Microsoft’s worst software program flop was secretly lurking in Home windows for years

Within the mid-Nineties, Microsoft DOS dominated most PCs. Those that have been a step forward may’ve been utilizing Home windows 3.1, however even that was a superimposed consumer interface on prime of MS-DOS. Home windows was nonetheless fairly darn unfamiliar to folks again then, so in 1995, Microsoft got here up with a extra user-friendly interface known as Microsoft Bob (codename Utopia).

Bob was an entire alternative for Home windows 3.1, altering the best way customers interacted with their PCs. As an alternative of “home windows,” you interfaced with a digital home with all recordsdata, folders, and options represented as elements of the home. For instance, there was a room for mail and one for the calendar, plus furnishings and animated characters (just like the canine Rover), all in a welcoming cartoony look. The intent was to decrease the usability boundaries for PC newcomers and make computer systems simpler to navigate.

Nonetheless, consumer enthusiasm was restricted and important reception was poor. Hardly anybody purchased Bob—solely about 30,000 copies have been offered—and it made excessive calls for on the {hardware}, requiring 8MB of RAM, which was rather a lot in 1995. Microsoft discontinued Bob a couple of 12 months later, across the time Home windows 95 got here out, however that wasn’t the top for Bob.

Microsoft Bob makes a comeback… kind of

With Home windows XP’s launch in 2001, the failed Microsoft Bob made a curious comeback. When Microsoft put Home windows XP on set up CDs, they found that there have been nonetheless 30 MB free on these discs—so Microsoft determined to refill that area. With what, you ask? With an encrypted type of Bob, in fact!

Former Microsoft worker and Home windows developer Raymond Chen defined the reasoning in a 2008 problem of TechNet Journal:

“The end result was a quite feeble try and decelerate the individuals who wish to make unlawful copies of Home windows. Someone determined to fill that additional capability on the CD with dummy knowledge and to have the Home windows Setup program confirm that the dummy knowledge was nonetheless there. This, the logic went, would power folks downloading a replica of the CD picture to obtain a further thirty or so megabytes of information. Keep in mind, this was again within the day when ‘broadband’ hadn’t but turn out to be a family phrase and mainstream customers have been utilizing dial-up connections. Having to switch a further thirty megabytes of information over a 56Kb modem was a little bit of an impediment to gradual customers down—not that it might gradual them down a lot by at present’s requirements.”

However why Bob’s code of all issues? Chen continues:

“The one that was requested to implement this test wanted a supply for the dummy knowledge. Now, he might have simply known as the CryptGenRandom operate to generate 30 megabytes of cryptographically random bytes, however the place’s the enjoyable in that? As an alternative, he dug by the archives and located a replica of Microsoft Bob. He took all of the floppy disk photos and mixed them into one huge file. The contents of the Microsoft Bob floppy disk photos will not be notably random, so he determined to scramble up the information by encrypting it. When it got here time to enter the encryption key, he simply smashed his hand haphazardly throughout the keyboard and out got here an encrypted copy of Microsoft Bob. That’s what went into the unused area as ballast knowledge on the Home windows XP CD.”

And so, everybody who purchased Home windows XP additionally (unknowingly) acquired a replica of the completely flopped Microsoft Bob.

It’s sort of humorous within the grand scheme, contemplating we as soon as named Microsoft Bob as one of many worst tech merchandise of all time. Nonetheless, little Easter eggs like this are anticipated and unavoidable when you will have a historical past as extensively storied as Microsoft does.