Microsoft Plus! For Kids (1997) - Time Travel

[@meligarcia]

Just imagine creating an entire video with Talk It!

[@meligarcia]

@Nadja Krzyżańska Why? You wanna do that?

[@HeidenLam]

Well that would be hard

[@adriansfx]

A lot of people still do that

[@andymate2006]

When I was doing a pirate radio station I was using Talk It for my station ID. It wasn't that hard to do.

[@kashmirwillwin3124]

@@adriansfx That's every Reddit video

[@flizzycat]

7:28 it's actually "Program opened" event which this theme has sound for. Problem with this is that it will play the sound for every opened program in background instead of just foreground ones

[@railedb0x503]

are you a furry?

[@captainiplier9162]

@@railedb0x503 i think they are judging by the link to furry amino in their bio lol

[@railedb0x503]

@@captainiplier9162 lol

[@captainiplier9162]

@@railedb0x503 by the way your profile picture is cool :)

[@railedb0x503]

@@captainiplier9162 thanks

[@XaneMyers]

7:40 Ah, I know why it's doing that every few minutes... I messed around with custom sounds in the past, and I know it's doing that because the "Play ball!" sound must be associated with the "open program" event. Windows likes to randomly start and stop background processes often, so every time that happens, that sound will play. Even with my own sounds, that got annoying.

[@rogehmarbi]

I wonder if this is the reason my old Vista PC used to make random noises every so often. Young me probably messed something with the sound (back then Ease of Access feature was an entertainment for me) and caused that

[@SmeddyTooBestChannel]

The fact that the OS lets you set a sound indiscriminately for when programs open is the most short-sighted UX decision and I love it

[@jaykebird2go]

I remember messing with my Windows 95 machine, and set the children laughing sound for the program opened event. So every now and then my computer would randomly laugh lol. After I got annoyed with that, I changed it so the children laughing sound played when an error message appeared, so it seemed like my computer was laughing at me whenever an error occurred lol.

[@a_tf2soldier]

on my old lattitude i set a pop sound to open program, and i was wondering why it was making popping sounds, and i figured out thats why

[@schmatzler]

Protect It! is kind of useless when you can just press F8 on boot, get into DOS and uninstall it :D Teenagers are always able to circumvent these programs, it's the way of life.

[@ZeaZolf]

Listen here mom we're smarter than you we know how to actually shut down windows

[@sky-persuitofwonder]

Wow, Microsoft really likes restricting kids. I believe kids should be allowed as long as they are not doing anything bad because that's how they learn.

[@macecail]

Yeah, you just go into C:\ (path) and delete the files. Boom!

[@macecail]

@瑞安卡特里尔 что?!

[@macecail]

@瑞安卡特里尔 Что ты говоришь?

[@twity1337]

25:10 - Wow! Did we just saw the pre-version of a *ribbon menu* which has been highly criticized in Microsoft Office 2007 a decade after that??

[@macecail]

@瑞安卡特里尔 Не будь грубым! 😠

[@thepwrtank18]

@@macecail нет тебя

[@californium-2526]

Indeed! It first appeared in Windows, hidden, in build 7850.

[@joveaaron-real]

@@californium-2526 Which version? I mean... 95, 98, 98SE, NT, ME, CE, Whistler, XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 or 10? I know there are more versions of Windows but I don't want to type them all.

[@ranchocommodorereef]

I kind of does look like a prototype of the *ribbon menu*. The *ribbon menu* made its way into Windows 7's Paint and WordPad and into Windows Live Movie Maker and Windows Live Photo Gallery and Windows 8 and Windows 10's File Explorer.

[@yearls]

Omg, it's Talk It! I spent so many hours having fun with that software during my childhood. Though I've never heard of this version of Windows before, still mindblowing that it contained that one bit of software I loved so much.

[@prayagsuthar9856]

It's not a Windows version, it's a version of an add-on pack called Microsoft Plus! for Windows. Unless you don't know what Windows 95 is 😳

[@joveaaron-real]

3:40 : "Space required on C: 27722 K Space available on C: 999999 K" When Windows 95 setups couldn't count more than 999,999 Mb of space.

[@lamasu8060]

Its kilobytes not megabytes

[@UnlimitedRun]

@@lamasu8060 some countries use a comma as the decimal separator, (like they write pi=3,14) so 999 999K can be either 999,999M or 999.999M

[@LKComputes]

@@UnlimitedRun No, he's right. K is kilobytes.

[@UnlimitedRun]

Though I'm probably going about this wrong, I should be talking about thousands separator, which should be a space, not a comma or period, as endorsed by various standards bodies, as well as some medical journals

[@rogehmarbi]

I thought my screen's dead pixels were acting out with that massive blank space

[@yram7687]

I remember being a kid and using a computer for the first time. My cousin had a windows 98 machine with the underwater theme. Fun times.

[@VectraQS]

I remember that the Baseball theme was present in Windows Me. Though my personal favorite was Inside Your Computer. I don't think I ever enabled the obnoxious sound effects though.

[@MichaelMJD]

YES! That was my favorite as well. It’s was a pretty cool theme

[@macecail]

Inside your Computer is my favorite theme

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

Nature Theme and Inside your computer was my Favorite Theme

[@SlippinJimmyJ]

This brought back memories I didn't know I still had. But the PLAY BALL brought them right back. Inside My Computer was my favorite too

[@UltimatelyEverything]

This channel's underrated he this guy deserves way more views and subscribers

[@HeadsetGuy]

The Big Robot voice in Talk It is the same voice used in the notorious "All Your Base Are Belong To Us" video, as the voice for CATS.

[@jp-blindperson]

All I keep thinking is how helpful this could have been for blind and visually impaired kids. Would've been nice to have something like this tbh... even if the sound effects get annoying

[@xXBlueSheepXx]

Some themes play random sounds because it's an "open program" sound. It even plays with background programs.

[@gilly5809]

P L A Y B A L L !

[@gilly5809]

@NintendoFanBoi RBLX yeah, same.

[@PCBoyStudios]

I mean, it’s the Open Program sound according to its file name. Might play when *any* program opens.

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

PlAy BaLl

[@daringcuteseal]

рιαγ ьαιι

[@PabTSM-OfficialChannel]

*P L A Y B A L L !*

[@itsyellow]

4:19 macs running the vm: how'd you do that? huh? did you not pay a large amount of money to buy me? HUH?

[@ThatLinuxDude]

Nice video as always... BTW... *PLAY BALL!*

[@tl1882]

@timeryar "play with my balls"

[@Crit-Chance]

I used to play around with Talk It aaaall the time! It was so funny to me. Wow, I'd forgotten about this.

[@MaskedGEEK]

What I did back in the day was copy all the *.CAB files from the Win9X CD to C:\CABs using MS-DOS 6.22 first. There were occasions during install when Windows setup would ask for the CD, but for some reason hadn't got the CD driver loaded so you'd be stuck arguing with the computer saying "the CD is there" and the computer arguing back saying "ahhh, no it ain't". Made Windows setup way easier, especially if you manually edited AUTOEXEC.BAT with the line PATH=C:\CABS for example so Windows wouldn't ask for the CD anymore. That itself would give the extra benefits of installing programs like Plus! where it would ask for the Windows CD. Since the setup would only be looking for specific CAB files, if you had them on your hard drive there wouldn't be any disc swapping needed.

[@WalterMan]

10:06 in the video: The *Death Star Plans*

[@adriansfx]

quick question: what the fuck?

[@tale3339-old]

@@adriansfx xD.

[@freddyli5356]

9:34 Adobe needs to add some sound effects options to their softwares, the feed back of controls is great for making things easier.

[@metalmusic1401]

Man this stuff brings back so many good memories I remember playing Duke Nukem 3D at my mum's computer shop after school. Boy do I miss those simplistic times when we didn't have what I had referred to as a extremely cluttered internet nowadays

[@Vokabre]

"Play It" seems quite complex for the toy synth, i wonder if some had started their digital music career with that thingy

[@tl1882]

most of it is midi but yeah

[@rocco.uploads]

7:43 Every couple of minutes? Bro you realize there's an "Open Program" and "Close Program" sound event right? Just click on "Pointers, Sounds, etc..." and in the Sounds tab, you'll see what I mean... Windows even has that to this day if you wanted that for some reason. The reason for those sounds is because "Open" and "Close Program" sound events also fire for background programs, so if there's something running in the background that decides to close, you'll hear the "Close Program" sound. I grew up with this OS and still have all these themes' sounds on both Virtual Machines and my host... you never know when you might need them for content creation 🤣🤣🤣💀 P.S. Sorry for the long paragraph but hopefully you find this useful for future videos 😇❤

[@Thrax005]

Been using "Talk It" since August 2000,.......almost 22 years now man!! These were some good times

[@opticalecho119]

Did you almost play part of the synth riff from Nuthin But A G Thang at 12:20?

[@andrascsirmaz3043]

The sound "Play ball!" and others popping randomly are very likely the "Start Program" and "End Program" sounds. Windows is opening/closing processes in the background and it notifies you about those too, not just the ones you start from Desktop or Start... I had Jungle for a very long time, the start app sound is a tweet-like sound, the close program sound is a very long drumroll. :D Loved it and drove me crazy at the same time.

[@NazmusLabs]

I had these. You missed the awesome stickers in the brush tool in paint it good video

[@johnedwards5575]

I ran 95/the rare 97/98/98R2/Me. All blue screen nightmares. I swear DOS6.22 and Win3.11 had about the best stability. NT4 was solid, but limited, and really tight on software/drivers. It seemed there was a six year run waiting for Win 2000 where it finally came together for stability and software option.

[@LKComputes]

It's funny that the restrictions window has not changed after 25 years. Our school PCs show that if you try to go to C:\, open the Run dialogue, etc. The text is the same, almost *word for word* after that long.

[@catlover10192]

I was born in 1998, but I actually had and loved Creative Writer 2 growing up. It came with Paint It! as well/

[@jamiecullen9075]

I didn't expect the play it software to be so extensive or good

[@xDJxGNOMx]

I imagine myself sitting infront of the computer at a sunday afternoon trying to start my videogames as a kid in 1998 and suddenly *_Playball_* Stuff of nightmares really

[@FeelingShred]

To this day I can't remember how it was called, there was a Win 3.11 or Win 95 "wizard" for kids that taught how to use the desktop, etc, there were some characters on screen, a grey bearded wizard type is the only one I can remember

[@EBTheOriginalMaster]

It's so bizarre not seeing characters like SpongeBob or Timmy Turner in the 3D Nickelodeon Movie Maker, since those shows didn't exist in 1997.

[@called2voyage]

Ahh, I remember this suite. I remember getting a lot of use out of the themes and Talk It. I think I had it installed on Windows 98.

[@StevenSmyth]

You can get Creative Writer on Winworld. It is fully featured and there's a Mac Classic version.

[@Firetech2004]

I’m not a 90s kid nor used windows 95, but I have used similar software in my childhood so yeah I had a flow of nostalgia when I was watching this video. Windows 95 - windows 7 Paint it - paint Talk it - playing with Microsoft speech recognition software 🥲 Play it - synthesia Some games I played - assassins creed, madmax, counter strike, left 4 dead, plants vs zombies some Facebook games and ofc gta series (vice city San Andreas and 4)

[@andymate2006]

Wow. This brings back so many memories. I still have the disc of this somewhere. I remember I restricted the computer on my parent’s account on the Protect It program. They were not too happy about that. I think the computer needed reinstalling after that as I couldn’t remember how I did it. 😂

[@pentiummmx2294]

4:17 i just copy the win95 cd contents to the hard drive so i don't need to go get the cd everytime i have to install drivers and stuff. and have large hard drives above 2gb on many of my systems.

[@Breeze926]

It's so weird to see something Nickelodeon branded without SpongeBob

[@vicviper2005]

The program was made before spongebob existed

[@Breeze926]

@@vicviper2005 I know, but still it's been like 20 years of him basically being Nick's mascot.

[@vicviper2005]

@@Breeze926 true they had mascots back then too their mascot back then basically was the rugrats and ren and stimpy

[@ChonbaeSun]

Around the same time this came out the computer I only had was a late 80's DOS machine with the phosphor screen.

[@starsINSPACE]

Apparently I had this because that paint it! program I used all the time. Those sound effects are so nostalgic! And the bomb thing I did that all the time lol. Also I had creative writer 2 full version. I used that all the time as a kid.

[@acerbt]

That talk it program uses a speech system called softvoice which is based on a form of speech generation that doesn't use recorded speech, but instead uses formint data to produce it on the fly based on the sort of sound frequencies that make up each consonant and vowel sound. I'm not sure what system it would use for the Spanish though since I've not seen softvoice work in spanish before. I remember using a modern port of it with my instalation of the NVDA screen reader several years ago and I remember changing the voice atributes in weird ways that made it a distorted overblown mess of sound, followed by the screen reader crashing and restarting when I would escape out of the settings dialog.

[@AWM2004]

There is also Plus! Game Pack

[@pentiummmx2294]

all the Plus! 95 and some of the Plus! 95 for kids themes like Baseball, Jungle, Space, and Underwater were bundled with Windows 98 and ME

[@igs4112]

I was born in 1997!! Good time hehe :D

[@Tetriser]

Hey same

[@ifesbobthekillerpolarbear2013]

If I had a kid using this I would either have them use headphones or have the sounds off because I can't imagine how grating it would get if a kid were actually using this for a length of time.

[@blainepalmerza]

Awesome video,Michael!

[@MichaelMJD]

Thanks!

[@tale3339-old]

@@MichaelMJD I love how you said “Thanks!” And didn’t bother to heart the comment.

[@MidoseitoAkage]

13:58 We're found the voice who dub Cats from the good video "All your base are belong to us."

[@fdmillion]

Yep, the voice is the same one used by talkIt. Also, Microsoft Sam and Microsoft Mike from SAPI4 make an appearance in that track as well.

[@ananmuadi31]

I actually had Talk It! on Windows XP as a standalone program

[@wadmodderschalton5763]

I want to see a review of a Windows customization software called Desktop Architect, which was a alternative to the Desktop Themes control panel applet for Windows 95, 98, 2000, ME & possible NT 4.0. I wish to see a video on Desktop Architect after you finish the main Microsoft Plus! versions that included desktop themes.

[@autumnbrushtail]

Ah! Talk It is what FL Studio uses for its built in TTS engine. I recognised the voices and some of the options

[@kpc211]

Have you tried if you can just cancel from that Protect It log on screen? From what I remember, it was so by default if you set up user accounts on Windows 98 or 95 - but I guess they must have locked it somehow in this Protect It, otherwise it would be too easy to go around.

[@hatenayousei]

I would've loved this as a kid. too bad I was born almost 10 years after its release

[@juango500]

Protect It! Could be really useful if you had those places where you could use a public computer to do stuff... edit: Also, the Windows 98 installation also has a CD Sampler.

[@JeffreyPiatt]

It's a early GPedit based perental controls software. It basically is a wizard that enables edits to the default account policy and create policy for new accounts. The files it needs to load are the ones for NT domain login that's why the windows network login appeared it's just instead of a separate server the GP server is local host.

[@prayagsuthar9856]

Lots of Microsoft's old installation CDs had samplers, they were basically the main way they advertised other software (b/c no Internet). Still feels scummy, even though Windows is basically adware now 😒

[@AeizzatToha]

I love Microsoft Plus! for Kids when I was a little boy. Now I'm already a mature person.

[@mirelmoisa3918]

Soooo nice Michael ! :)

[@enderbo]

Young me: applies basebal theme from plus kids Windows: play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball play ball

[@Ununoctium-]

I clicked on this video specifically looking for Paint It!, and I was not dissapointed. For some reason, during the later stages of the Windows XP pc I had when I was younger, the normal Paint was nowhere to be found. Instead, during one of my regular "digging through system files" sessions, I found Paint It!...

[@DanielM]

Wow, not bad.

[@chriskilps]

creative writer looks like it invented the ribbon idea

[@NazmusLabs]

Haha true

[@ZipplyZane]

I wish you'd tried one of the other options in that last program, since those would be what makes it unique. Also, you missed the Magic Schoolbus demo. Probably just a video, but it was the most interesting option on that particular page.

[@SuperJet_Spade]

So that's where Talk It! originated. I've used it in some of my own songs.

[@GaryBeltz]

They need to bring back themes for the modern windows Microsoft has some in the app store but it seems they never make any new ones and you still don't get all the cool sounds

[@DuranMedine]

Here's a tip that's can be very helpful because sometimes you can copy installation .cab files from the Windows 95 disc to hard drive, which is by using this DOS command typing D:\WIN95 the type in cd C:\ then md WIN95 type cd D:\ which is already set D:\WIN95 copy *.* C:\WIN95. This trick is very useful so you don't have to keep inserting the Windows 95 all the time.

[@pzasqz]

You should do a video about Kid Pix

[@diegoalonsodienemannsoto153]

Can I run Microsoft Plus for Kids in Windows NT 4.0 or Windows 2000???

[@DoraemonFan-ww3jm]

You can install this program on later Windows OSs. I tested it out on Windows 98, Windows ME, and Windows 2000, and it works perfectly (although on Windows 2000, you can't use the themes).

[@JasperFoxo]

when you open up the context menu it sounds like call of duty 3 zombies when you repair a barrier

[@redouanvanhal3455]

Yeh

[@laharl2k]

What windows 95 cd rom are you talking about? You are supposed to copy the setup files to your c drive and install from there!

[@singingdenis]

I propose a new drinking game. Do a shot every time Michael says "actually".

[@80sforever3]

Had Win 95 with Intel Pentium MMX(the best), Win XP Home on desktop and Win XP Media Centre on laptop as it was cheaper than XP Pro but better. Back in those times they were so many interesting software that came with the OS. Spend time playing with all the freebies.

[@ithinkitspickingupalittleb8011]

i love microsoft plus for young children 👶!

[@dawidwsmole]

Michael as a parent: *limits his children to only open Microsoft Bob*

[@lucianothewindowsfan]

10:37 What's ironic is that a lot of Japanese kids got seizures from a _Pokémon_ episode.

[@feitphikz]

i love this program! i use Paint It! for most of my digital art! it's very fun!

[@CACOE_]

Based on your voice, I swear this is an alt channel for whang!

[@High89OO]

Bruh you just reminded me of kidpix 3D which we used in kindergarten

[@greenknight9000]

I had no idea that this version of Plus! existed Huh

[@junidacosta5977]

That's weird. I never had this Plus, I'm sure of it. But I already had contact with the Talk It software. I downloaded it somewhere when I was a kid.

[@this_alxx]

Oh boy all the kids must have drove their parents crazy with talk it!

[@PCWindowstechguy]

Good video but I don't know why did they created this version of Microsoft plus.

[@voca-chan7953]

Woah, where can I find that

[@lamasu8060]

Can you link an iso or img of windows 95? Wanted the OS but can't get a vm working.

[@tanzinamatin9276]

Is this VMware Workstation Player or Pro?

[@diegoalonsodienemannsoto153]

In Windows 7 you can modify the theme in the control panel

[@Kitsudote]

I was a basic kid, I just spent hours in regular paint :)

[@JeffreyPiatt]

The Desktop Themes CPL came with the original Microsoft Plus Pack. The Plus for Kids pack was a late release before Windows 98 made the control panel loaded by default. Plus 98 did include a enhanced version with upgraded themes while windows 2000 had the panel hidden but had no preloaded themes.

[@kimeriksson4322]

Hello Michael MJD! what if you run Microsoft Plus! For Kids on WINDOWS 10?

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

I think TTS was First introduced on the OG Macintosh from 1984/1985

[@DarkBraveStuff]

10:10 wow he made the death star

[@microhard-main]

I installed Microsoft Plus! for Kids on Windows 2000 and it worked.

[@WiiPhone-ef4hm]

That seizure warning JUMPSCARED ME!

[@aarontrupiano9328]

i think it was just the kids themes that had spontaneous sound effects because i don't remember those.

[@facebruh3243]

Windows 10? No problem! Set compatibility mode on to windows 95 on every software.

[@OROO111]

What happened if you try to use protect it! On windows 10

[@Cenobyte321]

That RE-man comic is now lost media

[@robertreid-8-bit-guy635]

17:17 *o h n o*

[@Unknownname315]

i really hope you can still use this on recent windows operating systems. kids could still have a lot of fun on their computers while staying safe online.

[@JeffSmith03]

Did you say horses theme is not for kids?