Microsoft Bob

Microsoft Bob was a 1995 Microsoft software product,

intended to provide a more user-friendly interface for the
Windows 3.1x, Windows 95 and Windows NT operat-
ing systems, supplanting the Windows ProgramManager.
Microsoft Bob presented screens showing a house, with
rooms that the user could go to containing familiar ob-
jects corresponding to computer applications for in-
stance, a desk with pen and paper, a checkbook, and
other items. Clicking on the pen and paper would open
the word processor, and so forth. A cartoon dog named
Rover and other cartoon characters provided guidance us-
ing speech balloons.
Microsoft Bob was much criticized in the press, did not
gain wide acceptance with consumers, and was not a suc-
cessful or long-lived product.
1 Origins
Microsoft Bob was released in March 1995, although it
had been widely publicized prior to that date under the
codename Utopia.
[2][3]
The project leader for Bob was
Karen Fries, a Microsoft researcher. The design was
based on research by Professors Cliord Nass and By-
ron Reeves of Stanford University.
[4]
At one point, Bill
Gates's wife Melinda Gates worked as one of the Mar-
keting Managers on the project.
[5]
Microsoft originally
purchased the domain name bob.com from Boston-area
techie Bob Antia, but later traded it to Bob Kerstein for
the windows2000.com domain name.
[6]
2 Applications
Bob included various oce suite programs such as a -
nance application and a word processor. The user inter-
face was designed to simplify the navigational experience
for novice computer users.
Similar to early graphical shells like Jane, the main inter-
face is portrayed as the inside of a house, with dierent
rooms to correspond to common real-world room styles
such as kitchen and family room. Each room can contain
decorations and furniture, as well as icons that represent
applications. Bob oers the user the option of fully cus-
tomizing the entire house. The user has full control over
decorating each room, and can add, remove, or reposition
all objects. The user can also add or remove rooms from
the house and change the destinations of each door. There
is also a feature in which Bob oers multiple themes for
room designs and decorations, such as contemporary and
postmodern.
[7]
The applications built into Bob are represented by match-
ing decorations for example, clicking on a clock opens
the calendar, while a pen and paper represent the letter
writer. The user can also add shortcuts to applications
on his or her computer. These shortcuts display the icon
inside various styles of decorations such as boxes and pic-
ture frames.
[7]
Released right as the Internet was beginning to become
popular, Bob oered an email client where a user could
subscribe to MCI Mail, a dial-up email account. The
price was $5.00 per month to send up to 15 emails per
month. Each email was limited to 5000 characters, and
each additional email after the limit was reached was an
additional 45 cents. A toll-free phone number had to be
called to set up the account.
[8]
Bob features Assistants, cartoon characters intended to
help the user navigate the virtual house or perform tasks
in the main interface or within the built-in applications.
3 Gateway 2000 Edition
An edition of Microsoft Bob was bundled with Gateway
2000 around 1995; the version bundled with Gateway
computers contained Gateway branding on the Login
screen. Also the Gateway Edition contained additional
rooms and backgrounds not seen in the retail version.
One additional room was the attic which contained the
box to a Gateway 2000 computer. Along with the addi-
tional rooms, there were more icons that showed by de-
fault in the new rooms.
[9]
4 Reception and legacy
Bob was one of Microsofts more visible product
failures.
[10]
Despite being discontinued before Windows
98 was released, Microsoft Bob continued to be severely
criticized in reviews and popular media.
[11]
Bob received the 7th place in PC World magazines list
of the 25 worst tech products of all time,
[12]
number one
worst product of the decade by CNET.com,
[13]
and a spot
in a list of the 50 worst inventions published by Time
magazine, who called Bob overly cutesy and an oper-
ating system designed around Clippy extquotedbl.
[14]
Mi-
1
2 7 EXTERNAL LINKS
crosofts Steve Ballmer mentioned Bob as an example of
a situation where we decided that we have not succeeded
and lets stop.
[15]
Microsoft employee Raymond Chen wrote in an article
that an encrypted copy of Bob was included on Windows
XP install CDs to take up space and slow down illegal
copies.
[10]
Tech journalist Harry McCracken called the
story a delightfully urban legend-y tale and noted its
similarities to an April Fools Day joke claiming Bob was
hidden in Windows Vista.
[16]
Rover,the softwares dog mascot, reappeared in XPs File
Search function.
The font Comic Sans was created for (but not used in)
Microsoft Bob
[17]
and is still a popularthough often
reviledfont today.
[14][18]
5 See also
Orphaned technology
Microsoft Agent
6 References
[1] Personal or Home Finances. Lifecycle Informa-
tion for Microsoft Obsolete Products Support. sup-
port.microsoft.com. Microsoft. Retrieved 15 July 2014.
[2] MS plans Utopia for PCusers. Computer Shopper. April
1994.
[3] Microsoft makes for Utopia. Personal Computer World.
May 1994.
[4] McCracken, Harry (March 31, 2010). The Bob Chroni-
cles. PC World. IDG. Retrieved 2010-04-18.
[5] Newman, Michael (23 May 1999). Bob is dead; long live
Bob. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
John Robinson Block). Retrieved 2006-10-24.
[6] Lea, Graham (11 November 1999). Windows2000.com
owner sells domain to Microsoft. The Register. Retrieved
2006-10-24.
[7] Nathan Lineback. Microsoft Bob. Nathans Toasty
Technology. Retrieved 11 May 2012.
[8] McCracken, Harry (29 March 2010). A Guided Tour
of Microsoft Bob. Technologizer. Technologizer, Inc.
Retrieved 8 April 2011.
[9] Rose, Daniel. The Bob Home extquotedbl extquotedbl.
DanielSays.com. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
[10] Chen, Raymond (July 2008). Windows Conden-
tial: History Taking Up Space. TechNet Magazine.
Microsoft. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
[11] Dvorak, John C. (16 August 2004). The Bottom 10:
Worst Software Disasters. PC World. IDG. Retrieved
2007-09-21.
[12] Tynan, Dan (26 March 2006). The 25 Worst Tech Prod-
ucts of All Time. PC World. IDG. Retrieved 2007-03-
14.
[13] Merritt, Tom (30 April 2007). CNET Top 5: Worst
products in a decade. CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved
2007-09-21.
[14] Fletcher, Dan (27 May 2010). The 50 Worst Inventions.
Time. Retrieved 2014-07-16.
[15] Cowley, Stacy (31 July 2006). Ballmer Analyzes Mi-
crosofts 'One Big' Vista Mistake. CRN Magazine (The
Channel Company). Archived from the original on 2007-
09-30. Retrieved 2006-10-24.
[16] McCracken, Harry (29 March 2010). Windows XP: A
Free Copy of Bob in Every Box? extquotedbl. Technolo-
gizer. Technologizer, Inc. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
[17] Strizver, Ilene. The Story Behind Comic Sans.
Fonts.com. Retrieved 2013-06-15.
[18] Gareld, Simon (20 October 2010). Whats so wrong
with Comic Sans? extquotedbl. BBC Online. BBC. Re-
trieved 2013-06-15.
7 External links
Microsoft Bob Review
Information about Microsoft Bob version 1.0 for
Windows
The GUI Gallery: Microsoft Bob' Examining Bob
in the context of other graphical user interfaces
A short computing history (story and slideshow) of
Bobs from Microsoft Bob to Bob Metcalfe to Alice
& Bob.
A more in-depth article about Microsoft Bob (Ger-
man)
Video of the Microsoft Bob in action on YouTube
3
8 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses
8.1 Text
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8.2 Images
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