Microsoft Agent 1.5

Microsoft Agent

Screenshot of the Properties menu in Microsoft Agent 1.5.
Name	Microsoft Agent 1.5
Developer(s)	Microsoft
Initial release	September 8th, 1997 (26 years ago)
Latest version	1.5.2.416
Latest version release date	February 20th, 1998 (26 years ago)
Written in	C++
Operating system	Microsoft Windows
Discontinued?	Yes

Microsoft Agent 1.5 is the first public release of Microsoft Agent. It is an upgrade to beta versions of Microsoft Agent, and dropped compatibility for characters created in the beta version. It replaced using multiple files for a character with a single ACS file that would be used for characters. It also simplified the API for developers and changed all mentions of "AgentX" to "MSAgent" or "AgentSvr". Microsoft Agent 1.5 also installed itself in the Program Files/Program Files (x86) directory. It's character folder was also named "Characters" instead of "CHARS", which is the name of the character folder in Microsoft Agent 2.0.

Development

Not much information is known about the development of Microsoft Agent 1.5, since Microsoft Agent 1.5 was added in Windows 98 build 1569 and removed in Windows 98 build 1624. The only four versions known to exist are build, 225, build 232, build 302, and build 416. Build 225 is the earliest build of Microsoft Agent 1.5 and was compiled on August 18th, 1997. This version was included in the Microsoft Agent Development Kit to help developers at the time include Microsoft Agent in their software before the download went public and was also included in Internet Explorer 4 so that developers can already have it used as an ActiveX control on their website. Build 416 is the latest known build of Microsoft Agent 1.5 and fixes many bugs and exploits from the initial release while also updating the copyright date from 1996-97 to 1996-98.

Exploits

Many exploits were discovered with Microsoft Agent 1.5 characters that allowed for remote code execution. Microsoft quickly fixed this with a patch in Microsoft Agent 2.0 and also warning users whenever a program or website was trying to load a Microsoft Agent 1.5 character. It is believed that this only applied to Microsoft Agent 1.5 build 232, which meant the latest build of Microsoft Agent 1.5 was unaffected by the exploit.

Builds

Build Number	Earliest compilation date	Source	Notes/Issues	Link
Microsoft Agent 1.5.0.225	August 13th, 1997	Windows 98 build 1569	Earliest available build of Microsoft Agent 1.5	225.zip
Microsoft Agent 1.5.0.232	August 20th, 1997	Internet Explorer 4, Microsoft Agent Development Kit, Windows 98 build 1577	First public build of Microsoft Agent 1.5	msagent232.exe
Microsoft Agent 1.5.1.302	October 29th, 1997	Unknown	Unknown, build's existence confirmed by Microsoft Agent Character Editor build 302.	N/A
Microsoft Agent 1.5.2.416	February 20th, 1998	VB6 installer & Microsoft website	Bug fixes, updates the copyright year	MSAGENT416.EXE

Trivia

• Microsoft Agent 1.5 came pre-installed on Windows 98 builds 1569 through 1577 before being removed for an unknown reason.
• Not all Microsoft Agent builds are available in Windows betas as it appeared that Microsoft only occasionally updated the Microsoft Agent after each build. This is also why some builds may contain the same version of Microsoft Agent before the version number changes again.
• Unlike the 2.0 installer, the Microsoft Agent 1.5 installer has 2 known versions, therefore meaning the installer was updated at least once.