The use of Agents with mIRC
mIRC supports Microsoft Agent both through the Options dialog and through scripting. An agent is
an animated character that can speak text and perform actions. With a little fiddling and tweaking
you can make this agent speak to you, warn you about events on IRC, and even read entire
discussions to you.
In order for mIRC to use Microsoft Agent, you must have already installed Microsoft Agent on
your computer. If it is installed, you will see an Agents button in the mIRC Options/Sounds
dialog that allows you to change settings related to the agent.
Downloading and Installing Microsoft Agent
With the release of Windows 7, Microsoft has decided to stop supporting Microsoft Agent,
however they have kindly made a package available for those who would like to use Microsoft
Agent under Windows 7. You can download the package through this link:
http://www.microsoft.com/products/msagent/main.aspx
Please note that this package is designed for Windows 7 and will not work on previous
versions of Windows.
Step 1. From the above page, download the Microsoft Agent core components
and install them.
Step 2. Download one or more Microsoft Agent character files and install
them. They all work equally well, although Peedy the Parrot seems to be the most popular.
Step 3.
Now that Microsoft Agent is installed, you should be able to make mIRC speak
some text. Assuming you have downloaded Peedy, try the following commands.
/gload peedy peedy.acs
This command will load Peedy in the background and make it ready to listen to you.
You will see a little parrot icon in the system tray. Be sure to specify the character
filename with the /gload command (peedy.acs for Peedy, genie.acs for Genie, and so on).
/gshow peedy
This will make Peedy visible. You can use the /ghide peedy command to
hide Peedy.
/gtalk peedy Hello, nice to meet you!
With this command you can make Peedy speak some text. Try it!
Step 4. You can now explore mIRC's built-in Agent support which can be
found in the Options/Sounds/Agents dialog.
If you are into scripting, you can also find out about how to control Agent through
scripting in the Agents section of the mIRC help file.
What else is there to do?
- Download more characters from the MS Agent Ring. They offer
characters like Oscar the Cat, Max the Dog, and some Aliens!
- You can make your own character! See this Microsoft Agent
page more information.
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