The Microsoft Bob Experience: Was It Really THAT Bad? 

Next piece of odd Windows software to cover: Bonzi Buddy? Thoughts? EDIT: I DID IT ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-L958sMz1kWs.html

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!

im still using bob to plan and list all my divorces

The world is still not ready for me

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.

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

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

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

I was a kid and grandpa had this on his PC, I adored everything about it, I won't lie. This is such a nostalgia trip.

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

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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 !!

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.

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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.

*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 😂

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

The Sims: Checkbook Balancing Expansion Pack.

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

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

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

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!

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.

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.

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.

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!

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

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!

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.

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

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

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.

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

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

13:53 Greeting cards?!? Pshht, with those designs, I'm making Dixie cups!

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!

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

17:09 Rover moves his mouth in time with LGRs

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!

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?

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

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

Its so 90s it hurts!

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

Why do I have a feeling an iPhone/Android version of Bob would actually do kinda well??

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.

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

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

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.

As someone who's fluent with the concept of a "Desktop", Bob looks far more confusing than just using the Start menu.

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.

I would rock a Bob sticker on my laptop so hard

My friend had this and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. Her dad made good money and I was the poor kid in school. Her dad got all the latest technology in the 90s and I was always in awe. I really loved this. If you compare it to technologies today it seems lame, but as a young kid in the 90s, especially one with no experience with a computer, it was awesome!

69 Fart Street... Nice

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

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

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.

"we had to put the dog down when we got windows 10". A 2019 kid talking to his 90's version. Cue heart attack from 90's kid

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

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.

Drinking game: shot every time he says 'barb'

Thanks for the video. I did see this product in Wal-Mart around that time on the store shelves. I never used it myself because I thought it was pointless. Folks who told me they used it suffered from slow computer performance given that they were running two operating systems together on systems with the slow processors and limited RAM for inexpensive computers.

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.

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.

I can't believe you opened mint copy of Great Greetings! :O Thanks for another awesome video! :D

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.

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.

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

I remember seeing Bob on sale at Kmart way back when. Thanks for the video, I've never actually seen Bob in action!

Honestly, stuff like this fascinates me, if someone made an updated version of this, I'd probably check it out.

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

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.

Seeing this makes me wonder if you will ever cover the Packard Bell Navigator program.

When you drag and resize the flower vase, and clicking it brings up a menu quickly reminds me of my old windows 7 futuristic rainmeter.

Half of the programs are just re-skinned spreadsheets!

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!

great video. great research and description as always. thank you

Wow it’s been over 2 years since this video. Clint’s voice is the perfect thing to hear when trying to sleep. It’s soothing for some reason.

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

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.

That was a great watch, view? Made my night! I miss all the clip art. I don't really see much change except faster computers when they want them to be, anyway! Cool video

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.