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The company's first international office was founded on November 1, 1978, in Japan, entitled "ASCII Microsoft" (now called "Microsoft Japan"), and on November 29, 1979, the term, "Microsoft" was first used by Bill Gates. Allen came up with the original name of Micro-Soft, a portmanteau of microcomputer and software. As of June 30, 2015, Microsoft has a global annual revenue of US$86.83 billion (~$112 billion in 2024) and 128,076 employees worldwide. In 1980, Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM to bundle Microsoft's operating system with IBM computers; with that deal, IBM paid Microsoft a royalty for every sale.
The release included an updated version of the Windows 2000 kernel, enhanced DOS emulation abilities, and many of the home-user features found in previous consumer versions. Microsoft, in 2000, released new products for all three lines of the company's flagship operating system, and saw the beginning of the end of one of its most prominent legal cases. In 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was released, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from rival Netscape, and by agreement with Apple, Internet Explorer was bundled with the Apple Macintosh operating system as well as with Windows.
On August 24, 1995, it launched a major online service, MSN (Microsoft Network), as a direct competitor to AOL. The success of the web caught them by surprise and they subsequently approached Spyglass to license their browser as Internet Explorer. The interface was discontinued in 1996 due to poor sales; Bill Gates later attributed its failure to hardware requirements that were too high for typical computers, and is widely regarded as one of Microsoft's most unsuccessful products. In October, Windows for Workgroups 3.1 was released with integrated networking abilities such as peer-to-peer file and printing sharing. Novell, an owner of WordPerfect for a time, alleged that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors.

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While Microsoft largely failed to participate in the rise of the Internet in the early 1990s, some of the key technologies in which the company had invested to enter the Internet market started to pay off by the mid-90s. Microsoft entered the personal digital assistant (PDA) market in November with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system, designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other small computers. In an attempt to extend its reach in the consumer market, the company acquired WebTV, which enabled consumers to access the Web from their televisions. Microsoft also launched Slate, an online magazine edited by Michael Kinsley, which offered political and social commentary along with the cartoon Doonesbury. The station was launched on July 15, 1996, to compete with similar news outlets such as CNN. The company continued to branch out into new markets in 1996, starting with a joint venture with NBC to create a new 24-hour cable news television station, MSNBC.

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When Microsoft launched several versions of Microsoft Windows in the 1990s, they had captured over 90% market share of the world's personal computers. Give students the tools to learn and collaborate on projects together and independently, all in one place Teachers and students get access to the best tools for learning anywhere—in the classroom, remotely or in a blended environment—for free The new Microsoft 365 brings together your favorite Microsoft apps all in one, intuitive platform

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  • The app’s secure digital record-keeping, multi-channel communication and rapid document sharing make it a comprehensive solution for business owners seeking efficiency and control.
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  • Microsoft committed to develop Macintosh versions of Multiplan, Word, and Microsoft Chart; Apple agreed to not provide software development kits and prototype computers to companies with applications competing with Microsoft’s.
  • Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1 (which had Windows Desktop Update bundled), and included new features from Windows 95 OSR 2.x including the FAT32 file system, and new features designed for Windows 98, such as support for multiple displays.
  • During the show, Ballmer announced the first public Beta Test of Windows 7 for partners and developers on January 8, but also for the general public two days later.
  • Activity grew quickly as developers from around the world began to participate, and by early 2007 commercial open source companies, such as Aras Corp. began to offer enterprise open source software exclusively on the Microsoft platform.

Microsoft Works, an integrated office program which combined features typically found in a word processor, spreadsheet, database and other office applications, saw its first release as an application for the Apple Macintosh towards the end of 1986. By then the company was the world's largest producer of software for personal computers—ahead of former leader Lotus—and published the three most-popular Macintosh business applications. Microsoft also marketed through an Apple dealer in West Palm Beach, Florida two products for the Radio-Shack TRS-80.
The server sibling to Windows 10, Windows Server 2016, was released in September 2016. In June 2016, Microsoft announced a project named Microsoft Azure Information Protection. The successor to Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, was released November 20, 2015. On July 29, 2015, Microsoft released the next version of the Windows operating system, Windows 10.
Eventually, Microsoft Office became the dominant business suite, with a market share far exceeding that of its competitors. During the transition from MS-DOS to Windows, the success of Microsoft Office allowed the company to gain ground on application-software competitors, such as WordPerfect and Lotus 1-2-3. The new version of Microsoft's operating system boasted new features such as streamlined graphic user interface GUI and improved protected mode ability for the Intel 386 processor; it sold over 100,000 copies in two weeks. Unlike the model of Microsoft Works, Microsoft Office was a bundle of separate office productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and so forth. Microsoft committed to develop Macintosh versions of Multiplan, Word, and Microsoft Chart; Apple agreed to not provide software development kits and prototype computers to companies with applications competing with Microsoft's.

  • In 2002, Microsoft launched the .NET initiative, along with new versions of some of its development products, such as Microsoft Visual Studio.
  • When the IBM PC debuted, Microsoft was the only company that offered operating system, programming language, and application software for the new computer.
  • Novell, an owner of WordPerfect for a time, alleged that Microsoft used its inside knowledge of the DOS and Windows kernels and of undocumented Application Programming Interface features to make Office perform better than its competitors.
  • IBM first approached Gates and Allen about Microsoft’s upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) in July 1980, shortly after Gates’s mother began working on United Way’s executive board with IBM CEO John Opel.
  • Microsoft also released the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick in an attempt to further expand its profile in the computer hardware market.
  • Native Windows integration (taskbar pinning, quick‑launch and offline access) helps users act faster without context switching.

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Microsoft filed a patent application in 2011 that suggests that the corporation may use the Kinect camera system to monitor the behavior of television viewers as part of a plan to make the viewing experience more interactive. To cope with the potential for an increase in demand for products and services, Microsoft opened a number of "holiday stores" across the U.S. to complement the increasing number of "bricks-and-mortar" Microsoft Stores that opened in 2012. On October 1, Microsoft announced its intention to launch a news operation, part of a new-look MSN, at the time of the Windows 8 launch that was later in the month. On July 31, 2012, Microsoft launched the Outlook.com webmail service beta to compete with Gmail. A developer preview was released on September 13, and was replaced by a consumer preview on February 29, 2012.

The Microsoft Store Awards honor mania casino review outstanding applications that elevate user experiences, drive productivity and inspire creativity across the Windows ecosystem. On July 19, 2024, 8.5 million Windows computers around the world suffered crashes and were unable to restart, resulting from a faulty update that American cybersecurity company CrowdStrike released for its Falcon Sensor security software. Meanwhile, that month, the company announced a subscription offering of artificial intelligence for small businesses via Copilot Pro.
Microsoft launched its Indian headquarters as well, which would eventually become the company's second largest after its U.S. headquarters. Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1 (which had Windows Desktop Update bundled), and included new features from Windows 95 OSR 2.x including the FAT32 file system, and new features designed for Windows 98, such as support for multiple displays. The year 1998 was significant in Microsoft's history, with Bill Gates appointing Steve Ballmer as president of Microsoft but remaining as chair and CEO himself. In November 1996, Microsoft Office 97 was released, which is the first version to include Office Assistant.
December also saw the company rebuilding Microsoft Edge as a Chromium-based browser; it was publicly released on January 15, 2020. On June 8, 2017, Microsoft acquired Hexadite, an Israeli security firm, for $100 million (~$125 million in 2024). Microsoft will launch a preview of Intune for Education "in the coming weeks", with general availability scheduled for spring 2017, priced at $30 (~$38.00 in 2024) per device, or through volume licensing agreements. Intune for Education is a new cloud-based application and device management service for the education sector.

Microsoft also released the Microsoft Sidewinder 3D Pro joystick in an attempt to further expand its profile in the computer hardware market. On August 24, 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, a new version of the company's flagship operating system which featured a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more than a million copies were sold in the first four days after its release. The company released Microsoft Bob, a graphical user interface designed for novice computer users, in March 1995.
Ireland became home to one of Microsoft's international production facilities in 1985, and on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows (Windows 1.0), originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. With the release of the Microsoft Mouse on May 2, 1983, Microsoft continued to expand its product line in other markets. Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones after Columbia Data Products successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, quickly followed by Eagle Computer and Compaq. Claiming more than a million installed MS-DOS machines, founder and chairman Bill Gates has decided to certify Microsoft's jump on the rest of the industry by dominating applications, operating systems, peripherals and, most recently, book publishing. Is widely recognized as the most influential company in the microcomputer-software industry. InfoWorld stated in 1984 that Microsoft, with $55 million (~$140 million in 2024) in 1983 sales,