Microsoft Wikipedia. Microsoft Corporation ,67 abbreviated as MS is an American multinationaltechnology company with headquarters in Redmond, Washington. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and services. Its best known software products are the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, the Microsoft Officesuite, and the Internet Explorer and Edgeweb browsers. Its flagship hardware products are the Xboxvideo game consoles and the Microsoft Surface tablet lineup. As of 2. 01. 6, it is the worlds largest software maker by revenue,8 and one of the worlds most valuable companies. The word Microsoft is a portmanteau of microcomputer and software. Microsoft was founded by Paul Allen and Bill Gates on April 4, 1. Microsoft Home User Program' title='Microsoft Home User Program' />BASICinterpreters for the Altair 8. It rose to dominate the personal computer operating system market with MS DOS in the mid 1. Microsoft Windows. The companys 1. 98. IPO, and subsequent rise in its share price, created three billionaires and an estimated 1. Microsoft employees. Microsoft Home User Program' title='Microsoft Home User Program' />Since the 1. Linked. In for 2. December 2. Skype Technologies for 8. Images/Administrative/ITS/CTSS/PC_Support_-_NEW/Microsoft/Home_Use_Program/step%202.PNG' alt='Microsoft Home User Program' title='Microsoft Home User Program' />May 2. As of 2. Microsoft is market dominant in the IBM PC compatible operating system market and the office software suite market, although it has lost the majority of the overall operating system market to Android. The company also produces a wide range of other consumer and enterprise software for desktops and servers, including Internet search with Bing, the digital services market through MSN, mixed reality Holo. Lens, cloud computing Azure and software development Visual Studio. Steve Ballmer replaced Gates as CEO in 2. This began with the acquisition of Danger Inc. June 2. 01. 2 with the launch of the Microsoft Surface line of tablet computers and later forming Microsoft Mobile through the acquisition of Nokias devices and services division. Microsoft%20Icon%20v3.jpg' alt='Microsoft Home User Program' title='Microsoft Home User Program' />What is a Benefits Administrator Each company assigns a Benefits Administrator BA, internal to their company, to manage the Home Use Program for their company. Latest Application For Nokia 5233. Describes Microsoft easy fix solutions and how to use them. Microsoft easy fix was formerly known as Microsoft Fix it. Exclusive for your company, get the complete Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2016 suite for your home. Or if you use a Mac, get Office Home and Business 2016 for. Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO in 2. December 1. 99. 9. Contents. 1History. The founding of Microsoft. Windows and Office. Foray into the Web, Windows 9. Windows XP, and Xbox. Microsoft Azure, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Microsoft Stores. Windows 88. 1, Xbox One, Outlook. Surface devices. 1. Windows 1. 0, Windows 1. Mobile, Microsoft Edge and Holo. Lens. 2Business units. Corporate affairs. Corporate identity. References. 6External links. History. 19. 721. The founding of Microsoft. Paul Allen and Bill Gates pose for the camera on October 1. PCs after signing a pivotal contract with IBM. Childhood friends Paul Allen and Bill Gates sought to make a successful business utilizing their shared skills in computer programming. In 1. 97. 2 they founded their first company, named Traf O Data, which sold a rudimentary computer to track and analyze automobile traffic data. While Gates enrolled at Harvard, Allen pursued a degree in computer science at Washington State University, though he later dropped out of school to work at Honeywell. The January 1. 97. Popular Electronics featured Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systemss MITS Altair 8. Allen to suggest that they could program a BASICinterpreter for the device. After a call from Gates claiming to have a working interpreter, MITS requested a demonstration. Since they didnt yet have one, Allen worked on a simulator for the Altair while Gates developed the interpreter. Although they developed the interpreter on a simulator and not the actual device, it worked flawlessly when they in March 1. MITS in Albuquerque, New Mexico. MITS agreed to distribute it, marketing it as Altair BASIC. Gates and Allen officially established Microsoft on April 4, 1. Gates as the CEO. The original name of Micro Soft was suggested by Allen. In August 1. 97. 7 the company formed an agreement with ASCII Magazine in Japan, resulting in its first international office, ASCII Microsoft. Microsoft moved to a new home in Bellevue, Washington in January 1. Microsoft entered the operating system OS business in 1. Unix, called Xenix. However, it was MS DOS that solidified the companys dominance. After negotiations with Digital Research failed, IBM awarded a contract to Microsoft in November 1. CPM OS, which was set to be used in the upcoming IBM Personal Computer IBM PC. For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CPM clone called 8. DOS from Seattle Computer Products, which it branded as MS DOS, though IBM rebranded it to PC DOS. Following the release of the IBM PC in August 1. Microsoft retained ownership of MS DOS. Since IBM had copyrighted the IBM PC BIOS, other companies had to reverse engineer it in order for non IBM hardware to run as IBM PC compatibles, but no such restriction applied to the operating systems. Dat Kid From Cleveland Mixtape. Due to various factors, such as MS DOSs available software selection, Microsoft eventually became the leading PC operating systems vendor. The company expanded into new markets with the release of the Microsoft Mouse in 1. Microsoft Press. 1. Paul Allen resigned from Microsoft in 1. Hodgkins disease. Windows and Office. Windows 1. 0 was released on November 2. Microsoft Windows line. Despite having begun jointly developing a new operating system, OS2, with IBM in August 1. Microsoft released Microsoft Windows, a graphical extension for MS DOS, on November 2. Microsoft moved its headquarters to Redmond on February 2. March 1. 3 went public,3. Microsoft employees. Microsoft released its version of OS2 to original equipment manufacturers OEMs on April 2, 1. In 1. 99. 0, due to the partnership with IBM, the Federal Trade Commission set its eye on Microsoft for possible collusion, marking the beginning of over a decade of legal clashes with the U. Sherlock Hevc Psa'>Sherlock Hevc Psa. S. government. 3. Meanwhile, the company was at work on a 3. OS, Microsoft Windows NT, which was heavily based on their copy of the OS2 code. It shipped on July 2. Win. 32application programming interface API, making porting from 1. MS DOS based Windows easier. Once Microsoft informed IBM of NT, the OS2 partnership deteriorated. In 1. 99. 0, Microsoft introduced its office suite, Microsoft Office. The suite bundled separate productivity applications, such as Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. On May 2. 2, Microsoft launched Windows 3. Intel 3. 86 processor. Both Office and Windows became dominant in their respective areas. On July 2. 7, 1. 99. U. S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division filed a Competitive Impact Statement that said, in part Beginning in 1. July 1. 5, 1. 99. Microsoft induced many OEMs to execute anti competitive per processor licenses. Under a per processor license, an OEM pays Microsoft a royalty for each computer it sells containing a particular microprocessor, whether the OEM sells the computer with a Microsoft operating system or a non Microsoft operating system. In effect, the royalty payment to Microsoft when no Microsoft product is being used acts as a penalty, or tax, on the OEMs use of a competing PC operating system. Since 1. 98. 8, Microsofts use of per processor licenses has increased. Foray into the Web, Windows 9. Windows XP, and Xbox. Microsoft released the first installment in the Xbox series of consoles in 2. The Xbox, graphically powerful compared to its rivals, featured a standard PCs 7. MHz Intel Pentium III processor.