Microsoft BOB 1.00

Microsoft BOB is a Windows 3.1 graphical shell intended for novice users. It presents your desktop as a series of "rooms" with various selectable objects, and assists you with a friendly animated guide. It features vector based graphics that scale to any size or resolution screen, supports user profiles, and includes rudimentary editor, calendar, address book, and checking programs. It was created as a response to Packard Bell Navigator and is somewhat comparable to Apple At Ease and 3DNA.

Aside from being too "cutesy", it flopped largely due to price, lack of OS/application integration, lack of OEM pre-installs, failure to showcase installed software, or lack of any real purpose. Arguably it was successful as a tool for crushing Packard Bell.

Other similar dumbed down applications include Microsoft Creative Writer and Microsoft Fine Artist. The animated guides were later re-used in Microsoft Office 97. The only known shipped retail product that runs within BOB is Microsoft Great Greetings.

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Release notes

1.00 is the original release of Microsoft BOB

Installation instructions

This is a 16-bit application designed for Microsoft Windows 3.1. It will also run on Windows 95, NT, and later. It will run on the 32-bit version of Windows 10.

If it fails to start, make sure the MSBOB folder is included in the PATH environmental variable.

Setup may complain about "insufficient RAM" if you have more than 16MB, but it will let you continue.