Watch the Start menu appear in timelapse of Reddit's Place
Windows fans were among the groups that managed to create artwork in Reddit's shared digital canvas this week.
What you need to know
- A shared digital canvas called Place was live on Reddit earlier this week.
- Several groups coordinated artwork placement on the canvas, such as adding flags, movie scenes, and political statements.
- Windows enthusiasts added a Start menu along the bottom of Place.
Reddit shared a digital canvas called Place on April 1, 2022 that remained live for a few days. Users of the social media platform could replace individual pixels of the canvas one at a time. Several subreddits rallied together to coordinate creating artwork on Place, such as adding a country's flag or an image of a favorite movie. Among those enthusiasts were Windows fans that added a Start menu to the bottom of the collaborative digital canvas.
Specifically, the Windows faithful added artwork of the Windows XP Start menu along the bottom of Place. Other groups joined in on the fun by adding programs and icons to the menu.
Now, you can watch a timelapse of Place to see how it evolved throughout the days that it was live.
Note that there are some images that are not suitable for work, only a few of which were censored by Reddit.
The Start menu appears over halfway through the video and remains there until the end. You may not be able to see it without zooming in. If you'd like a closer look at the Start menu and any other artwork that appeared on the digital canvas, you can check out the complete history of Place. The canvas history is scrubbable and supports zooming in enough to see individual pixels.
Place was an interesting social experiment that showcased several sides of the internet. Some groups gathered together to defend their artwork, while others went on the offensive. The canvas contained flags, iconic movie scenes, lude images, and a variety of other pieces of art at various points.
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Sean Endicott is a News Writer at Windows Central, where he covers Windows 11, Surface hardware, Microsoft 365, AI, apps, and the broader PC ecosystem. Since joining the site in 2017, he has written well over a thousand articles across the Microsoft landscape, covering breaking news, analysis, and feature reporting.
He writes Windows Wrap, a weekly column covering the biggest stories in Windows and the PC industry, and what they mean for the platform going forward.
Before joining Windows Central full-time, Sean worked in journalism and media production after earning a First Class degree in Broadcast Journalism from Nottingham Trent University. Outside of tech, he is an award-winning American football coach based in Nottingham, England, and was named BAFCA Youth Coach of the Year in 2024.
