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Microsoft BOB lives!

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Microsoft BOB lives in infamy. 

BOB was a graphical shell that ran on top of Windows 3.11 and Windows 95.  It attempted to replace the traditional desktop environment with a visual representation of a house; where all your programs were objects in the house.

It sounds like a nice idea, but it was an abysmal failure in the market place.  As a result very few people actually know about BOB these days, and those that remember it tend to cringe when they hear about it.

I am an ‘Operating System’ enthusiast by nature, so when I first came across Virtual PC from Connectix (I was one of the first people to sign up for the initial beta program for the first version of Virtual PC for Windows) I immediately set about trying every operating system I could find under Virtual PC.  However; I was not able to get my hands on a copy of Microsoft BOB until the Connectix technology was acquired by Microsoft.  One of the first things I did as a new Microsoft employee was to search the file archives, find a copy of BOB, install it under Virtual PC and go: ‘Yes! It works!’ (I then emailed screen shots to my entire team).

In the end we ended up making internal team shirts for Virtual PC which had written on the front ‘What about BOB?’; and on the back ‘BOB has found a new home, Microsoft Virtual PC 2004, Yes – it even runs BOB’.

One of the amusing aspects (to me) about BOB is that everything in the house is a scalable vector object.  This means that you can make some fairly funky changes to the display (as shown in my ‘house burning’ screen shot below):

msbob1msbob2msbob3msbob4

Hmm…Not sure that there is much more that should be said – apart from BOB lives! :-)

Cheers,

Ben

Comments

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2004
    Never saw anyone using Bob :DDD

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2004
    Of course, I'm pretty sure BOB was designed to run on Windows 3.11. I might be wrong, but it seems like a better replacement for Program Manager than the start menu and I thought it was a 16 bit app.

    Have no fear though... when I first joined Microsoft, I too went looking for BOB and I'm proud to say that it still works just fine on Windows XP. BOB is the real reason Microsoft maintains backwards compatibility... that and WEP.

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2004
    Of course Bob lives - he is the animated search character in a default load of XP. Didn't Melinda Gates used to work with the BOB team? I think that's how Bob ended up in XP. Conspiracy! jk ;)

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2004
    Is Bob's dog (does he/she have a name?) the same one showing up in Windows XP search ???

    • Anonymous
      March 14, 2016
      1-He has a name.His name is Rover2-Yes.It's one of the assistants in the Windows XP search.

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2004
    Hi,

    I actually remember getting a Presario 486 that came with it... or something VERY similar to it. :)

  • Anonymous
    November 03, 2004
    If memory serves, Mr. Gates' wife was in charge of that project.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004

    Whew, I was worried that the BOB interface was forever lost to humankind. Thanks for providing this valuable service. It's nice to know that someone there is paying attention to the things that really matter.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    I seem to remember when I got my Packard Bell back in 1999, it shipped with something very similar running on top of Windows 98, Except without the dog. And the house was a bit more detailed as well.

    I can't really remember how it looked. I (like the rest of the world it seems) hated it, and uninstalled it at the first available opportunity.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    great information..thanks for sharing.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    I once heard a story about Bob.

    Supposedly, when Bob saw you goof up your password 3 times in a row (not that Bob's playground was 'secure'), Bob the helpful would offer to help you change it to something else you could remember easier. Can you find out if this a truth or a dare ?

    Mark

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    The reason Rover is still around is because of a pre-nuptial agreement (:')

    http://home.pmt.org/~drose/aw-win3x-16.html

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    Aparently windowsbeta.net also got some screenshots of Bob (And have had for a while). For the curious: http://www.windowsbeta.net/screen/bob/

    Bob was a total failure :>

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    Ryan -

    BOB was released in 1995 for both Windows 3.11 and Windows 95.

    Jeff -

    The old rumor is that Melinda did work on BOB - but I have heard neither confirmation nor denial of that.

    Rolando -

    The dog's name is 'Rover'

    Mark -

    This is correct - get the password wrong three times and it will reset it for you. ROTFL.

    Cheers,
    Ben

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    All I can say is that Microsoft Bob stirs my cup of nostalgia. It was back in 1995 when I bought that Micron PC. Bob was not very flexible but I really liked the idea of shelling up the ugly Windows 3.1 with something more friendly along with the butler-like characters.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    I used BOB when it came out. It was quite cool in the beginning to play with and then it became a pain in the neck. Bob was cute but clumsy.

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    Hey, I have a CD of BOB still wrapped in the celophane - wonder what it's worth?

  • Anonymous
    November 04, 2004
    Sos un boluuuuuuudo

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2004
    I thought I was bad having a Win3.11 virtual machine with old IE versions on for testing.

    This. This is just wrong

    :)

  • Anonymous
    November 06, 2004
    The interfase that came with the Packard Bell is not BOB, it`s called navigator or something... I used it, I had a 486 too in some time of my life

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2004
    Is there a program similar to MS Bob available currently? I used to like the calendar with it pop-up reminders.

  • Anonymous
    November 22, 2004
    Hi Ed,

    Not that I know of.

    Cheers,
    Ben

  • Anonymous
    November 25, 2004
    I WANT MICROSOFT BOB ON MY PC!! I LOVE HIM!

  • Anonymous
    November 25, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 27, 2004
    Dude I love that program! I remember we got it with the first computer we had.. Well I was about 7 then and loved re-arranging the house and stuff. But i want it back! haha

  • Anonymous
    November 28, 2004
    If the dogs name is Rover, what does BOB stand for?

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2004
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    November 30, 2004
    haha... i still have it! i have the disk that it came on my old 95 gateway! im gonna install it on my spankin new 3.4ghz 1gig dual channel ram, 360 gig hd, Gforce4fx6800ultra pc!!! im totaly goin old school on it... im installing a carboard floppy drive and a data cassette drive... i even have one of those huge surge protecters that you set under your moniter LOL this is AWESOME!

  • Anonymous
    July 09, 2010
    Where did you get it from? Can I have it!?!?!?!? :D

  • Anonymous
    May 03, 2013
    hola evilo codigo de  windosw xp starter edition  micoleo  alberto121346@hotmail.com

  • Anonymous
    November 05, 2013
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    October 09, 2014
    I loved my Microsoft Bob House.  Until my nine-year-old son hacked my password and set it on fire (digitally).