Encarta Virtual Globe (1997) 1 Reference Windows

Encarta Virtual Globe is a companion multimedia product to Microsoft Encarta, and was also included on the Encarta Reference Suite DVD. Microsoft Encarta Virtual Globe contains detailed geographical and topographical maps and information, a huge database of places, geography games, satellite photographs, and 3D "flights" over major landmarks.

• 1998 Edition

Expedia Streets (1997) 1 Reference Windows

Expedia Streets, from Microsoft, is a multimedia street atlas similar to Delorme Street Atlas. It competed with DeLorme Street Atlas, and Rand McNally Route Planner.

• 98 (6.0)

Microsoft Windows a Vision for the Future (1997) 0 Novelty Document Windows

This is a promotional collection of documents in HTML format released in 1997 describing Microsoft's upcoming plans for future versions of Windows.

• 1997

Microsoft Site Server (1997) 0 Server Windows

Microsoft Site Server was an attempt to create a single all-in-one e-commerce management solution. It featured Indexing and Search, Content Management, Product Management, Order Processing, Site Personalization, and Ad Server.

• 2.0

Microsoft GIF Animator (1997) 3 Graphics Windows

Back before HTML 5, Flash, or fancy scripting, the only way you could be sure that you would annoy your readers was to use animated GIFs. Not wanting to disappoint, Microsoft made their own GIF creation program: GIF Construction Set. In the late 90's sprit of crushing competition, Microsoft gave it away for free. It was also bundled with Microsoft Image Composer and Microsoft FrontPage. Construction Set. Although in practice GIF Construction set worked better for building the animated GIFs, and then GIF Animator was useful for touching things up afterwards. (Mainly removing the shareware GIF Construction Set's "created by" comment text. :P )

• 1.0

Microsoft Visual Studio (1996) 209 Windows

Visual Studio is an IDE (integrated development environment) for Microsoft Windows that allows developers to develop a variety of applications. It is a bundle of seperate programming products, including Microsoft Visual C++, Microsoft J++, Microsoft Visual Basic, and Foxpro

• 97 (5.x)
• 6.0

Microsoft Visual Basic (1991) 1050 Windows

First released in 1991, Microsoft Visual Basic was a programming environment where one could build an application by visually creating the user interface first, and then adding code. In contrast, even the smallest Visual Basic basic programs could take reams of program code to write in C or C++. Visual Basic was extremely popular for business application programming. The language itself was an interpreted BASIC dialect, however speed was maintained through the use of reusable compiled libraries (DLLs and VBX controls). These however, limited application development to Microsoft Windows.

• 1.0
• 2.0
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 5.0
• 6.0

Encarta (1993) 14 Reference Windows MacOS

Microsoft Encarta was a home oriented interactive encyclopedia that was often sold with new OEM machines. Unlike a paper encyclopedia, Encarta took full advantage of being on a computer, with updates from the Internet, sound clips and movies, interactive charts and games, and good navigation.

• 1994
• 1995
• 1996
• 1997
• 1998
• 1999

Microsoft Plus! (1995) 36 Utility Novelty Windows

Microsoft Plus! was an add-on package to Windows that added desktop themes, screen savers, sound effects, power-toys, and other assorted goodies for the home user. Plus! 95 also included Internet Explorer 1.0, which was not included in all Windows 95 distributions.

• 95
• 98

Visual C++ (1993) 62 Windows

Visual C++ is a greatly enhanced and re-branded version of Microsoft C/C++. The Visual C++ line is primarily aimed at Windows development on 386 CPUs. 5.0 and later were bundled as a part of Microsoft Visual Studio.

• 1.x
• 2.x
• 4.x
• 5.x
• 6.x

Microsoft Outlook (1997) 4 Communications PIM Windows MacOS

Microsoft Outlook (not to be confused with Outlook Express) is an enterprise grade e-mail client. It is primarily intended for use with Microsoft Exchange Server. It was available as both a stand-alone product and as part of Microsoft Office.

• 97
• 98

Microsoft FrontPage (1995) 15 Publishing Windows

Microsoft FrontPage is a WYSIWYG HTML editor/Cuisinart for Microsoft Windows.

• 97 (v2)
• 98 (v3)

Microsoft Mouse (1984) 29 DOS Windows OS2

These are drivers provided by Microsoft for the Microsoft BusPort, serial, and PS/2 mice. Introduced in 1983, The Microsoft Mouse is historically important as it was one of Microsoft's earliest hardware products (The other being an Apple II Z-80 CP/M card). The first Mouse for the IBM PC was actually from Mouse Systems, not Microsoft. However, most clone mice emulated Microsoft's serial protocol and DOS driver software interface. The first Microsoft application designed to make full use of the mouse was Microsoft Word for DOS, and they hyped a product called "Microsoft Windows" (not released until several years later) that was to compete against the upcoming Apple Macintosh and the Mouse Systems based Viscorp Visi On.

• 8.x
• 9.x
• 11.x

MSDN (1996) 40 Windows

MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) is the documentation for Microsoft's development tools, API's and SDK's.

• VS 6.0

Age of Empires (1997) 52 MacOS Windows

Age of Empires is a civilization simulator strategy game where different empires fight to rule.

• 1.0
• Gold Edition

Microsoft Pinball Arcade (1998) 4 Windows

Microsoft Pinball Arcade is a pinball video game from Microsoft for Windows 95 - 98. It was released on December 15, 1998 for Microsoft Windows and in 2001 for the Game Boy Color. The game is a collection of seven real pinball tables licensed by Gottlieb. These include: Baffle Ball (1931), Humpty Dumpty (1947), Knock Out (1950), Slick Chick (1963), Spirit of '76 (1976), Haunted House (1982), and Cue Ball Wizard (1992).

• 1.0

Picture It! (1996) 5 Graphics Windows

Picture It!, from Microsoft, is a photo image adjustment tool for novice users. It includes a number of standard touch-up functions such as red-eye adjustment, resizing, brightness, contrast, and cropping. It can make direct use of scanners and digital cameras. All functions are presented as a dumbed down step-by step series of tabs and menus. Picture-It competed against Adobe Photodeluxe.

• 1.0
• 2.0
• 99

Microsoft Greetings (1997) 2 Publishing Novelty Windows

Microsoft Greetings is a greeting card maker for Microsoft Windows 9x/NT. It was made in conjunction with Hallmark.

• Workshop 2.0
• 99 (3.0)

Windows 98 (1998) 1184 Windows

Windows 98 is a continuation of the Windows 95 product. The major change is an insanely heavy focus on web integration. The help system, many applications, and even the desktop are redesigned to make use of Internet Explorer. Windows 98 runs on top of the same "MS-DOS 7.1" with FAT32 support as Windows 95 OSR2, and it includes support for USB. Windows 98 had two major releases - a First Edition and a Second Edition. It was followed up by Windows ME. | 1.0 | 2.x | 3.x | NT 3.x | 95 | NT 4.0 | 98 | 2000 | ME | All |

• Pre-Releases
• First Edition
• 98 SE Beta
• Second Edition

FX!32 (1996) 2 Windows

XF!32 is a compatiblity layer for Windows NT 4 for the DEC Alpha CPU that adds the ability to run Intel 32-bit binary software. 32-bit i386 executables are essentially disassembled and recompiled with Alpha machine code. The performance is not as good as a native Alpha compiled application, yet it runs at acceptable speeds.

• 1.1

Microsoft Project (1984) 13 Planning Windows MacOS

Microsoft Project is a project management chart and gantt chart generator. It is a Microsoft Office family member, and built on the Office code, although it has never shipped with any Office suite.

• 1.0
• 3.0
• 4.0
• 95
• 98

Windows Resource Kit (1991) 6 Utility Windows

The Microsoft Windows Resource kit is a set of supplementary tools for managing and deploying Microsoft Windows. The first Windows Resource kit was released in 1991 for Windows 3.0. Most, but not all, Windows versions after that had corresponding Resource Kits. These were often freely downloadable from Microsoft.

• 3.x
• 95
• NT 4.0
• 98
• 2000

Visio (1992) 8 Graphics Windows

Visio is a flow-chart diagramming program for Microsoft Windows originally from Shapeware/Visio Corp. Visio was specifically designed as a flow charting tool rather than a generic drawing tool. It featured easy to use drag-and-drop diagram creation, and shipped with a wide variety of stencils. In 2000 Visio Corp was acquired by Microsoft. It competed with Aldus Intellidraw and Micrografx Snapgraphics and Meta Software's MetaDesign.

• 2.0

BackOffice Server (1994) 2 Windows

BackOffice was Microsoft's Windows NT along with an array of server side applications like SQL server, ISA server, et al. It was succeeded by Small Business Server.

• 1.5
• 2.0
• 4.0
• 4.5

Visual J++ (1996) 2 Windows

Visual J++ was Microsoft's proprietary dialect of the Java programming language which ran on Windows under Microsoft's Java virtual machine. It was part of the Microsoft Visual Studio product lineup. It included an Integrated Development Environment and many language extensions, such as the ability to make efficient use of the Win32 APIs. The primary advantage of J++ and Java was the ability to run on a byte-code virtual machine (pioneered by languages like the UCSD P-System ) at a time when Intel was threatening to cut off x86 compatibility in favor of 64-bit instruction sets.

• 1.0