--- title: A Microsoft executive got Doom running in Paint using a... description: Azure CTO Mark Russinovich built DoomPaint, a project that runs the original shareware Doom using MS Paint as its display. The trick relies on an OLE clipboard... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-microsoft-executive-got-doom-running-in-paint-using-a-clipboard-hack-4esxqdrxx twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A Microsoft executive got Doom running in Paint using a clipboard hack | daily.dev og:description: Azure CTO Mark Russinovich built DoomPaint, a project that runs the original shareware Doom using MS Paint as its display. The trick relies on an OLE clipboard... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-microsoft-executive-got-doom-running-in-paint-using-a-clipboard-hack-4esxqdrxx og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/4esXQDRXx.png og:image:alt: A Microsoft executive got Doom running in Paint using a clipboard hack og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A Microsoft executive got Doom running in Paint using a clipboard hack **[XDA Developers](https://daily.dev/sources/xda-developers)** · 2 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Azure CTO Mark Russinovich built DoomPaint, a project that runs the original shareware Doom using MS Paint as its display. The trick relies on an OLE clipboard hack: the ViZDoom engine renders frames headlessly, places each frame on the Windows clipboard, and pastes it into Paint's canvas as a genuine document edit — achieving a playable 35fps. The project is available on GitHub and continues the long tradition of running Doom on unconventional hardware and software. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does DoomPaint make Doom playable inside Microsoft Paint? DoomPaint uses the ViZDoom engine to run the real shareware DOOM1.WAD alongside BSD-licensed Freedoom WADs for the other episodes, rendering headlessly at 35fps. Each rendered frame is placed onto the Windows clipboard and pasted into Paint's canvas as a genuine document edit, so Paint simply displays frames while the engine handles all the compute. _Fans of quirky engineering hacks like this can follow similar creative builds on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [DOOM runs in ChatGPT and Claude / Blog](https://daily.dev/posts/doom-runs-in-chatgpt-and-claude-blog-8ubvlkaoz) · Hacker News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [DOOM Using Regular Expressions](https://daily.dev/posts/doom-using-regular-expressions-uerbiyzd2) · Hackaday · 70 upvotes · 13 comments - [Doom hits KiCad as PCB traces become demons and doors](https://daily.dev/posts/doom-hits-kicad-as-pcb-traces-become-demons-and-doors-ieiqagdsv) · The Register · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Building a Clang Backend and Porting Doom to my Custom Bytecode VM](https://daily.dev/posts/building-a-clang-backend-and-porting-doom-to-my-custom-bytecode-vm-etp6orzgf) · Pointers Gone Wild · 8 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#windows](https://daily.dev/tags/windows) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-microsoft-executive-got-doom-running-in-paint-using-a-clipboard-hack-4esxqdrxx) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A Microsoft executive got Doom running in Paint using a clipboard hack","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-microsoft-executive-got-doom-running-in-paint-using-a-clipboard-hack-4esxqdrxx","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-microsoft-executive-got-doom-running-in-paint-using-a-clipboard-hack-4esxqdrxx"},"datePublished":"2026-08-04T21:01:54.004Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T09:07:31.167Z","description":"Azure CTO Mark Russinovich built DoomPaint, a project that runs the original shareware Doom using MS Paint as its display. 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