Microsoft® Agent is a set of software services that supports the presentation of animated characters within the Microsoft Windows® interface either through a web page or software application. Microsoft® Agent is not an application that you can simply run and have characters do things for you.   Applications and Websites must be specifically programmed to utilize Microsoft® Agent.

You must have the following to use Microsoft® Agent:

* (many laptops have built-in sound)

Additional Drive Space Required.

There are five components to consider downloading. Three are necessary, and two are optional. One of the five components, the character animation files, has multiple instances, one for each character. You will only need one to get started.

The necessary components are:

1. Microsoft® agent core components v2.0  (.EXE file, 395K)

Download the above MSAgent.exe setup program and run it to install the core components.  You may then delete MSAgent.exe.

2. Lernout & Hauspie® TruVoice Text-to-Speech engine (.EXE file, 1MB).

The Lernout & Hauspie TruVoice Text-to-Speech (TTS) Engine provides speech output capabilities for Microsoft Agent so you can hear what the characters are saying through your sound speakers. Download the above tv_enua.exe program and run it to install the TTS Engine.  You may then delete tv_enua.exe. If you've already installed this, you should see Lernout & Hauspie TruVoice American English TTS Engine in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs list.

3. Download character animation files direct from Microsoft. Only one is needed to get started.

Peedy the Parrot

Genie the Genie

Merlin the Wizard

Robby the Robot (Robby.exe, 2.2 MB)

Note: There are other characters you can use that were not made by Microsoft. Go to www.msagentring.org.  They have 19 other characters to choose from.

These files will install to C:\WINDOWS\MSAGENT\CHARS or C:\WINNT\MSAGENT\CHARS (character folder), depending on your operating system. If you download additional Character files with .ACS extensions, then you will need to copy them to one of the above directories (the one that applies to your operating system)

File Formats

.EXE Files - Some of the characters (especially Peedy, Genie, Merlin, and Robby) are self-extracting executable files.  Simply run the executable file after downloading it to automatically install the character to your character folder.  You can delete the .EXE file afterwards.

.ZIP Files - Some of the characters may be in .ZIP files.  Download the .ZIP file, open it with a program like WinZip, and extract the character .ACS file to your character folder.

Optional Stuff:

Install the Microsoft Agent Speech Recognition Engine,version 4.0 (6MB)

The Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine provides speech input capabilities for Microsoft Agent. This allows you to speak to characters through a microphone.  However, Microsoft Agent must be specifically programmed to understand and interact with what you are saying.  Microsoft Agent does not support dictation.

Download the above actcnc.exe program and run it to install the TTS Engine.  You may then delete actcnc.exe.

If you've already installed this, you will see Microsoft Agent Speech Recognition Engine 4.0 in the Control Panel's Add/Remove Programs list.

Install the Microsoft Agent Speech Control Panel (840K)

The Speech Control Panel will add an icon to your Control Panel to enable you to list the compatible speech recognition and text-to-speech engines installed on your system and customize the settings for your use.

All the above Microsoft® Agent components are also available from:

http://www.microsoft.com/workshop/imedia/agent/agentdl.htm

Note:Microsoft® Agent cannot be uninstalled.  It becomes an extension to your operating system and is going to be included with future Microsoft® operating systems.