From “Where do you want to go today?”
to Ask a question.

The browser tab says Microsoft Corporation. Across the top runs a black toolbar: PRODUCTS, SEARCH, SUPPORT, SHOP, WRITE US. Under it, a drop-down that says Select a Location, with 38 countries and regions inside, from Argentina to Uruguay, and a red go button. Then the banner, or what is left of it.

The page answers the question with lists. A yellow sidebar: Guides, Downloads, Internet, MSN, About Microsoft. A row of ten links for ten kinds of visitor: Smallbiz, Industry, Web Builder, Developer, IT Execs, At Home, Games, Press, Shareholder, System Pros. The news is aimed at people who build websites: Be First to Get Visual Basic 5.0 Control Creation Edition, free betas of the Internet News and Chat Servers, FrontPage 97 now available for Free Download!

And two contests and a coupon run at once. A 1997 Ford Explorer in Vic Virtual's "Get A Clue" Contest. An Activate the Internet contest with more than $1 million in prizes. And a coupon: Get $30 in MsCash - up to $180 total - to spend on future Microsoft Products.

In the sidebar, an animated badge: Best experienced with Microsoft Internet Explorer. Click here to start.

There is no 1997 homepage in the archive: after October 1996 the next capture of microsoft.com is from December 1998.

By December 1998 the browser tab says Welcome to Microsoft's Homepage, and the left column sorts the whole site by who you are: Business Solutions, Developers, Education, IT Professionals, Partners/Resellers, and Personal Use, which splits into Games, Kids, Personal Computing and Seniors. Top left, Internet Explorer again: Download it free!

That browser had put Microsoft in court. In October 1997 the Justice Department sued, alleging that Microsoft required PC makers to ship Internet Explorer with Windows 95; in May 1998 it and 20 states filed a broad antitrust case, and the trial began on October 19, 1998.¹ Six weeks later the homepage has a link, Read About the Microsoft Trial, and a little picture of a judge's gavel: Microsoft and the freedom to innovate. What's your opinion?

In May 1999 the gavel box asks again, What's your opinion on Microsoft?, next to a Year 2000 Product Guide and Microsoft and The Magic School Bus Take Kids on a Wild Ride.

On June 7, 2000, Judge Jackson of the federal district court ordered Microsoft split in two: an Operating Systems Business and an Applications Business.² On the homepage captured twelve days later, among announcements for Windows CE 3.0 and Office 2001 for the Mac, one headline reads:

Microsoft Confident That Judicial System Will Overturn District Court Rulingmicrosoft.com, June 2000

Below it, a link: DOJ vs. the Freedom to Innovate. And the footer, as every year from 1998 to 2005, stamps the page to the minute: Last Updated: Friday, June 16, 2000 - 4:29 p.m. Pacific Time.

The ruling didn't hold. On June 28, 2001 a federal appeals court threw out the order to break Microsoft up.¹ Four months later, on October 25, 2001, Windows XP went on sale worldwide,³ and that day the top of the homepage says it in white letters over a photo: Windows XP is here!

The rest of the launch-day page is a sign of the time. Next to the XP banner: How you can help: American Liberty Partnership, six weeks after September 11. Under Today's News sit Have even more fun with Windows XP and the Forbes ROI calculator. Then a warning: Nimda worm virus: Protect your computers today. The tab now says Welcome to the Microsoft Corporate Web Site.

And in June 2002 the slogan from 1996 is back, this time where nobody can lose it: in the page title, at the very top of the browser window.

The answers keep piling up. In 2003 the page is three columns, home & entertainment, technical resources and business agility, with headlines like Turn your photos into a coffee-table book and What are Media Center PCs? In 2004: How you can help protect your PC from spyware, Join Harry Potter and friends on a brand-new adventure, and a first look at the "Longhorn" user experience.

In 2005 the photos get bigger: a boxer dog with its ears flying, Speed up your PC. 4 ways to increase performance, a padlock for June security updates, and five faces peeking over the edge: Spyware savvy? Take the quiz.

On June 15, 2006 Microsoft announced that from July 2008 Bill Gates would step back from his day-to-day role to work on his foundation.⁴ On the homepage the next day it is one line in a news bar: NEWS: Microsoft announces July 2008 transition for Bill Gates. The page around it is busier: Follow World Cup news: Download the Microsoft Soccer Scoreboard, Windows Defender Beta 2, Windows Live OneCare.

From 2007 the address is no longer microsoft.com but /en/us/default.aspx, and a bar at the top offers to change your browser: Add Live Search to your browser.

In June 2008 the homepage asks for a plug-in: Experience this in Silverlight. Download the plug-in. The installer text in the page's code promises it won't take long: Enhance your experience on Microsoft.com with Microsoft Silverlight. Approximately a 1MB download and a 20-second install.

Then the menus take over. From 2009 the bar at the top opens into drop-downs that list nearly every product family. Under Windows alone: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows Mobile, Windows Automotive, Windows Azure, Windows Embedded, Windows Media Player, Windows Internet Explorer, and Earlier Windows Versions. Bing appears in 2009, with Bing cashback.

You can't see the menus on the screenshots, because they're closed. You can count them. The September 2010 homepage, Halo: Reach on top, has 235 links in its code. On the Windows XP launch page in 2001 there were 54.

In 2011 even the browser tab is a list: Microsoft Corporation: Software, Smartphones, Online, Games, Cloud Computing, IT Business Technology, Downloads. A Share menu offers Baidu, Delicious, Digg, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Tumblr and Twitter. And the page asks its visitors what they think of it:

The typo, tells us, is in the original.

On August 23, 2012 Microsoft changed its logo for the first time in 25 years: four colored squares and the Segoe typeface.⁵ Two months later Windows 8 and Microsoft's own Surface tablet went on sale, on October 26.⁶ That day the homepage clears out:

One blue box, Surface. Click in and do more. Starting at $499., next to a tablet showing the new tiled Start screen. Under the price: Pre-order now. The capture is from 01:18 UTC on October 26, still the evening of October 25 in the US.

Below it, Discover and For home, with three pictures. The menu is five words: Products, Downloads, Security, Support, Store. The tab has a new subtitle, Microsoft Home Page | Devices and Services, the phrase Steve Ballmer had used for the company in his shareholder letter earlier that month.⁷

Further down, a card for Halo 4: An ancient evil awakens on November 6. Pre-order now.

From here on one product fills the top of the page: Office 365 in 2013 (with a BING IT ON tile next to it, Bing vs. Google), the Xbox One in 2014. The 2014 menu lists Nokia devices next to Surface and Xbox.

By 2015 there's a cart in the top corner and the title is Microsoft – Official Home Page. The menu starts with Store: Surface, Office, PCs & tablets, Xbox, Windows Phone, the Microsoft Band. Open all its drop-downs and this is the busiest Microsoft homepage of all: 843 links, most of them in the shop.

The picture changes every year, the layout hardly does. Surface Pro 4 does more. Just like you. (2016). Meet the new Surface Pro (2017), with a story further down: Meet Mikaila Ulmer. The 12-year old lemonade entrepreneur who is causing quite a buzz.

In 2018 the Xbox Game Pass, and Create a custom experience that makes gaming more accessible with the Xbox Adaptive Controller. In 2019, Deals unlocked – E3 Week and HoloLens 2: Mixed reality is ready for business.

In June 2020 the top of the page makes room for things that aren't for sale. A blue bar: Read how we're responding to the COVID-19 outbreak, and get resources to help. Under it, on black: United for change. We are united with the Black community and all those working toward racial justice.

Then it's back to the shop: Xbox deals and a Surface Laptop 4 you can book a free shopping appointment for (2021), Microsoft 365 for up to 6 people (2022), a Surface Pro 9 (2023). In 2022 the tab changes to Microsoft – Cloud, Computers, Apps & Gaming. That June Microsoft also retired the Internet Explorer 11 desktop app on Windows 10 Home, Pro, Enterprise, Education and IoT (LTSC editions excluded),⁸ the browser the 1996 badge asked you to start. In 2023, inside the closed All Microsoft menu, the software list gets a new entry between Windows Apps and Outlook: AI.

In 2024 Copilot, Microsoft's AI assistant, moves into the top bar, between Teams and Windows, and the main picture is a Copilot+ PC: a Surface Pro with AI features like Recall and Cocreator.

By 2025 the tab puts it first: Microsoft – AI, Cloud, Productivity, Computing, Gaming & Apps.

This is Microsoft's homepage on October 3, 2026, shot from the live site, because the 2026 archived copies we tried mostly came out blank. It says Hi there, welcome to Microsoft, lets you pick Personal or Business, and promises to find what you need faster with AI-powered suggestions. Then the box: Ask a question, with three suggestions under it, Help me choose a PC, Microsoft 365 tips, Sign in to my account. In the corner a second window pops up: Can we help you? Store Assistant is available 24/7.

The menus are still there behind All Microsoft; the June 2026 capture lists a few new entries: Digital Sovereignty, and Moving from Skype to Teams, a year after Microsoft retired Skype.⁹

Put the first and the last page side by side. Drag the handle to rewind.

OCT 1996 · Where do you want to go today?2026 · Ask a question

In 1996 Microsoft asked where you wanted to go, and gave you the list. Today it hands you an empty box and waits for you to ask.microsoft.com, 1996 → 2026