never have to think about it again, and also so that the latest released Windows PE version can finally be something that’s way more polished and enjoyable than Windows PE 4.

I was also intending to make a demo video for Windows Poop Edition 5 (which would finally have decent microphone and video quality, and hopefully not end up being 20 minutes of unwatchable rambling!), but I doubt I’ll end up doing that either.

I can confidently say that Windows Poop Edition 5 will not live up to the expectations of a nearly 3 year wait. However, while I don’t think there’s actually anyone out there who was anxiously awaiting Release 1.0 and having strong expectations for it, I would still like to say: None of my passion projects which I make available free-of-charge are an obligation to you specifically. I make them because it’s fun, and it gives my otherwise mostly lonely and empty life some semblance of meaning.

Thank you.

Changelog:

• Overhauled Internet Explorer
• Added Office
• Programs now display their proper icons in file GUIs
• Changed Paint icon
• Sound Recorder: Audio files can now be opened
• Sound Recorder: Added options, allowing one to change the audio input device and sample rate
• Sound Recorder: Changed default sample rate to 16000
• Sound Recorder: Made WPA exporting much faster
• Internet Explorer can now access the real internet on Windows (hopefully) (currently only works with 32-bit LÖVE, which the Windows build is fused to anyway)
• Made Visible Studio actually half-usable instead of neglecting it
• Moved the Videos and Music folders into the “user” folder
• Changed the visuals of Minesweeper, because having it be a checkerboard didn’t make a whole lot of sense.
• Added custom resizing cursors
• Brought back custom cursors on Windows, since the incorrect cursor size bug seems to have been finally fixed in LÖVE 11.5
• Pressing Ctrl+Shift+End now instantly crashes the system, because it just does.
• Executable Packager can now unpackage executables
• Made setting the icon in Executable Packager actually work
• Made file save dialogs handle directories correctly
• Fixed file GUI tooltips with scrolling
• Improvements to text boxes (better scrolling, click to select lines)
• Tweaked error handling and crash screen (Have you noticed how much effort we’ve been putting into error handlers and crash screens? That’s because we strive to deliver the most optimal crashing experience possible.)
• Added error handling to the installer
• Fixed multiple of the same subwindow acting as the same window in certain ways
• Subwindows are now closed when their parent window closes
• Fixed the cursor being able to resize windows from weird places (how did we never notice this?)
• Fixed Image Viewer when being opened manually without arguments
• Paint: Ameliorated unintended drawing
• Paint: Improved Text tool
• Some other stuff I don’t feel like writing