# Chicago95: a Windows 95 desktop theme for Xfce, kept as a file tree > A hand assembled GTK and Xfce theme with matching icons, cursors, sounds and boot splash, plus an installer script. No releases in four years, and the maintenance still happens. **grassmunk/Chicago95** — A rendition of everyone's favorite 1995 Microsoft operating system for Linux. - Repository: https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 - Stars: 5,944 · Forks: 200 - Language: HTML - License: not declared - Published: 2026-10-06 · Updated: 2026-10-06 · Language: en - Canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/grassmunk-chicago95 ## What the theme set actually contains Chicago95 is not an icon pack. The README lists what ships, and the inventory is the argument for the project: icons completing an icon theme started with Classic95, GTK2 and GTK3 themes, an edited XFWM window manager theme adjusted to reflect Windows 95 more closely, a Plymouth boot splash theme created from scratch, an MS-DOS inspired theme for oh-my-zsh, partial support for HiDPI monitors, and partial icon support for LibreOffice 6 and later. The framing in the README is personal rather than institutional. The author describes being unhappy with the various XFCE, GTK2 and GTK3 Windows 95 themes available and deciding to make one that was more consistent across the board. That is the design criterion, and it explains the parts that would otherwise look like scope creep: an MS-DOS themed shell prompt has no business being in a theme unless consistency was the whole point. The word partial appears twice and both instances are load-bearing. HiDPI is partial, and the LibreOffice icon theme is partial. Anyone evaluating this on a modern high resolution display or expecting LibreOffice to look period correct should expect to finish the job by hand. The repository tree backs up the inventory with real directories: `Icons/`, `Fonts/`, `Cursors/`, `Theme/`, `Plymouth/`, `Plus/`, `Extras/`, `KDE/`, `Lightdm/`, `Sounds/` and `Screenshots/`. ## Requirements that rule out a default modern desktop The requirements list is short and has one entry that changes your whole desktop: a window compositor. Not optional, not recommended. The others are GTK+ 3.22 or 3.24, Xfce 4.12, 4.14 or 4.16, the `gtk2-engines-pixbuf` package recommended for GTK2 applications, and the `xfce4-panel-profiles` package. A compositor requirement is unusual for a theme and worth understanding rather than resenting. It exists because the Windows 95 look depends on alpha in the window decorations and on fake transparency in panels and menus, and without a compositor you get hard opaque edges instead. If you are on a bare Xfce session with no compositor running, the theme will render badly no matter how complete the icon set is. The version ceilings are dated. Xfce 4.16 is the newest listed, and 4.18 arrived after this was written, so on a current Xubuntu or other recent distribution you are likely outside the tested range. The README offers a path for older desktops: if you are running a GTK 3.18 system, it points at a forked version of the theme maintained for the older stack. That is the single most useful thing on this page for anyone reading it in 2026. ## The installer and the documentation boundary The README is candid about handing you off. Installation is a link to INSTALL.md, and the README says there are multiple ways to set up Chicago95, including an automated installer. The same pattern repeats for the sub themes: `Plus/README.MD` for installing Microsoft Windows Plus themes, the `Plymouth/` directory for the boot splash, and `Extras/libreoffice-chicago95-iconset/README.md` for the LibreOffice icons. So the repository root is an index and the actual instructions are distributed across at least four readme files, one of which is not even named consistently. That is normal for a project of this age and shape, but it means the README alone will not get you a working desktop. What the repository does contain is `installer.py` at the root, which is the automated installer the README refers to. There is also a `Makefile` written as a source package for distribution rather than as a build script, with an application name of `chicago95`, an application version of 2.0.1, and a standard set of installation directories for icons, themes, sounds, mime packages, man pages and XDG autostart entries. It resolves its own toolchain by asking the shell where awk, chmod, cp, find, grep, gzip, install, rm, rmdir, sed, sort, uniq and xargs live, with a note that the man page build depends on txt2man being available. ## KDE and LightDM support that the README labels experimental Two integrations sit outside the main Xfce story and the README is explicit that the KDE one is experimental. Under that heading it documents installing the SDDM logon manager theme by choosing Install from file in the login screen and selecting `SDDM/Chicago95.tar.gz`, and installing the splash screen by passing the theme package to `plasmapkg2` with the lookandfeel package type. A Lightdm directory also exists in the tree without being called out in the README text, which suggests similar treatment for that display manager. That is the pattern to expect from this project: directories in the tree that the README does not describe, which you find by looking rather than by following links. The `Plus/` component deserves a separate mention because it is a tool rather than a theme. Chicago95 Plus is described as a tool to preview and install Windows 95, 98, ME and XP themes, and its documentation is in `Plus/README.MD`. A theme previewer implies some machine readable description of each theme's colours, which is how it can render the appearance before you commit to installing it. That is the most genuinely useful piece of tooling in the repository and it is aimed at the same audience as the theme itself. ## Release history, licensing and what the dates mean The release history is the part that needs stating plainly rather than smoothing over. Three releases are recorded: v1.0.1 in October 2019, v2.0.1 in June 2020 and v3.0.1 in October 2022. The most recent tagged version is more than three years old, and the package version recorded in the Makefile is still 2.0.1, so the Makefile has not been carried along with the later releases. The repository itself is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-08-03. Those two facts together are the accurate description: the work is still happening in the repository, but it is not arriving as tagged releases. There is no changelog file in the tree to track those changes, so here the work is visible by inspecting the files rather than by reading release notes. Licensing is stated in the README as GPL-3.0+ and MIT combined, described as licence: GPL-3.0+/MIT, and there is a `CREDITS` file at the root. The repository metadata reports no licence field, so the README text is the only statement of terms. For a theme that modifies your desktop, that distinction is worth checking if you plan to redistribute a modified version. ## Conclusion Chicago95 is for someone who wants a complete period desktop rather than a single icon pack, and who is willing to run a compositor and accept a partial HiDPI result. The parts most likely to disappoint are honest ones: the icons are described as complete only relative to an existing Classic95 base, HiDPI support is partial, and LibreOffice support is partial too. Check your GTK version against the 3.22 or 3.24 requirement first, then read INSTALL.md, because the README routes installation there and points at an automated installer rather than spelling out the steps. Do not wait on a new release: the last tagged version is from 2022, so the working tree is the current state of the project. ## FAQ ### How do I install Chicago95 on Linux? The README points to INSTALL.md for the install steps and notes there are multiple ways to set up the theme, including an automated installer. The repository root contains `installer.py`, and separate readme files cover the Windows Plus themes, the Plymouth boot splash and the LibreOffice icon theme. ### What are the system requirements for Chicago95? GTK+ 3.22 or 3.24, Xfce 4.12, 4.14 or 4.16, the `xfce4-panel-profiles` package, `gtk2-engines-pixbuf` recommended for GTK2 applications, and a window compositor. The compositor is a real requirement rather than a recommendation, because the period look depends on alpha in window decorations. ### Does Chicago95 work on newer Xfce versions? The README lists Xfce 4.12, 4.14 and 4.16 as supported, so newer releases are outside the tested range. For desktops on older GTK versions such as GTK 3.18, the README points to a separate forked version of the theme maintained for that older stack. ## Sources - [grassmunk/Chicago95 on GitHub](https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95) - [Issues](https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95/issues) - [README](https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95/blob/master/README.md) - [Releases](https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95/releases) --- Hysen Labs editorial analysis, written from the project's own repository and release notes. Cite the canonical page: https://hysenlabs.com/projects/grassmunk-chicago95