Microsoft Bob: Microsoft’s biggest flop of the 1990s
It was January 1995. Microsoft was riding high. Windows 3.1 had sold well. The interim replacement, Windows 3.11, was selling well. The industry was abuzz for the upcoming Windows 95, expected sometime later in the year. Microsoft was in a golden era, a time when nothing could go wrong for them. And then they released Microsoft Bob. They should have named it Microsoft Bomb, because it bombed. But if you take one letter out of Bomb, you get Bob. So they almost got it right.
Microsoft Bob was a replacement user interface for Windows for novice computer users, replacing the conventional Program Manager or Explorer interface with something friendlier. Announced in early January 1995 and released March 11, 1995, Microsoft quietly discontinued it in 1996, just about a year later.
Microsoft Bob presented screens showing a house, with rooms that the user could visit containing familiar objects corresponding to computer applications, such as a desk with pen and paper and a checkbook. Clicking on the pen and paper would open the system’s word processor. Cartoon characters like a cartoon dog named Rover provided guidance using speech balloons.
