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Microsoft Agent Beta 2.0

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Microsoft Agent Beta 2.0
Screenshot of the Properties menu in Microsoft Agent Beta 2.0 build 98.
NameMicrosoft Agent Beta 2.0
Developer(s)Microsoft
Initial releaseJune 18th, 1997 (28 years ago)
Written inC++
Operating systemMicrosoft Windows
Discontinued?Yes

Microsoft Agent Beta 2.0 is the second beta release of Microsoft Agent. It was released and announced on the Microsoft Developer Network on June 18th, 1997.[1] This release contains rewritten animation services, downloadable speech recognition and TTS engines, support for displaying multiple characters at once, and various extensions to the application programming interface.

As of 2026, this version of Microsoft Agent is currently lost and unobtainable with no download link. However, on December 10th, 2025, screenshots were discovered of build 98 of this version inside of the Visual Basic 6.0 Professional install disc.

Builds

Build Number Source
Microsoft Agent 0.2.0.98 Visual Basic 6.0 Professional MSAGENT/UI.doc[2]

Characters

This release was confirmed to include early versions of Genie, Merlin and Robby; it is also the first version confirmed to have a dedicated character editor, which is not supported by the final release. Therefore, any characters created for the beta Microsoft Agent would not be compatible with either Microsoft Agent 1.5 or Microsoft Agent 2.0.

  • Copyright menu from build 98.
    Copyright menu from build 98.
  • Speech input menu from build 98.
    Speech input menu from build 98.
  • Output menu from build 98.
    Output menu from build 98.
  • Taskbar icon from build 98.
    Taskbar icon from build 98.

Trivia

  • This version of Microsoft Agent is currently lost.
  • This version of Microsoft Agent was only published to developers who had access to the Microsoft Developer Network.
  • It was thought no screenshots existed of this Microsoft Agent version, however, on December 10th, 2025, a screenshot of build 98 was found inside Visual Basic 6.0's MSAGENT folder inside UI.doc.
  • The Beta 2.0 was initially suspected to be Microsoft Agent 1.3. The reasons for such an assumption include the timeline of the releases and the fact that the installation INF file for Microsoft Agent 1.5's change logs mentioned changing the version string from Beta 2 to 1.5. However, Argo Technologies' Agent InfoSpace makes the distinction between Beta 2.0 and Beta 3.0. [3]

References

  1. ↑ https://news.microsoft.com/source/1997/06/18/new-microsoft-agent-beta-2-0-allows-creation-of-interactive-characters-for-internet-and-activex-based-applications/
  2. ↑ https://ia801508.us.archive.org/view_archive.php?archive=/33/items/vb60-pro/VBP600ENU1.iso&file=COMMON%2FTOOLS%2FVB%2FMSAGENT%2FDOCS%2FUI.DOC
  3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/19971019010912/http://www.argolink.com/agent/devcorner/index.html
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