Return of Clippy, the friendly assistant of Word in Windows 11

If you have used computers since the 90s, you almost certainly remember Clippy, one of the many mascots that Microsoft created for its Office suite in that decade and who went down to posterity for his strong personality and eventual disappearance. Well, it seems that those of Redmond are finally aware of how nostalgic their character is and have just included him in the most recent version of their flagship operating system: Windows 11, although of course, in a particular way.

Clippy is now part of the new set of emojis for Windows 11, where it has appeared after the success of a curious advertising campaign made by the brand at the beginning of winter (summer in the northern hemisphere).

Who is Clippy?

In case you don’t remember, Clippy is quite a particular character. This is a humanized metal clip with expressive cartoonish eyes and eyebrows. Its design is a genius, and it even takes advantage of the curves of its wire to highlight a smile.

Clippy’s personality was charismatic enough to be remembered after many years and has even been mentioned in popular culture on various occasions. For example, in an episode of the popular sitcom The Office, one of the employees requests technical assistance for a version of Word where he cannot find the assistant (probably because it was discontinued).

Clippy and the new emojis in Windows 11

Regarding the emojis in Windows 11, it is noticeable that they respond to the Fluent design that Redmond wants to highlight for its interface. In this sense, Clippy has been partially simplified and is no longer a pre-rendered 3D design, but rather a colored stroke without dimensionality.

Clippy has replaced the standard paper emoji and was proposed in July by Microsoft’s own Twitter account. Those of Redmond assured that if they obtained more than 20,000 likes, the mascot would return. Well, the publication reached 173,000 likes.

To activate the new emojis in Windows 11, just go to Windows Update in the Settings menu and update to the latest available version of the OS.