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An open encyclopedia of software history
Did you know...
- ...that an updated version of Reversi (normally not preinstalled) is included in the Windows 3.1 Driver Library?
- ...that the IA-64 compile of Windows Server 2003 build 2462 includes login banners for a Personal edition of Windows 2000?
- ...that the Start button in Windows 95 build 302 says "Ship It!", as a developer temporarily renamed the button in December 1994 for a joke?
- ...that the boot animation used in Windows 11 2022 Update builds first appeared in Windows 10X and Windows 10 build 19587?
- ...that there were multiple Shell Technology Previews that backported the Windows Explorer to a stock installation of Windows NT 3.5x?
- ...that Windows 95 build 58s includes a hidden tabbed mode in the Cabinet?
Featured article
Internet Explorer is a web browser designed by Microsoft as its first venture into the web browser market. The initial version of the browser was incarnated from Spyglass Mosaic, which Microsoft licensed for a modest quarterly fee and a share of the non-Windows product revenues. As Microsoft decided to distribute Internet Explorer "free of charge" with their Windows operating system, they were able to avoid most royalties. Due to the browser's inclusion starting from the Windows 9x series and beyond, it sparked a three-year-long antitrust lawsuit that lasted until November 2001. The browser quickly overtook Netscape in the first browser war and retained ~95% of its market share until the early 2000s, when popular alternative browsers such as Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome came to market, sparking the second browser war.Internet Explorer was notorious for disobeying set web standards by the W3C until version 9, when Microsoft took a new commitment to HTML5 and web standards. Microsoft ceased active development of Internet Explorer after Windows 8.1 was released in 2013, making Internet Explorer 11 the final version of Internet Explorer. It was eventually replaced by Microsoft Edge in 2015.