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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- A developer ran a 35-year-old version of Word in today’s Windows.
- The developer rebuilt the original sources and used modern replacements.
- Anyone can replicate this, but you’ll need the right programming tools.
I remember using Microsoft Word for Windows in the early 90s. Yes, it looked clunky by today’s standards. But I loved the power it gave me to visually create, format, and manage all my writing. And in retrospect, that old-fashioned version of Word worked just fine without throwing AI in your face. Well, if you secretly long for those halcyon days, one developer has proven that the past is not forgotten.
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As documented on his GitHub page, a developer named Justin Marshall managed to tweak the older code for Microsoft Word for Windows 1.1a and publish a version that runs in Windows 10 and 11 today. To make all this work, Marshall had to rebuild the original sources and resources for Word and combine them with modern replacements for the 16-bit platforms. His efforts led to an “original Word application and user experience running as a 64-bit Windows executable.”
In the early 1990s, a word processor with WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) capabilities was quite an innovation. Before that, we used DOS-based programs like WordPerfect 5.0 and Word 5.0. Those certainly got the job done, but their interfaces were stark. The first word processors for Windows were game changers, as you were able to see your documents take shape and know how they would look when printed.
How to try Word for Windows 1.1a for yourself
I’m not necessarily saying I’d give up the current flavor of Word for its 20th-century ancestor. However, it would be cool to take it for a spin. Ah, but there’s the rub. That’s easier said than done, at least for most people.
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Though you can set up Word for Windows 1.1a just as Marshall did, the requirements are a bit onerous. Beyond having a 64-bit version of Windows and PowerShell (those are the easy parts), you’ll need Visual Studio 2022 with Desktop development with C++, a Windows 10 or Windows 11 SDK installed through Visual Studio, and CMake 3.25 or newer.
If you can grab all those elements, Marshall’s GitHub page provides the steps to build the finished program. If you manage to try it, let us know how it turned out in the comments.
