On this day: How Microsoft changed the world with Windows 95 launch
Microsoft’s launch of Windows 95 was a world-changing moment, with Bill Gates dancing on stage to the Rolling Stones ‘Start Me Up’ - referring to the operating system’s ‘Start’ button.
The Stones had been paid a reported $8 million for use of the song: Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston, hot from starring in Friends, starred in a video for Windows 95.
In America, the Empire State Building was lit up in Microsoft’s colours to mark the launch, as was Toronto’s CN Tower.
It was a defining moment for technology: with a software launch that resembled the launch of a film or album, and an OS which for many people was the first time they had used a PC for entertainment, not work.
Windows 95 introduced many of the now-iconic features of Windows, including the Start button and taskbar.
Customers queued round the block to buy Windows 95: a sight now associated with Apple launches. But in 1995, Microsoft was leading the charge.
When Windows 95 launched, only a quarter of British households had computers - this had doubled by 2001, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The software introduced the familiar 'desktop' with links to files, folders and applications.
The interface had previously appeared in Apple Mac computers, and before that in a graphical interface created by research company Xerox Parc.
Responding to accusations that Windows had ‘copied’ Steve Jobs’s ideas, Gates said, “The main "copying" that went on relative to Steve and me is that we both benefited from the work that Xerox Parc did in creating the graphical interface.”
Shortly after the launch of Windows 95, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer as a belated add-on.
The OS had initially shipped without a browser.
The addition had come after a moment where a panicked-sounding Bill Gates sent a memo to Microsoft staff headed, ‘The Internet Tidal Wave’.
Gates realised that Microsoft had to offer its Internet Explorer software free with Windows 95 to compete - a decision that would ignite the so-called ‘browser wars’.
He wrote, ‘"One scary possibility being discussed by internet fans, is whether they should get together and create something far less expensive than a PC which is powerful enough for web browsing."
Gates announced his determination to ‘match or beat’ rival Netscape Navigator with its Internet Explorer.
Later, Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with every Windows PC, and insisted that other companies do so as well.
It worked: at one stage, the browser had a staggering 95% market share.
It was very nearly a costly decision: a 1998 US Department of Justice investigation into the practice suggested that Microsoft should be broken up over anticompetitive practices.
In Europe, the company had to introduce a ‘Browser Choice’ pop-up screen, and was fined E561m by the European Commission when the screen was removed in a Windows 7 update.
Today’s Windows 10 is still recognisably the grandchild of Windows 95, with much of the screen furniture exactly the same including the taskbar.
The OS still comes with the iconic Start button - Microsoft removed it in 2012, but restored it again after outcry from consumers.
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