I just installed windows 7 (I got it through MSDNAA) and got a bit bored while reinstalling everything. So I decided to put the CD in just to see what it did.
Surprise, most of it still works!
There's 3 key programs here. Talk It! features a sound board where you can type things in and then microsoft sam will read (or sing) it back to you in one of 20 different voices. You can also choose between english and spanish pronunciations of letters (and yes, it can read spanish), as well as whispering, normal speech and "breathy," whatever that is.
Interestingly enough, he pronounces "soi" as soy. Actually, he pronounces quite a lot correctly, significantly better than the modern language tool. Microsoft seems to have given Sam a lobotomy somewhere between 1995 and now.
Having a robot national socialist chat "Eyen Rye-ick. Eyen Folk. Eyen Fear-her. Hi-el Riddler." never gets old. Yes, you do have to spell it that way for it to work. It does a pretty good job at spanish and english words, but not much else.
There's also Paint It! It's got rainbows and stamps and explosions and stuff. A picture would explain it better.
http://i31.tinypic.com/2v3ngol.pngOr maybe not.
Clicking on the help button brings up a lovely web page by microsoft about how winhelp32 files have not been supported by Microsoft since Windows Vista. They provide a download to read them, but the windows 7 reader won't be out for a while.
Finally there's Play It! It's basically a piano that you can play by typing on the keyboard. It records in some goofy format that only Play It! can understand but you can export it as a midi file.
Here's my rendition of greensleeves:
http://sites.google.com/site/storage54321/storage-1/greensleeves.mid?attredirects=0(it's a bit weird because I was playing it by clicking on the keys.)
Unfortunately you can't hear the end for the cheesy scratch effects I put at the end because they don't save in the midi, just the "jbx" file.
The rest of the CD is filled with hideous themes that would probably still work even on windows 7 but the thought of replacing the aereo theme with 16-bit color animated cursors was enough to keep me from experimenting.
Also on the disk:
Internet Explorer 3
MSN - not MSN Messenger. I have uninstalled it on every version of windows I've ever used and still have no idea what it does. I always assumed it was some glorified web browser that was somehow locked into msn.com
Protect! - I have no idea what this does because I don't have the DLL to run it. My best guess is it's a web filter or a way to password protect folders and programs or something. Maybe it backs up some data onto a partition for when you have to do your monthly reinstall of the operating system.
