Prody Parrot facts for kids

Prody Parrot was a special computer program designed to help you on your computer screen. It was like having a friendly helper right on your desktop! This program was made for older computer systems called Windows 9x and Windows NT. A company called Mindmaker created Prody Parrot in 1999. It was meant to assist people using computers for work, but it also had fun features for home users.

What Was Prody Parrot?

Prody Parrot was a unique type of computer program known as a desktop assistant. Imagine a helpful character that lives on your computer screen! Prody, who was a colorful parrot, would fly around your screen. He was there to offer help whenever you needed it. When you didn't need his help, Prody would find a quiet spot. He might "perch" on your computer's taskbar (the bar at the bottom of your screen) or on top of one of your open windows.

How Prody Parrot Worked

You could interact with Prody in many ways. He was designed to do more than just entertain. Prody Parrot could also help with tasks related to business. For example, he could even help you search for information about the stock market. A fun extra that came with Prody Parrot was a version of another old computer program called Dr. Sbaitso from Creative Labs. This meant you could also chat with Dr. Sbaitso right inside the Prody Parrot software!

Other Desktop Helpers

Prody Parrot was not the only desktop assistant program ever made. Many other programs were created to help or entertain computer users.

• Talking Moose: This was one of the very first desktop assistant programs. It was made for Apple Macintosh computers and was quite similar to Prody Parrot.
• Microsoft Office Assistant: You might remember these! They were a series of helpful characters built into Microsoft Office programs. The most famous one was probably Clippy, the paperclip.
• Digital pet: Prody Parrot was also a bit like a digital pet. These are virtual animals or characters you can interact with on your computer or phone.
• BonziBuddy: This was another program that acted like a desktop assistant. However, BonziBuddy later became known for being an "adware" program. This means it showed unwanted ads and sometimes caused problems for computers.