Do you have that Windows 3.1 version that came with the Compaq that had the DE that was like a paper folder instead of an empty desktop, and that you could put the icons in the different tabs of the paper folder?

I believe you are speaking of Tabworks?

I had to Google and it does look like it, I remember the computer would boot into it and it also had space for a few (three?) icons outside the tabs (like in the “desktop”). It was a cool interface!

Your comment reminds me of HP's obscure EFI OS called QuickLook. I would guess there are a lot of obscure OSs out there.

Oh, yeah! I think ASUS also had something like that at some point.

I don't think I've heard of an alternate shell/launcher like that before. Do you remember what it was called?

Windows still (well, Win2000) lets you build a custom shell, just replace explorer.exe (and a bunch of other work).

I've heard of custom shells for Windows before, but not that specific one