Timeline of Microsoft Corporation

A history timeline of computing giant Microsoft.

Microsoft logo on a digital screen.

Mike MacKenzie / Flickr / CC BY 2.0

by Mary Bellis
Mary Bellis, known by some as CalmX, was an experimental artist, film director and producer, video game content creator, and freelance writer for some 18 years. She specialized in writing about inventors and inventions, in particular. Bellis died in March 2015.
Updated November 18, 2019

This timeline shows the main events in Microsoft history.

  • 1975: Microsoft founded
  • January 1, 1979: Microsoft moves from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Bellevue, Washington
  • June 25, 1981: Microsoft incorporates
  • August 12, 1981: IBM introduces its personal computer with Microsoft's 16-bit operating system, MS-DOS 1.0
  • November 1983: Microsoft Windows announced
  • November 1985: Microsoft Windows version 1.0 released
  • February 26, 1986: Microsoft moves to corporate campus in Redmond, Washington
  • March 13, 1986: Microsoft stock goes public
  • April 1987: Microsoft Windows version 2.0 released
  • August 1, 1989: Microsoft introduces earliest version of Office suite of productivity applications
  • May 22, 1990: Microsoft launches Windows 3.0
  • August 24, 1995: Microsoft launches Windows 95
  • December 7, 1995: Internet by launching internet explorer a web browser.
  • June 25, 1998: Microsoft launches Windows 98
  • Jan. 13, 2000: Steve Ballmer named president and chief executive officer for Microsoft
  • Feb. 17, 2000: Microsoft launches Windows 2000
  • June 22, 2000: Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer outline Microsoft's .NET strategy for Web services
  • May 31, 2001: Microsoft launches Office XP
  • Oct. 25, 2001: Microsoft launches Windows XP
  • Nov. 15, 2001: Microsoft launches Xbox
  • Nov. 7, 2002: Microsoft and partners launch Tablet PC
  • April 24, 2003: Microsoft launches Windows Server 2003
  • Oct. 21, 2003: Microsoft launches Microsoft Office System
  • Nov. 22, 2005: Microsoft launches Xbox 360
  • Jan. 30, 2007: Microsoft launches Windows Vista and the 2007 Microsoft Office System to consumers worldwide
  • Feb. 27, 2008: Microsoft launches Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008
  • June 27, 2008: Bill Gates transitions from his day-to-day role at Microsoft to spend more time on his work at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
  • June 3, 2009: Microsoft launches Bing search engine
  • Oct. 22, 2009: Microsoft launches Windows 7
  • June 15, 2010: Microsoft launches general availability of Office 2010
  • Nov. 4, 2010: Microsoft launches Kinect for Xbox 360
  • Nov. 10, 2010: Microsoft launches Windows Phone 7
  • Nov. 17, 2010: Microsoft announces availability of Microsoft Lync
  • June 28, 2011: Microsoft launches Office 365