That was definitely not possible on Windows XP version of Minesweeper, they would regenerate the board if you clicked on a bomb in the background and used that one instead.

Oh, really? I guess I was just misremembering things. Thanks for correcting me here! (not sarcastic, genuinely happy to be corrected when I remember things wrong)

It was definitely not like that on Win98.

Definitely not like what the parent said, or what I said? Maybe I'm remembering that rather than XP

You would think that if you clicked a bomb first, the app would regenerate the board until it made one where the place you clicked was not a bomb.

Some games do this, some don't some only actually generate the field once you click the first box.

The behaviour towards the user is the same, though: The first click never results in a bomb. Everything else is an implementation detail, although not placing bombs until after the first click is probably the easiest approach to ensure it.