win7-vue

Win7 Vue

Agnostic Vue 3 component library for recreating classic Windows & Mac OS UI. Components render the real markup of 98.css, XP.css, 7.css and system.css (Mac OS) and X.css (Mac OS X Aqua). The library ships zero CSS of its own and supplies only behavior, state, and accessibility.

Theme providers

Any stylesheet that follows the upstream markup works. We maintain our own forks, published on npm under @vstyler96/*: they share one markup and style every win7-vue component. The official projects work too, with fewer components styled.

🚀 Quick start

npm i win7-vue @vstyler96/7.css   # pick your themes: @vstyler96/98.css, @vstyler96/xp.css, @vstyler96/7.css, @vstyler96/system.css, @vstyler96/x.css

// main.js
import { createApp } from "vue";
import win7vue from "win7-vue";

createApp(App)
  .use(win7vue) // registers <WinButton>, <WinDialog>, <WinWindow>…
  .mount("#app");

Components are registered globally with a Win prefix so one-word names never clash with native elements (<dialog>, <button>…). Choose your own with app.use(win7vue, { prefix: "Xp" }) → <XpButton>, or import components locally instead (import { Button } from "win7-vue").

TypeScript: for typed global components, add "win7-vue/global" to compilerOptions.types in your tsconfig. With a custom prefix, augment Vue yourself:

// components.d.ts
import type { Win7VueComponents } from "win7-vue";
declare module "vue" {
  interface GlobalComponents extends Win7VueComponents<"Xp"> {}
}

Requirements

Theme stylesheets are loaded with ?url imports, so you need a bundler that supports them (Vite does).

🎨 Theme switching

Themes are whole upstream stylesheets, swapped at runtime:

import { createWinTheme } from "win7-vue";
import css98 from "@vstyler96/98.css/dist/98.css?url";
import cssXP from "@vstyler96/xp.css/dist/XP.css?url";
import css7 from "@vstyler96/7.css/dist/7.css?url";
import cssMac from "@vstyler96/system.css/dist/system.css?url";
import cssX from "@vstyler96/x.css/dist/x.css?url";

app.use(createWinTheme({
  defaultTheme: "win7",
  themes: {
    win98: css98,
    winxp: cssXP,
    win7: css7,
    macos: cssMac, // the @vstyler96 forks all share one markup
    osx: cssX,
  },
}));

// Anywhere in the app
import { useTheme } from "win7-vue";

const theme = useTheme();
theme.change("winxp");   // theme.name, theme.family, theme.themes

The active theme name is mirrored to <html data-win-theme="..."> for your own CSS hooks. Register extra stylesheets at runtime with theme.add(name, { url, family }). family: "mac" is only for the legacy @sakun/system.css 0.x / @vstyler96/x.css 1.x markup; every 2.x fork uses the default "windows" markup.

🧩 Components

Global names are shown with the default Win prefix; local imports drop it (import { Window } from "win7-vue"). Support shows which themes ship dedicated CSS for the markup with the packages above (@vstyler96/* 2.x). Elsewhere the component still works and falls back to browser defaults. mac is system.css and X is X.css.

🚧 Work in progress: the forks style the taskbar row and the start button so far; the taskbar chrome and the Start menu are still being styled. Until then those parts work but render unstyled. See Taskbar & Start menu for the markup contract.

Taskbar & Start menu

win7-vue defines this markup and the vstyler96 forks style it: the taskbar row and the start button today, the rest is in progress. With the official stylesheets these components work but render unstyled. Share one open ref between the button and the menu:

<WinStartMenu v-model:open="open">
  <template #items><WinStartMenuItem icon="monitor" text="Computer" /></template>
  <template #picture><WinStartMenuPicture src="/me.png" alt="User" /></template>
  <template #starred-items><WinStartMenuStarredItem text="Documents" /></template>
  <template #main-action>Shut down</template>
  <template #actions-dropdown-items>
    <WinStartMenuItem text="Switch user" />
    <WinStartMenuItem text="Log off" />
  </template>
</WinStartMenu>

<WinTaskBar clock show-desktop>
  <template #start><WinStartButton v-model:open="open" /></template>
  <WinButton text="Explorer" />
</WinTaskBar>

The markup contract for stylesheet authors:

<div class="taskbar" role="toolbar" aria-label="Taskbar">
  <button class="start-button" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-expanded="false" aria-label="Start">…</button>
  <div class="taskbar-items">…app buttons…</div>
  <div class="taskbar-tray">…tray… <time class="taskbar-clock">10:42</time></div>
  <button class="taskbar-show-desktop" aria-label="Show desktop"></button>
</div>

<div class="start-menu" hidden>
  <ul class="start-menu-items" role="menu">
    <li class="start-menu-item" role="menuitem"><button><img alt=""> <span>Computer</span></button></li>
  </ul>
  <div class="start-menu-side">
    <img class="start-menu-picture" alt="…">
    <ul class="start-menu-starred" role="menu">…start-menu-item…</ul>
    <div class="start-menu-actions">
      <button class="start-menu-main-action">Shut down</button>
      <button class="start-menu-actions-toggle" aria-haspopup="menu" aria-expanded="false">▸</button>
      <ul class="start-menu-actions-dropdown" role="menu" hidden>…start-menu-item…</ul>
    </div>
  </div>
</div>

The item's inner element is a <button>, an <a> (href) or a RouterLink (to).

🪝 Composables

useDraggable options: enabled, snapToEdges, snapThreshold and constrain, each a value, ref or getter, plus the initial defaultX / defaultY. Events: onDragStart, onDragEnd, onPositionChange.

import { ref } from "vue";
import { useDraggable } from "win7-vue";

const el = ref<HTMLElement | null>(null);
const handle = ref<HTMLElement | null>(null);
const { x, y, zIndex } = useDraggable(el, handle, { snapToEdges: true });

Exported types: Win7VueOptions, Win7VueComponents, DismissOptions, ThemeOptions, ThemeInstance, ThemeDefinition, ThemeFamily, DraggableOptions, DraggableEvents, CollapseChild, MenuItemOption, TableHeader.

🔁 Migrating from 2.x

3.0.0 moves win7-vue to the @vstyler96/* forks. The component API is unchanged (only additions); the breaking part is the theme packages:

• New theme packages. The optional peers are now @vstyler96/98.css, @vstyler96/xp.css, @vstyler96/7.css, @vstyler96/system.css and @vstyler96/x.css (all ^2.0.0), replacing 98.css, xp.css, 7.css and @sakun/system.css.

  npm rm 98.css 7.css xp.css @sakun/system.css
  npm i @vstyler96/98.css @vstyler96/xp.css @vstyler96/7.css @vstyler96/system.css @vstyler96/x.css
  

  Then update your ?url imports, e.g. "7.css/dist/7.css?url" → "@vstyler96/7.css/dist/7.css?url".
• @vstyler96/x.css 1.x is no longer accepted (^2.0.0): with npm 7+ an old copy makes the install fail with a peer conflict, so upgrade it alongside win7-vue.
• Drop family: "mac" for system.css and X.css 2.x: every fork now shares one markup, so register them as plain URLs (macos: cssMac). Keep family: "mac" only if you stay on the legacy @sakun/system.css 0.x or @vstyler96/x.css 1.x stylesheets.

New in 3.0.0: <WinTable> (listview table with striped / hover / full-width / centered columns), <WinCircularProgress> (spinner), the variant prop on <WinStartButton> ("vista" on 7.css), and taskbar + start button styles in every published fork.

🚚 Roadmap

1. Improve Typescript implementation.
2. Clean-up code.
3. Agnostic core: verbatim upstream markup, zero shipped CSS.
4. Runtime theme switching across 98.css / XP.css / 7.css / system.css / X.css.
5. Add RouterLink support.
6. Configurable global prefix and typed global components.
7. TaskBar & Start menu components (markup contract).
8. One shared markup across the forks, published on npm as @vstyler96/* 2.x.
9. Table and CircularProgress components.
10. TaskBar & Start menu styles in the vstyler96 forks (taskbar row and start button done).
11. Add custom Icons (Icons in progress).

📚 Documentation

Refer to the official site (Now online!!)

Run the demo page locally:

make dev       # hot-reload dev server
make preview   # production build of the demo, served locally