The Microsoft Bob Experience: Was It Really THAT Bad?

[@LGR]

Next piece of odd Windows software to cover: Bonzi Buddy? Thoughts? EDIT: I DID IT kzbin.info/www/bejne/gmqYaaaDr5aejdU

[@MDPToaster]

LGR Do it.

[@Playchoice10]

I T A L K

[@notyuri6490]

Ah yes the meme of viruses, sounds amazing!

[@larrisAWSOME]

I highly suggest you use a virtual machine if so.

[@HazeMotes]

Microsoft Explorapedia!

[@Bobbydawriter]

I'm a Hollywood screenwriter who was actually hired (with my partner Rob Muir) to write hundreds, if not thousands of little dialog bubbles filled with quips, questions, and suggestions for the Dog and Clippy, etc. Imagine coming up with 50 ways to say "Do you want to open the drawer?" LOL! Insanely fun to see this. I honestly had forgotten about our experiences on this assignment. Thanks!

[@JoeTAC]

The fact that your name is Bob is amazing. The other person was Rob? Oh my gosh, did they ONLY hire people whose name could be Bob for this?

[@Bobbydawriter]

@@JoeTAC Ha. Seemingly, right?!

[@Flexin010]

Wow how cool!

[@thisaintart]

Yo you got to act with mr T! Hahah sick! Loved your videos on your channel

[@thisaintart]

“Hey Mike!” 😂

[@danieladamczyk08]

I think BOB would've been better if it was marketed more towards elementary schools, libraries, young children, and elderly.

[@Racing_Fox]

D Adam I thought it was for the elderly

[@invghost]

@@thekingoflordagames3517 That's what they said.

[@its_elkku135]

@@invghost Ow the *_edge_*

[@madisonbrooks5793]

F you

[@RexoryByzaboo]

Not elderly, but children.

[@fryingpanda9103]

Honestly, I'm kinda charmed by the laid back feel of this OS. The instruction manual disguised as a magazine, the name and the logo, it's all just quirky and creative. It's just, an OS isn't the best place for this.

[@BuckBumbleYT]

Yes If you could LAUNCH BOB from the standard OS after initializing and powering on each time it could be a cool optional overlay instead of a large change to the entire OS

[@cashchristian5413]

@@BuckBumbleYT Packard did this and it worked out alot better.

[@73rmin8r]

@@BuckBumbleYT you could definitely do that. There's an option when you install it to either start up on boot or not.

[@thesteelrodent1796]

Bob is not an OS - it's a UI replacement for the Windows shell. There were other programs with the same idea, meant for the "my first PC" crowd, and most of those worked a lot better than Bob and did a better job at easing you into using the computer

[@sinkingdutchman7227]

That is 90s Microsoft for you. Programming cute cartoon "helpers" instead of actually making their software as robust as an OS or office program is supposed to be. I kinda like it.

[@Pibbolino]

im still using bob to plan and list all my divorces

[@h.celine9303]

stay classy

[@Pibbolino]

i just dont get why its limited to 60 divorces

[@letmebeurcoffeepot2091]

Dont mess with my Messias Bob's real downfall was only allowing sixty divorces. Such a shame.

[@akatheletterj7342]

planned Bob's uninstallment in Bob, worked out just fine.

[@louistournas120]

+Dont mess with my Messias: Computers back then often had 4 MB or 8 MB and RAM was about 45$/MB. It made sense to limit to 60 divorces but I prefer power of 2 numbers, such as 64.

[@Guthixian_]

I saw a "plan your divorce" option in that financial list program 😰

[@save9624]

I wonder if anyone has ever used it to plan a divorce

[@UmJammerChelle]

Now I'm imagining someone's spouse finding a half filled "plan your divorce" spreadsheet in Microsoft Bob.

[@Moobear30]

If you knew your spouse paid $99.99 (~$160 today) for this, wouldn't you consider divorce as a viable option?

[@wpl955g9]

"I'm sorry, darling, but I'm leaving you for Microsoft Bob. You can have custody of Clippy."

[@StrayFire]

*Clippit

[@SapphFire]

_Life's Milestones:_ After the honeymoon Caring for an older parent Daycare *Divorce*

[@Audioworm]

*Pee in her mouth*

[@Jennifer_Devote]

I thought I might be the only one who saw that...thank you stranger. Thank you.

[@tomyyoung2624]

santa is comming for kittens geo safari planet

[@ingibingi2000]

Honestly having that @bob email address would be quite the novelty

[@curtisss]

Now I really want an @bob email address, that was my first thought

[@snek7535]

I can relate

[@AsellusPrimus]

Would those addresses still work? Can Microsoft actually decommission them? I made an @live.ca email in the very brief time where Microsoft phased out "Hotmail" but couldn't decide what to call it's online productivity stuff yet, and it's still my primary email... I'm not sure how it works now, like if they are required to keep it going or if one day they might just take it away from me.

[@luishirschlieb6083]

Who ever owns @bob would control that domain today. E-mail addresses are created at the domain level with dev tools such as CPanel these days. These e-mails where probably purged if the domain was sold to some one else, especially if their intent with the domain wasn't to buy-out/continue bob services (which it probably wasn't - MS probably shut bob down, reassigned employees to other tasks, and simply didn't renew their domain for @bob - purging the e-mail addys/etc in the process.)

[@benjwgarner]

@@luishirschlieb6083 They sold the bob.com domain name.

[@microsoftbob2381]

The world is still not ready for me

[@crow9149]

Eh, I think it's just that you were never ready for it.

[@aiosquadron]

But you were great for kid! My little sister like it...

[@MagitekBahamuto]

Where is Microsoft Bob 2 for W10?!??

[@Mikko088]

Perhaps they should remake you in virtual reality. :)

[@emmanuelmorfin7858]

CaN. YOu wOrK On WiN 10

[@Tadesan]

I bet there is some old guy somewhere who still uses Bob to this day. It's like, set up on a computer in the corner of his living room with a crocheted doily on top of the monitor.

[@nessamillikan6247]

Don’t forget the cute dog or cat mousepad, the hard wooden dining chair with a pastel floral pattern seat cushion, and the logins and passwords written on sticky notes posted in plain view.

[@spingleboygle]

@@nessamillikan6247that mixes so wel

[@TheMrMobile]

So, so love revisiting the 3.1 era. I'm one of the many who never used Bob, but I do remember reading about it in Popular Science before it debuted. Thanks for the awesome video!

[@LGR]

Glad you enjoyed it, sir!

[@spingleboygle]

hi

[@somegreenguy]

I find it funny how Bob is essentially a shell for Windows, which itself is a shell for DOS So Bob is like a double inception shell

[@baraodascolinas979]

Linux, a Unix derivative, has that on the third, fourth or more dimension.

[@ThunderbolttheFox]

When I was in pre-school, someone actually had this installed on the only school computer in the classroom. I thought is was the coolest ever because I was a little kid and computers in general were not something I got to use very often

[@firemonkey1015]

How could you possibly remember preschool

[@ThunderbolttheFox]

@@firemonkey1015 I don't remember all of it, only snippets here and there that stood out, this being one of them.

[@me67galaxylife]

And that kid became a furry… tragic

[@mrfish9876]

15:21 You summed it up in tht one sentence "it was designed like a childrens application ... that mainly dealt with keeping lists, doing your taxes, sending business correspondance, and managing program executables" I think MS completely misunderstood the concept of "user friendly". That means easy to use. Easy to use means not drowning people in information but giving them simple succinct information. Bob actually overcomplicated things, but they thought that by painting pretty pictures and having the really really long winded user manual put in a speech bubble of a dog that never leaves you alone, people would somehow like it. It doesn't. It just stifles productivity with all the fluff and relentless jibber jabber. Customising your home has nice gimmicky value..... but if you want to play a game you play a game, if you want to do something productive you do something productive. This is neither.

[@624radicalham]

I remember a phrase used by phone UI designers called "real world anchors". It was after Apple and Android designers abandoned a design language with things on your screen that look like real world items you use, such as a trashcan. They opted for a cleaner style with none of that. Although I did miss the graphics, I have come to accept that for productivity clean and logically cold is better.

[@emilyofjane]

I honestly think that Bob would’ve been far more successful if they just left out Rover and the “assistants.” The house metaphor isn’t bad in and of itself, but all of those characters and speech bubbles distract from the actual features.

[@DJ_POOP_IT_OUT_FEAT_LIL_WiiWii]

Other times other software. Bob was a freebie tossed in to test out the new multimedia features. The concept of revolutionizing the OS/GUI paradigm was never the end goal.

[@renakunisaki]

@@624radicalham I've never agreed with that. Look at Windows 95 UIs. They're not pretty, but you can immediately tell "that's a button, because it looks like one; it will do something if I click on it". With phones I'm always seeing people not even realize that certain UI elements are there, let alone what they do. What's this three lines? Oh, I can drag this? Why does clicking on this plain text do something but on this one doesn't? Besides that, any time you have icons, there's those same "anchors" again. A trash can, a telephone, a light bulb, a camera... I don't think everything should look like Win95 (and the same design ideas wouldn't entirely work on phones) but we should go back to imitating real life instead of making everything an abstract borderless rectangle with no indication of what's what.

[@bchristian85]

This is a good point. It may have even been popular had they made it a legitimate children's application. Have tools that they could use for school work, some games, and other educational tools. Maybe even allow it to connect with MS Encarta if you also own that.

[@andrewmorris483]

What I learned from this: Clippy was a result of the Mandela Effect with Clippit.

[@jamesslick4790]

More of a nickname than "Mandela"

[@AmyraCarter]

I didn't hear 'Clippy' until a few years ago...

[@medes5597]

Nope, in office 97 and onwards, she/he tells you people call her/him Clippy and she/he's listed as Clippy in all assistant selection screens after that until he/she is discontinued

[@DJ_POOP_IT_OUT_FEAT_LIL_WiiWii]

@@medes5597 clippy is offended you didnt use xe pronom ;)

[@ActualDavis]

@@medes5597 thank you for respecting clippit's pronouns, wouldn't want any begrudged virtual assistants starting beef on twitter!

[@MariusRenn]

In a way it seems Bob was also ahead of its time: The guided simplified interfaces are now common on mobile devices. Of course without all the skeuomorphism.

[@saintdane05]

Skeuomorphism seems to have fallen by the wayside entirely at this point. Not sure how I feel about it

[@Milamberinx]

If you load into Steam VR you arrive in a house where you can move the objects and resize them

[@carltonleboss]

@@Milamberinx So I guess you could say that Bob walked so Steam VR could run

[@mgscheue]

Yes. Jony Ive would not have been pleased!

[@AbbeyB77]

There was a school version of microsoft bob on our school computers between 1999 and 2002. You logged into a classroom environment and your programs were on the bookshelf as names on the spines of the books. There was a printer on the shelf and you logged off by clicking on the classroom door. The school desk had a word processor notepad you could open and had file folders for your files. It was only one screen, but I remember liking it in kindergarten when we had computer time because it made sense for little kids who couldn't read well yet when windows 95 was very text based.

[@YoyomaG6]

I was 15 when Bob came out. As a 9th grader, i thought it was really cool and really cute. Helped my little brother navigate windows. I knew everyone was laughing about it but we liked it. Fast forward to 1999 and we all had the Tahni desk mate!

[@NCVBflo]

I was a toddler when this was new, and it today boggles my mind that we used to have to pay for email, and internet by the minute.

[@ThunderClawShocktrix]

in 20 years peopelw ill scoof at the idea of 'metered internet' the same way i hope "you mean you had to pay per gigabyte"

[@Kizzabell]

There was also a dial up fee. I remember my mum got a massive phone bill and she said it was from me going on the internet for short times so many times a day. She said to do everything I want to do at one time.

[@58209]

@@ThunderClawShocktrix i mean, for a while there, high speed internet wasn't metered. but then video streaming caught on and isp monopolies realized they were missing an opportunity to nickle and dime their customers some more. i really enjoyed having internet without data caps while it lasted. :(

[@wta1518]

Plus having a a 2 TB HDD would have been unfathomable, yet now we have 100 TB SSDs.

[@Juho.S.]

@@58209 Wait you have data caps? I haven't seen metered internet since mid 00's.

[@dankananga]

I cracked up at *Favorite Food: AC/DC*

[@tomypower4898]

Anderson Santos yes all lots

[@tomyyoung2624]

anwser today yes!

[@fuzzydunlop1753]

I have to admit, it is tasty.

[@signbear999]

@@fuzzydunlop1753 That is why people use forks in power outlets.

[@JJJimmyenaJJones]

Don’t let it eat Angus Young, we all know where Malcolm and Bon went

[@emilyapricot1313]

I definitely would have liked this as a kid. I would have put all my programs in creative places in all the rooms. Too bad it was so expensive !!

[@polygondwanaland8390]

it reminds me of the brief mid 2000s fad of having shelf / office themed desktop backgrounds

[@BigSleepyOx]

Kids would like it, but so much of the functionality wasn't aimed at kids. Keeping track of finances, divorces, and the like? lol But even though it failed, I admire the engineering and packaging.

[@ccricers]

So dogs talk in Comic Sans? Vincent should be very pleased that Comic Sans is used for Doge.

[@TheCivildecay]

Such a legacy

[@o00nemesis00o]

@@TheCivildecay very wow

[@m00dslayer15]

such a legacy

[@fluffycritter]

Comic Sans was developed for Bob and the Office Assistants (Which were more than just Clippy/Clipit) grew out of Bob, so I think it’s still fair to blame Bob for both things. My favorite Bob “feature” was that if you get a password wrong a bunch of times, it says you must have forgotten your own password and asks if you want to change it. Security!

[@BDNeon]

The early days of computers were so funny, we had the technology, but we just didn't fully grasp what it was for.

[@nowthatsjustducky]

That wasn't really the early days.

[@renakunisaki]

Things are still like that today.

[@Robb1977]

less people didnt know what it was for... more "people making it weren't sure how to get the public to respond to it best" like... maybe this digital home will make people more accepting of computers? ok maybe they need little digital mascots to help them? ok no maybe they need to keep things modular and user-repairable... no we lose money that way."

[@baraodascolinas979]

That happens all the time. Today we have 5G, and still do not know what it actually is for (that 4G does not or could not already do).

[@vicroc4]

The sad part is, Microsoft is still making bad design decisions to this day.

[@SonariNeiracchen]

*Home.exe has stopped responding* *Still trying to open the fridge*

[@tomyyoung2624]

answer is today yes!

[@DJ_POOP_IT_OUT_FEAT_LIL_WiiWii]

memory violation

[@WarDankEagle]

Man, this this video was nostalgic bliss for me! Back when I was a kid, my parents bought our first computer and it came with a ton of games (mostly demos/shareware) already installed. Microsoft Bob was one of the programs it came with, and as far as I was concerned, it was a fantastic game. Didn't care about all the "apps" and barely even touched them, but I spent countless hours customizing my personal world. It was unlike anything else I had experienced at the time. I guess I would compare it to something like Cities Skylines now. I didn't really play it with any goal in mind. It was just a really fun way to spend time using my creativity to make a crazy mansion to explore. I also liked the various Clippy characters, though they would undoubtedly drive me crazy now. But at the time, it felt like there were other characters sharing the mansion with me, which somehow made the whole "world building" experience more worthwhile. It wasn't until years later that I realized it was actually intended to be an operating system of some sort. From that standpoint, I get the criticism. But as a kid in the 90s, it was sort of my version of Minecraft. I can honestly say I miss it. Thanks for revisiting it!

[@BuckBumbleYT]

I genuinely would own an actual home entirely in that early 90’s “postmodern” style I love the way this all looks

[@stanislavpavlov6311]

I remember that yellow dog...haven't seen that puppy since XP 😂

[@gatorpics09]

oh hello neighbor i didnt know you also lived on fart street

[@shartlover420]

69 fart st

[@MrVelociraptor3000]

good to see others who live in LGRville, Tennessee

[@lostinthelookingglas]

This actually looks adorable. I would use a modern version of this

[@Pllayer064]

Microsoft Psilocybin

[@leolucas4922]

@@firemonkey1015 Good joke

[@spingleboygle]

Microsoft Rob, Bob’s younger cousin

[@KnownAsKenji]

Duplo Lego blocks are pretty bad compared to standard Lego blocks. But we need Duplo so that unsupervised kids don't gouge their eye out with the edge of a brick. Bob is Duplo.

[@merlinious01]

Duplo is made by lego.

[@oldtimergaming9514]

@@NameHere111 Why are you replying to a week old comment, replying to a one year old comment and why am I... damn. Nevermind.

[@MsMotoko2]

@@oldtimergaming9514 why are you replying to a 4 day old comment replying to a week old comment replying to a year old comment?

[@alexraeokay]

Duplo was made by LEGO Microsoft is LEGO?

[@wuestion9473]

OldTimerGaming I don’t like old post comment shaming.

[@Snowman_Style]

Hey LGR you were spot on. When i was a kid we had MS BOB come free packaged on a gateway machine. My father never touched it but I LOVED playing on it. I was elementary school age and greatly enjoyed customizing an entire house. I imagined the little assistants were actually more fun and interesting than they were. I enjoyed making a room for all the computer games we had. Hell every application i touched i made an icon for. It was simply more fun as a kid to use BOB than the standard MS GUI. Great review, cheers.

[@kolonarulez5222]

The house layout seemed too cutesy for it's own good. Reminds me of a Jumpstart game

[@tomypower4898]

KolonaRulez I will be snap hopper playing rover dog

[@LemonLoafEucharist]

KolonaRulez my thought exactly!!

[@tomypower4898]

@@LemonLoafEucharist Yes download is available. md5sum:

[@ZachMcCordProg]

SAME!

[@zzz_buzzing_zzz1234]

I think what the world needs is a painfully in depth several hours-long video detailing the state of modern computing in an alternate history where Bob caught on like Microsoft hoped it would.

[@Tabasa04]

I remember having this on our computer when I was little. It must have come pre packaged with the machine cause I'm pretty sure I was the only one who used it, and I pretty much just played around with designing a house and playing with the assistants. I think I remember putting a lot of time into organizing other games we had on the computer into different rooms but I'm not sure I ever used the program to launch them. I guess this was just The Sims for me before that existed. Still have fond memories of it.

[@techbaffle]

*Microsoft Home "Bob 2" (Release date: 2020)* - 3D Graphics, up to 8K resolution - Unlimited AI-configured houses - Social Networking & Video Calls - Includes a VR Headset - Cortana virtual assistant 😂

[@inactiveaccount6884]

We partnered with The Sims 5 dev team for to introduce our new house making algorithm!

[@detaaditya6237]

And costs $999

[@blackcat2333]

i mean... they could make it work

[@polygondwanaland8390]

This is why I'm using Windows 7 until the heat death of the universe or we finally give up on x86, whichever comes first

[@iscander_s]

It's already exist actually. it is called "Mixed Reality Portal" - an VR app, where you can launch apps and decorate your virtual house. It's included in Windows 10 by default.

[@moramento22]

15 EMAILS A MONTH!? WOW! That must be the stuff of the FUTURE! *sigh*

[@idevastate_exe]

Patryk Wieczorek i wish i have like 1000 adds a week

[@owlstead]

And remember, this was *after* all the proprietary internet things came to a halt. What do you do when you cannot shovel a proprietary internet? Well, proprietary email of course. Doomed from the start indeed.

[@69johndz]

I used MS Bob for a while (but not in-depth). I loved it. I liked decorating the house and "living in it" while I opened up different apps. After a hard day at work, it was relaxing and entertaining. I never understood all of the hate.

[@alexanderveritas]

_”Wish that I had five dollars.”_ *Proceeds to take out electric guitar.* And this folks is what I call, having the style.

[@JasperJanssen]

8MB required, wasn’t that at a pretty hefty sysreq at the time?

[@solamori7036]

Jasper Janssen meh, kinda like 8gb of ram today

[@creakycracker]

Yeah...OS/2 wanted 8mb iirc.

[@TheHowlingMan]

the required 32MB of hdd space wasn't nothing back then either!

[@locketowing7776]

Yes it was, also memory allocation was pretty crappy back then, and Bob sat on top of all the applications and would just add to the issue. inflating the memory needed for whatever program you were trying to run and using up system resources

[@hackerx31337]

High end systems had 8 meg with mid range having 4 and older systems having only 2 or 1. I want to say torwards the end of the 486 era some boards *may* have supported 64 meg but I think most were limited to a max of either 32 or 16. Also for the time period that really is a rather large amount of space for a program to be using. My high end 486 had a 330 meg hard drive so you are talking about nearly 10% of the total storage being taken up in one shot.

[@klein5815]

Bob Clock Sets Alarm Alarm rings *rrring* IT'S BOB'O'CLOCK

[@brookegross8974]

Lol

[@houseofgrooving]

Caleb ok then

[@JaggedBird]

Amusing

[@Featherogue]

This is actually a really cute and relaxing little program - I've never heard of it before but I'd use the hell out of it lol

[@tomypower4898]

Caitlyn screen of death again

[@Featherogue]

@@tomypower4898 :

[@tomypower4898]

Yes sure what this is about but I don't really use Discord much. I usually just lurk using a friend's account because he's already part of many servers.

[@tomypower4898]

@@Featherogue :> microsoft bob!

[@johnclavis]

You didn't mention what I thought was the most infamous thing about Microsoft Bob, which was that, if you couldn't remember your password, after a few unsuccessful tries, Bob would just say, okay, let's make up a new password for you! In other words, the password security wasn't password security at all! It was basically a mockery of password security that seem to be designed for children, children who don't care about secrecy?

[@tibfulv]

I'm amused by the fact the internal database got corrupted every time it crashed. Bob had the first version of the Registry? :D

[@CidHighwindFF7]

This was from the same version of Windows that let you use a password to protect the computer, but allowed you to get in after clicking 'Cancel'. I remember this is exactly how my w95 pc was setup. It had a pass, no one used it or needed it.

[@renakunisaki]

@@CidHighwindFF7 pretty sure that was supposed to be for logging in to a network. If you pressed cancel you could use the PC but you wouldn't be connected to the network shares and such.

[@snazzy]

The speaker assistant’s favorite food is AC/DC (8:00). 😂

[@jjjoshiii6659]

yes I like acdc as well it is a nice snack

[@spingleboygle]

as a speaker my personal favorite is static cuz it’s got a really [N/A] flavor

[@AmySay]

I like Rover’s design in Bob :( I like how he looks hand drawn.

[@Markworth]

Microsoft Bob's true and greatest legacy was the MSN nerd emoticon. What a great way to tag saying something obvious or flagrantly stupid.

[@colinstu]

I recall being able to copy the "Actor" files (.act) out of Bob and moving them into the folder that Office checks, and you can get the Bob assistants there. And vice versa, you can move the Office assistants into the Bob folder. (or maybe it only worked one way and not the other). Anyways, I don't recall any webpage or article ever talking about this, and it was pretty strange to experience. Try it out!

[@vinylcabasse]

the dark humor in your typing combined with your pleasantly upbeat delivery is hilarious

[@szilagyilev]

They should have made Bob for Windows Phone. It would have been a massive hit, EVERYONE's favourite assistant. Siri? heh. Google assistant? please. Cortana? get out of here. Bob. That's where it's at. Bob, decorate my home screen - here's a lava lamp , got you fam.

[@frankschneider6156]

Stella the slutty stripper as an adult premium version of Cortana might have been a bigger success.

[@kylesoler4139]

Its so 90s it hurts!

[@louistournas120]

It's Rad. Rad to the Max!

[@jayesper4390]

So rad it's tubular! Mondo tubular!

[@davidwuhrer6704]

Cowabunga!

[@nmcarpenter]

Oh man, I played with MS Bob so much as a kid at my friend's house. I remember all the different themes, characters, etc. Thanks for those memories!

[@AluminumDragonRawr]

Poor Bob, falling flat on his face. That invisible assistant option, though :P

[@bepaque]

AluminumDragon what about some actual guy named bob

[@honkhonkler7732]

Stop treating Bob like a red headed step child. He's now a man. Treat him as such. Call him Robert and show some respect.

[@quintessence2183]

LGR supports trans rights.

[@oliverjackson5416]

Let’s call him Microsoft Edge

[@bamagirlce12]

So, I used this as a kid and I absolutely loved it, I thought the games were fun and I had a pet dragon and a lava lamp!

[@PacmansRevenge]

I am honestly terrified that Microsoft Hololens will turn out to be a AR version of Microsoft Bob...

[@Yusuke_Denton]

I certainly hope it will.

[@PacmansRevenge]

Do you want Clippit in your living room? Because that's how you get Clippit in your living room... "It looks like you are sitting on the couch. Would you like help?" [ ] Get help with sitting. [ ] Continue sitting without help.

[@Yusuke_Denton]

He will always be Clippy to me. :'(

[@davidwuhrer6704]

Clippy was meant to be an AI build from a Baysean network. Unfortunately home computers at the time didn't have nearly enough RAM to have the full required AI _and_ Microsoft Works running at the same time. That is why Clippy was so annoying with asking the same questions over and over again. It was not meant to, it was supposed to remember your choices, but Microsoft removed its intelligence before shiping. Rover is not Clippit, by the way. That was even mentioned in the video.

[@52chromium59]

Now I kinda want to write software for the Bob... did Microsoft ever release an SDK or documentation or something? Just out of curiosity, I think modern-day third party software development for the Bob would be hilarious

[@LordArikado]

I'm already imagining a source port of Doom that only runs on Bob.

[@DOSRetroGamer]

Wow, an actually civilized and rather positive comment section. What kind of video site are you, and what have you done to my KZbin?!

[@lextatertotsfromhell7673]

DOSRetroGamer screw you

[@sosopwsi829Jjw9]

@@lextatertotsfromhell7673 YOU ARE DUMB POOPOO!!!!1!1!1!1!2!2

[@thomasl1061]

I believe it's because KZbin now filters the topmost comments by likes rather than how recent the comments are. If you want the authentic experience, just filter by recent.

[@joeformanek8165]

Surprised it didn't offer up the special "BDSM Dungeon" room as an option.

[@wpl955g9]

Joe Formanek They tried, but it only worked in 256 shades of grey.

[@LosEagle]

add Ross' in front of it and it's perfect

[@lionocyborg6030]

LosEagle and use it as the video games folder, mostly classics and console or arcade VM games like Eternam, Carnevil, Marathon, the Nyet trilogy and Bit Bop Trilogy. Also Gnop and Minotaur: The Labyrinths of Crete, if we ever got a PC port of that. (Or an OSX one for that matter)

[@austinprunty6374]

Sold separately

[@alimmi9]

I was JUST about to say "well, I'd actually recommend it to my grandma" when it crashed and had to be reinstalled... WOW.

[@twoheadedthingies5000]

It's definitely a nice idea in principle - I remember seeing a similar thing in PC World sometime around 1997-2001, and being so enamoured with it I went home, drew a picture of a room in MS Paint, set it as my wallpaper then stuck shortcuts to programs all over it on the shelves and so on.

[@wordart_guian]

My sister still does that :-)

[@theweirdo8622]

The dog (Rover) was so cute especially as an assistant on Windows XP. I installed MS Bob once but I thought it made no sense.

[@jamesmcmahan1236]

The desktop house deal is very ＡＥＳＴＨＥＴＩＣ． I sort of want one. It’s so stinking 90’s

[@Kittopaul]

James McMahan it's so radical

[@deusexaethera]

The Sims: Checkbook Balancing Expansion Pack.

[@Ivo--]

I would rock a Bob sticker on my laptop so hard

[@idevastate_exe]

spankmeister me too

[@idevastate_exe]

spankmeister i want to buy one of these

[@MrGencyExit64]

The speaker's favorite food is AC/DC... yet Microsoft used the Rolling Stones for the Windows 95 launch. Bob was doomed from the beginning.

[@j.a.8224]

Ah yes, a Stones song with such wonderful lines like "gonna blow my top" and "You make a grown man cry". As someone who had win95 original release, yes, it was fitting. And about as well thought-out as Bob, but Bob never got a B version to make it work. Now I have seen Microsoft Bob, and it was... meh? (not the video though, that was great)

[@yet_another_communist]

"AC/DC" is Alternate Current,and Direct Current. Sorry for my Bad english...

[@davidwuhrer6704]

@@yet_another_communist AC/DC is also an Australian rock band.

[@yet_another_communist]

​@@davidwuhrer6704 Yes,i know,but i am referring the AC and DC,from electronics,not bands or whatever. PS:Sorry for my bad english.

[@davidwuhrer6704]

@@yet_another_communist The joke was that they used a different band, intentionally confusing both meanings of AC/DC.

[@garysnell47]

Review encarta 98... The pinnacle of my youth :)

[@hkr667]

There is nothing wrong with Comic Sans. Comic Sans is just like a knife. It can be very useful for the right job, it can do horrors when used in the wrong way. Don't blame the font, blame the user.

[@sarabeth641]

Yeah I absolutely love Comic Sans. I think it's cute, easy to read, and nostalgic. It's incredibly hilarious when it's used for serious reasons, but I don't see why it gets so much actual hate.

[@Juho.S.]

@@sarabeth641 I strongly agree.

[@baltasarjimenez2091]

My dad got a copy from his work (why they had it, I can't say), and we installed it on our underpowered Dell PC. I played with this for HOURS. It was like the home designer for the Sims, with fun cartoon characters that made jokes I didn't understand! Can't say whether this would ever have been really useful for anyone, but could easily have been made into a fun kids' game.

[@patmurf1]

hoooo boy. Bob. Okay. I have a lot of history with this software. Long story short: My father was a Microsoft Office dev back in the day, and as a side effect, I was used as a guinea pig for this software. Not only did I use Microsoft Bob, but I used Microsoft Home and Microsoft Utopia (the beta versions) for I want to say a full year or more before Bob released and became the infamous comedy relief it now is. I was nine at the time, and Bob was the controlled PC environment I was allowed to use then. It simultaneously let me not utterly break my dad's work environment and gave me a sense that I could control literally everything. I spent hours and hours and hours not launching game software, but customizing and re-customizing the house, MY house. I had my own bedroom with all my video games, and a mouse hole filled to the brim with lava lamps. As a kid, it felt like MY space. I loved it. But even at the time, I remember the name changing from Utopia to Home, and Home to....Bob. And I looked at my Dad with lidded eyes and said '...Bob'? My Dad made it abundantly clear he felt the software had been commandeered by marketers and had lost any sense of usefulness. Talking to him in the later years, my Dad felt early on, when it was Microsoft Utopia, that the software was intended to be a controlled kid interface. Namely, to allow kids to use a computer in a safe environment that wont break the machine. Over time, the argument inside Microsoft was that homemaking women would need help to be brought into the digital age of email, digital calendars etc etc. So the shift of marketing was to make the software for computer illiterate women. A total misuse of the software's actual use case. Also, Clippit 100% was in the beta for Utopia, but was torn out of the final version and given to the office guys. So, yes. Clippit and Rover both come from this software.

[@adenowirus]

Strangely Microsoft Bob was referenced on a Bungie t-shirt of all places. The design consisted of the words "My Bob is bigger than your Bob!" next to a picture of "born-on-board" from Marathon 2 pointing a gun at MS-Bob smiley, the latter's glasses lying broken on the floor.

[@yukatoshi]

adenowirus My Bob is 3 1/2 " of retro pleasure.

[@bitwize]

Bungie was a Mac shop at the time. I think they only grudgingly ported Marathon 2 to Windows. I remember them at MacWorld '95 -- some of their staffers were wearing that shirt.

[@adenowirus]

Here's a picture: 3.bp.blogspot.com/-ji9hfJDolsQ/T0p67KbSW5I/AAAAAAAACYY/7IszEiCBbSI/s1600/bungie_bob.jpg

[@KnownAsKenji]

Man, I miss when Bungie was good.

[@lionocyborg6030]

I made some marathon references regarding Bob above, including a simulacrum joke.

[@cr128]

It looks painful to try and get anything done in this, with all those really basic productivity apps in that thing and your assistant constantly chatting over whatever you're trying to do. As a kid, I probably would have enjoyed decorating the house and putting all my favorite programs in special places, but everything else looks really clunky and inefficient to actually use as your main computer interface and programs.

[@fractalgem]

It's a lot like Kid's desk/kid's desktop. Hm. I wonder why that is. *headscratch*

[@visualaudio22]

just be glad they didnt make bob as a stand alone version of windows!!!! that would have sucked

[@theweirdo8622]

That was one of the main criticisms.

[@wadmodderschalton5763]

In fact, the timing for Microsoft Bob couldn't have been any worse. (0:18) Microsoft Bob came out in 1995, the same year as Windows 95, so many people presumably waited for that operating system to be released rather than buying Microsoft Bob for their PCs. (2:39) And the hardware requirements of a 486 processor & 8 megabytes of RAM pretty much made people stick to their existing Windows 3.1 installations, until Windows 95 was released. (14:41)

[@HarvardHeinous]

So far ahead of its time! It had a Bob emoji, a smart speaker, and even an angry bird!

[@ShadowWingTronix]

I miss search puppy. I don't know what his name is, he's "search puppy" to me. :)

[@KatieRose230612]

ShadowWing Tronix His name's Rover, but Search Puppy is cute!

[@dorkchops]

the idea of B🤓B seems pretty cool. They should give it another try, with some improvements of course

[@reeepingk]

I would have LOVED this as a kid.... I LOVED organizing my desktop icons in designs and stuff, would have been awesome.

[@chrisspencer6502]

Kyle R the surprising thing is so many people's desktops are full of crap

[@sarno97]

back then this was cool

[@lennartweber2228]

The colozr shematic makes me sick. All thode colours.. i donno i am very unsettled by that. I mean i feel sick for real....

[@fordfalcon85]

Bob looks like a useful program for back in its day. I don't get all the criticism. Could you please do a video on Bonzi Buddy? It was the "must have" spyware when I was a kid!

[@praveensharma9893]

Those specs, price and the buggy mess for all that buck.

[@arthas640]

he made a video for Bonzi Buddy, it got released not long after your comment :3

[@arthas640]

I also dont get the hate, i actually like these kinds of programs as a kid. I kind of miss these kind of DLC style expansions for a stock OS and the virtual house aesthetic. They'd be great for kids too, since its simple and easy to use.

[@scottpigott8825]

I grew up with Bob and this video doesn't capture just how bad he was. Bob came prepackaged with windows 95 on a NEC desktop my dad purchased in late 95. I liked Bob for maybe an hour or two it was cool designing your rooms and it seemed like a great idea. The problem was while it looked cool it was slower than dirt. I knew the video wouldn't capture Bobs awfulness when I saw how fast it loaded for him. Bob always took a few minutes to do anything and since it was an overlay it started at boot up. So it meant just getting to a point where you could start doing whatever you booted the PC up for taking more than 5 minutes. After using it for a few days I was done, but had no idea at the time how to stop Bob from starting up on boot up. It stayed that way for months. Since I lived in the middle of nowhere and had no internet it took me a long time to figure out how to remove him from my PC. So that probably why people really started hating Bob. It was forced on a lot of the users like most PC companies would do in the following years with pre-installed bloat ware.

[@yrobtsvt]

I also grew up with Bob and never got tired of it. The functionality was limited but as a little kid I loved arranging stuff in the different rooms, and the selection of assistants. Also, my copy never BSODed. Of course it's not something I would have paid $100 for, especially in 1995 dollars, but it was kind of like Lego Island in that the concept of the virtual world had lasting coolness.

[@sirunknown2142]

I actually used this program when it came out for my grandmother. She found it so easy to use even though she didn't understand technology. It was easy enough for her to go "Oh that's a calendar, let me put in some dates." It was extremely helpful. I work in IT and was given this as a gift years back. I wouldn't have payed $100 for it.

[@jerrywh3]

I was devastated when we upgraded to Win 95 and lost Bob. As a 9 year old in 94 Bob was absolutely exciting to me.

[@machiner6]

The aesthetic design and massive customization options are something I really, really wish Microsoft could still do today. I would definitely have loved this as a kid. Too bad we never had Windows 3.1.

[@DarkenmyLife]

My father was a computer specialist when I was a small kid and he still fixes them on the side. We had this, I remember it, because he worked in a computer store. I only remember the characters on it and the house looking desktop thing. I was around 7 born in late 1988. Watching your content brings back so many memories I forgot I had.

[@shelby3822]

most feared words at MS in 94: "We're putting you on the Bob project"

[@MattMcIrvin]

There's worse. I was on the Kin project.

[@thatkindofboi9955]

oof dude oof

[@vwestlife]

Packard Bell Navigator did the same thing _sooo_ much better.

[@compu85]

VWestlife just what I was going to say. @LazyGameReviews, how about a quickie comparison video?

[@JeremyHeiden]

I was just thinking that, Packard Bell, and all the rooms, lol... does anyone remember "W.O.W.", it was like America online before America online?... it was so fun, and introduced me to chat rooms in 1995. They closed it a few months after they started saying it was intended for kids but it was all adults and they didn't intend that. I can't find anything about it.

[@ericawatts5886]

Indeed! I was gonna say this too. My 2nd computer (After an old Tandy1000 DOS machine) was a Packad Bell, with Packard Bell Navigator installed.. My parents love it, i hated it and would always disable it when i was using the PC :P

[@TheMichigami]

yep, one of the first things my mom did was gut the navigator house program from our packard bell though because she hated having to exit it to get to windows because it was set up to load as the default and she couldn't figure out how to change it so she just deleted it all. One of the things I plan on doing when i finish restoring the packard is reinstall it all from the original master cds just to have it there again for historical purposes.

[@TheShivABC]

Thats it! lol sorry, I've been trying to figure out the name of this application for ages, I am restoring an old packard bell to how I remembered as a kid and couldn't for the life of me remember the gui used

[@hotaruishere2133]

I kinda wish it was still around. I would love to use this program.

[@UberMun]

Half of the programs are just re-skinned spreadsheets!

[@handsomebrick]

If you make applications for Bob, can you decide how they look in Bob's house? Like if 3D Realms had made Duke Nukem compatible with Bob, could they have made it look like the Duke himself was walking around the house, crashing on the couch, raiding the fridge, etc.?

[@vink6163]

It looks like all you get with Bob is the ability to provide a larger than normal icon and it doesn't have to be shown inside a box. But a single frame only, no animation.

[@lionocyborg6030]

Vink That's a shame. The OPs idea sounds cool for this product. Maybe if the Aleph One versions of Marathon were on Bob, Durandal would appear on the computer icon and taunt both the user and the OS itself in his sarcastic but hilarious way, not to mention "They're Everywhere!" jokes from Rover. I mentioned above what the Marathon joke could be if Bob blue screened.

[@cindersmlg943]

Damn that's an awesome idea

[@akatheletterj7342]

this concept is cooler than anything Bob ever did.

[@TheHowlingMan]

"It's time to balance my checkbook and chew bubblegum... and I'm all outta gum!"

[@Upwader]

Dont forget to like, comment, and subscrib--**VOMITS** UGH -A greeting card. 2018.

[@AlexanderWilithinIII]

I want to see an alternate reality where Bob was wildly successful and continues to this very day.

[@suborbitalprocess]

Featuring Microsoft Bob: The Movie, Microsoft Bob the designer clothing line (and fragrance!) and of course, Microsoft Bob: the adult parody film

[@L00PdeL00P]

Clippy's name was clippit? Nooo... It can't be. I must immediately begin work on my tinfoil hat so I can inform the human things about the mandella effect or whatever.

[@miab-p6874]

I have a vague memory of my preschool having Microsoft BOB. Maybe it was on a family member's computer. Anyways, what I do know for sure, is that I have definitely seen BOB sometime during my childhood. Enough to have it make a lasting impression on me. Watching this video unlocked a very old memory. Thank you.

[@codak29]

I loved Microsoft Bob. I was a kid and sometimes the Bob shell would somehow get ShareWare games to run when Windows could not. My sister and I spent hours customizing the house and moving things around. Maybe it wasn't great for adults, but it was really fun for kids to play. I came with our Micron computer in for Windows 95.

[@lionocyborg6030]

What does Microsoft Bob say when your computer has a blue screen error? FROG BLAST THE VENT CORE!

[@adenowirus]

Introducing new MS-BOB assistant: Durandal. "If things around here aren't working, it's because I'm laughing so hard"

[@lionocyborg6030]

Microsoft Bob Music Room! (i.e. Bob's Windows Media Player) Durandal: Vocals. Leela: Backing vocals Tycho: Lead guitar (Sung to the tune of Whirling Death Spikes's Big Blue Orchids and Wild Blueberries) Dur-Dur-Dur-Dur-an-dal. Dur-Dur-Dur-Dur-an-dal. He ain't no slouch, pal. He'll make you smile, or cry, Like Leela did baby: Airlock Love Big blue orchids Martian skies And Wild Blueberries. Dur-Dur-Dur Dur-an-*dal.* Dur-Dur-Dur-Dur-an-*dal.* He ain't no slouch, pal. Dur-Dur-Dur-Dur-an-*dal* Dur-Dur-Dur-Dur-an-*dal* He'll make you ouch, Hal. He's got real guile. Why lady Did you have it daily? (Giggity Giggity) Airlock Love, No oxygen, Suffocation. Dur-Dur-Dur-Dur-an-dal. Dur-Dur-Dur-Dur-an-dal. He ain't no slouch, pal. (Repeat chorus 11 times, changing key with each chorus)

[@TeganCantEven]

I had this as a kid on my first PC and had a blast with it!! I really enjoyed redecorating the rooms and stuff. It was fun. A lot of unnecessary hate imo.

[@Remls]

B😎B

[@maxim07minecraftpropvp41]

B🤓B

[@yaduwn8844]

🅱️😎🅱️

[@sexhaver32_31]

🆓 🅿🅿 💲u c c

[@theexcelsior_0024]

@@sexhaver32_31 I'm stuff

[@DraG0Ne]

B😡B

[@skuzzyj]

"LGRville, TN." Not gonna lie, that could be a real town name. Used to work with a guy from Orlinda. As in, "or Linda." It was basically a typographical error made when the town incorporated.

[@DemonicAkumi]

So Microsoft Bob was the 1st version of Windows 8.

[@inactiveaccount6884]

wait what

[@e46bmwm3]

@Demonic Akumi 1st Version Of Windows Vista, Worse Than Windows 8

[@CWINDOWSsystem32]

@@e46bmwm3 Vista really wasn't that bad though; I used it until 2015...

[@sluigi]

Windows Me?

[@TheTomimt]

BOB was a pretty interesting attempt at trying to alter the symbolism of the UI we still have today. In many ways, I understand what MS was trying to achieve by making the elements into more mundane and easily approachable. Even the use of a house was a good idea, as you could, potentially, navigate the system based on where you'd place things in real life. I never did try BOB during the 90's, I only did so when I was attending a class about UI design and I wanted to make a presentation about something a bit more obscure. I didn't find BOB that bad either, a bit misguided perhaps, but it did have some genuinely interesting ideas behind it.

[@vinesauceobscurities]

To be fair, Bob was something a lot of big tech companies in the 1990s thought the future for UIs was going to be, before they realized users in the 1990s are not _that_ dumb.

[@anonUK]

They are now...

[@vinesauceobscurities]

Well, consumer tech eventually did become mainstream... And mainstream consumers have no shortage of simpletons.

[@whattheflimflam]

17:09 Rover moves his mouth in time with LGRs

[@tomyyoung2624]

B_B

[@sukidable]

Just imagine a Linux desktop environment based on this.