Man gets his Xbox One to run Windows 95

A person going by the name vcfan on YouTube has succesfully managed to install and boot Windows 95 - yes, the 21 year old PC operating system - on their Xbox One.

"But why?" you ask. "Because why the hell not", we imagine the answer would be.

The feat is not a result of vfcan breaking the Xbox One's DRM or otherwise hacking its signed software requirements. Instead, what he's done is port the excellent and venerable DOS emulator Dosbox to the Universal Windows Platform. And the Xbox One lets developers run and test any UWP program on the console, regardless of whether it's been published on the Windows Store (you couldn't test the software you developed otherwise, now could you?)

Once he has Dosbox up and running on the Xbox One, it's pretty much an open field. In the video posted to YouTube, vcfan first loads up Dosbox and then installs and launches Windows 95 within it. Satisfied that the archaic OS works, he then restarts the app and plays the DOS version of Duke Nukem 3D on it, before launching a Super Nintendo emulator as well.

Though Microsoft have said they want the Xbox One to be an open platform, we have our doubts that the UWP version of Dosbox will make it to the official app store once support for UWP apps launches for all Xbox One users later this year. But as far as developer party tricks goes, this one is pretty cool.