GUI64 - C64-Wiki

GUI64, a graphical user interface for the Commodore 64 developed by WebFritzi and published by Friedrich Philipp, reached version 2.1 following its initial 1.0 release in November 2024. The software runs as a graphical layer atop the C64's built-in ROM-based Kernal operating system rather than as a standalone OS, and is distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 licence. Since version 1.9, it has shipped in two variants — a Windows 95-style interface with taskbar, and a Mac-like design with a top menu bar — and operates in text mode rather than the VIC-II's bitmap mode, making it technically a text user interface aligned to the 8×8-pixel character grid. It supports file management on floppy disks and SD2IEC disk images, with settings saved and images mounted directly when used with Ultimate devices, and can be controlled via a 1351 mouse, joystick, or Micromys adapter for mouse-wheel scrolling, including in the VICE emulator. The release matters for the retro-computing community as a lightweight alternative to GEOS and C64OS, which unlike GUI64 support desktop file icons and bitmap graphics. Watch for adoption of version 2.1, further feature development, and whether the project adds desktop icon support or bitmap-mode rendering in future updates.