Microsoft is regularly chastised and condemned, but we wouldn’t have many of the contemporary computer comforts we take for granted today if it weren’t for them. When Microsoft unveiled the Surface last month, it was widely lambasted for attempting to enter the hardware market. However, during the last few decades, Microsoft has released numerous outstanding items, including hardware. So, with Windows 8 (early reviews have been divided), Microsoft’s most important product in years, just two months away, we decided to take a look at some other hits. Bill Gates and Paul Allen, two young college dropouts who launched a small boutique computer company in Albuquerque, New Mexico, have gone a long way since their humble beginnings. That company would go on to become the colossal monster it is today. To term Microsoft products “influential” is an understatement considering how many hours are spent using them. This post is for you if you’re looking for innovative software solutions. Prepare for the top products that all business owners and teams have found to be really useful over the years.
List Of Top 10 Microsoft Products
#10 Windows XP
Over the years, the Windows operating system has experienced considerable changes with each iteration that comes out every few years. Microsoft used the knowledge gathered from each iteration to build a version of Windows that was the most popular computer operating system on the market. The eventual product was Windows XP, which has become linked with stability and innovation due to its default desktop picture. From its release in 2001 until the beginning of the 2010 decade, Windows XP was heavily used by all users, whether they were consumers, developers, students, small businesses, or enterprises. This is widely regarded as the best Windows version of all time.
#9 Bing
You may be familiar with Bing as the search engine that has always been eclipsed by Google. Bing is undoubtedly less well-known, but it can boldly claim second place behind the search engine that has already been included in dictionaries (to google something is to look it up on Google). Bing’s strength stems from Microsoft’s previous experiences with search engines such as MSN Search, Windows Live Search, Live Search, and Yahoo! Search. Bing now has access to previously produced indexes thanks to Yahoo! Search’s long and distinguished history in the financial and medical industries.
#8 MS-DOS operating system
In the 1980s and 1990s, MS-DOS (Microsoft Disk Operating System) was the most popular operating system for IBM personal computers. It’s a classic interface with simple neutral colours that integrated many diverse user interfaces and systems before the visual operating systems we know and use, making them more appealing and extensively adopted among common consumers. MS-DOS could be said to have defined the term “personal computer.”
#7 Microsoft Solitaire
Microsoft faced a problem in the 1990s that would influence the ease of use and usefulness of their applications. Microsoft had adopted the mouse and pointer method for navigating the graphical user interface of Windows at a time when computer mice were just starting to become popular. The average consumer had never used a mouse before. Starting with Windows 3.0 in 1990, Microsoft addressed this issue by incorporating the Solitaire card game with their operating systems. The game taught users how to move, click, drag, and drop with a mouse, as well as other basic mouse motions and activities. Many customers were also intimidated by Windows’ graphical user interface (GUI) and the mouse. Users were eased into an otherwise difficult endeavour with Solitaire. Even now, new versions of Windows include Solitaire, paying tribute to an important piece of software that may have inspired an entire generation.
#6 Visual Studio
Microsoft Visual Studio is a programming environment for creating computer programmes, web services, and mobile apps. The initial edition of Microsoft Visual Studio was published in 1997, and it provided developers with a lot of flexibility thanks to its bundled toolkit, which gave them a better overall experience and gave them multiple perspectives on different programming languages, frameworks, and tools. Since 2015, Microsoft’s Visual Team has been devoted to improving Visual Studio’s utility by updating the already fantastic interface and rewriting the toolkit to make programming more efficient.
#5 Microsoft Xbox 360
With the launching of the Xbox in 2001, Microsoft joined the game console market. It included internet game services that allowed users to compete without having to be in the same room. There was also a user interface that was simple to use and a buddy list system. The Xbox 360, which was introduced in November 2005, expanded on all of this. Over 75 million units have been sold worldwide, drastically changing people’s perceptions of multiplayer games. The Xbox 360 established that online gaming communities could exist on gaming consoles with games like Halo and Gears of War. With the debut of Kinect, a webcam placed peripherally for the Xbox 360 that allowed gamers to play games using motion gestures and voice orders, the Xbox team at Microsoft went above and beyond. Kinect was a technological marvel in its day, and it ranks the Xbox 360 in the Top 10 Microsoft Products.
#4 Microsoft Office
It’s difficult to picture the digital era beginning without text editors. In the mid-1980s, Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint were released, paving the way for the launching of Microsoft Office. These three products were published individually, with a slew of more Office programmes to follow in the years to come. Office 95, which included Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Access, Schedule+, and Binder, was published by Microsoft in 1995. Since then, professionals and ordinary people all around the world have been using homogeneous content creation, editing, and management. We appreciate Microsoft Office’s efforts today, from its humble beginnings to the now cloud-based Office 360, which enables organisations power their management teams while also providing the fantastic applications we all know and love.
#3 Microsoft Internet Explorer
Web browsers have only been around for a short time. It all started with Mosaic, the grandfather of web browsers. The evolution of these technologies led to the birth of Netscape and, later, the creation and release of Internet Explorer in 1995, which went hand in hand with ViolaWWW. Although Netscape is no longer available, Internet Explorer is still in use. Although Microsoft Edge has now superseded Internet Explorer, many professionals continue to use it to retain compatibility with older websites. Every version of Windows came with Internet Explorer as the default web browser. Internet Explorer was many people’s first introduction to the internet. This programme, as well as its name, will be remembered for a long time.
#2 Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure is a cloud web service that has the potential to be the next great Microsoft product. Azure is, in many ways, Microsoft’s future. For businesses and professionals pursuing Digital Transformation, it provides Virtual Machines, app services, SQL databases, storage, frameworks, development tools, and much more. Microsoft Azure is used by 95% of Fortune 500 firms. It provides exceptional horizontal and vertical scalability, which is something that businesses and companies are always looking for. It provides Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) solutions (PaaS). Microsoft Azure is a cloud computing platform that works on the.NET framework, another Microsoft product, and offers more than a hundred different services. On Azure, you may run both Windows and Linux virtual machines, allowing you to run programs and make fast updates and support. Alternatively, you can create a Windows or Linux virtual machine that hosts whatever software you want and only runs when you want it to. Because of the nature of the cloud, this software can be accessed from anywhere in the globe. In many ways, it’s simply a 21st-century product, much like Windows 95 was a 20th-century product.
#1 Microsoft Windows 95
Without a doubt, Windows 95 ranks first among our Top 10 Microsoft Products of All Time. It hardly requires an introduction. Windows 95 is at the top of our list for a variety of reasons, including its great functionality, Windows File Manager, Program Manager, Windows Explorer, Print Manager, and dynamic interface. This completely integrated version of Windows and DOS included Internet Explorer as well as built-in internet support. Because Windows 95’s user interface was so good and useful, every edition of Windows after it used an enhanced version of the original user interface. Hundreds of millions of people all across the world are familiar with this interface. A desktop featuring icons, a start button that launches programmes, and a taskbar that shows the currently active programs. During the dot-com boom, Windows 95 was released, and it undoubtedly aided in connecting millions of users to the World Wide Web for the first time. Its significance in the history of technology is indescribable, and its influence will last forever.
In a Nutshell
Despite the fact that Microsoft has expanded in a variety of ways and that some products have disappeared or altered, one thing is certain: a company transformation can make use of many of its products! This isn’t just about forming virtual teams; it’s also about getting all of your ideas out there and sharing them.
