Open main menu

Microsoft is an American company that manufactures computer and video game software, systems and peripherals. It was founded as Micro-Soft in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1975. Microsoft moved its headquarters to Redmond, Washington and became a publicly traded company in 1986.

Their first operating system was a version of Unix which was named Xenix, which was first released in 1980. However, their most successful operating system in their early years was MS-DOS, which was based on a CP/M clone, and was first released in 1981. The success of MS-DOS would later be overshadowed by Windows, the first version of which was released in 1984. They also make operating systems for portable systems, including Windows CE, which was first released in 1996, Windows Mobile, which is based on Windows CE and was first released in 2000, and Windows Phone, which is the successor to Windows Mobile and was first released in 2010. After trying their hand at designing systems by making a computer standard known as MSX in 1983, they decided to fully enter the hardware market for systems with the release of the Xbox video game system in 2001. They have continued to manufacture and sell video game systems, with the release of the Xbox 360 in 2005 and the Xbox One in 2013.

Microsoft also has several game studios and publishes video games. The Neverhood was produced in a joint venture between DreamWorks Interactive and Microsoft, and was distributed by Microsoft.

External links