A downloadable operatingsystem for Windows

Steel OS is an attempt to have as close to a full operating system as possible that can run entirely within your computer's installed operating system. Currently developed by only me, it has legacy support (if I have to patch Steel OS 1.0, so be it, same thing if you need me to service your copy of Steel OS 1.0), it includes several stock programs (such as a drawing program, text editor, music player, and calculator), and various features (such as multitasking, to an extent, restarting after a "stable" crash (as long as it's not from a text box error), data-saving, some hardware detection (e.g. battery, memory), etc.).

Steel OS is developed in Scratch 3 TurboWarp, which does put it at some limitations, such as not being able to access the hard drive entirely (it can save data in modern builds), and as such, cannot run as a full operating system, but it attempts to recreate an OS as much as possible.

More information

Download

Download
_MainChannel-Steel OS 3.zip 308 MB
Download
_PreviewChannel-Steel_OS_3.10.3122.zip 329 MB

Install instructions

-- System Requirements --

OS: Microsoft Windows 7 (NT 6.1) or later (XP not supported, Vista not tested but likely not supported either), Windows NT 10.0 (Windows 10/11) recommended

Note: The corporate overlords may not agree with my Windows 7 System Requirement. Builds will be tested for legacy Windows compatibility.

CPU: 1.6 GHz, 2.6 GHz recommended

RAM: 2 GB, 4 GB recommended

Hard Drive: 1 GB

Display: 960x540 minimum, recommended aspect ratio of 16:9.


-- Installation --

If the provided setup file was a ZIP, then extract that ZIP to a folder with the ZIP file's name. The file that runs the system will be called "Steel OS" (for stable, full releases), "Steel OS Beta" (for pre-release versions), or "Steel OS Server/Embedded/etc." (for server, embedded, or other non-standard, but full stable releases), and can be found in this folder no matter how you got the setup files.

If the provided setup file was an EXE, then run that executable. Likely, depending on your antivirus program, it may freak out when you run the setup executable, but that is to be expected, as that is the case with any software I make involving a setup executable, as well as even normal programs I make. If your antivirus program places it in quarantine, remove it from quarantine (because it is not malware). Install Steel OS to the correct folder (Steel OS [version number] [edition/version info, e.g. Beta 2 Build 2204, Server, Embedded, Professional, etc.]).

When running the program for the first time, Windows may display a SmartScreen message saying it may be harmful. Choose "run anyways", because the program is harmless (I've tested it myself, and because it was written in Scratch, it doesn't have access to the hard drive).


-- Extra Info --

Do NOT use Steel OS as a replacement to your system's OS, and do NOT treat it as a replacement for OSes like Windows or Linux. It can't run on multiple monitors, doesn't have full web access, and can't read or write files to the disk.

Steel OS is open-source, and custom plug-ins, mods, and programs can be developed for it. If you want to develop something like that for Steel OS and have it added into a full release, let me know. I'll provide the information and tools you'll need to do this if you want to develop programs for the system.

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