The big highlight of this feature drop is the more consistent dark mode in File Explorer, which now applies to popups and windows such as the file copy UI and file deletion prompts. The new features include improvements to File Explorer and file sharing, mobile device integration, quality of life improvements, and much more. Make sure to set Windows Central as a preferred source in Google Search, and find pin up casino out why you should so that you can stay up-to-date on the latest news, reviews, features, and more. The Windows 11 December 2025 Security Update is now rolling out, and alongside it comes a number of new features and changes to round off the year.
The deal allowed Microsoft to license many shows from Viacom owned cable television and film studios for use on Xbox Live and MSN. On December 19, 2007, Microsoft signed a five-year, $500 million (~$727 million in 2024) contract with Viacom that included content sharing and advertisements. Windows Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008, the next versions of the company’s server operating system and development suite, respectively, were released on February 27, 2008.
1994: Windows and Office
The acquisition positioned Microsoft to grow its presence in the market of providing an online education to large numbers of people. In early September 2021, it was announced that the company had acquired Takelessons, an online platform which connects students and tutors in numerous subjects. The increased necessity for remote work and distance education drove demand for cloud computing and grew the company’s gaming sales.
Follow Windows Central on Google News to keep our latest news, insights, and features at the top of your feeds! Microsoft has shipped lots of new features and updates to Windows 11 in 2025, delivering a constant stream of features and changes on a monthly cadence, whether users have liked it or not. Of course, as is always the case with Windows updates, many of these features are rolling out in waves, which means you might not see them all right away once you’ve installed today’s update. You can learn more about the new features that are rolling out with today’s update in our dedicated article that explains every new feature that’s now available.
Microsoft launched their second console, the Xbox 360, in 2005 – which was more successful than the original. Microsoft entered the multibillion-dollar game console market dominated by Sony and Nintendo, with the release of the Xbox. The operating system was the first to require Microsoft Product Activation, an anti-piracy mechanism that requires users to activate the software with Microsoft within 30 days.
Sources: AI synthetic research startup Aaru raised a Series A at a $1B ‘headline’ valuation
For this deal, Microsoft purchased a CP/M clone called 86-DOS from Tim Paterson of Seattle Computer Products for less than US$100,000, which IBM renamed to IBM PC DOS. IBM first approached Gates and Allen about Microsoft’s upcoming IBM Personal Computer (IBM PC) in July 1980, shortly after Gates’s mother began working on United Way’s executive board with IBM CEO John Opel. By the mid-1980s Microsoft had gotten out of the Unix business, except for its ownership stake in SCO.
2011: Microsoft Azure, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Microsoft Stores
It aims to help enterprises protect their data as it moves between servers and devices. In June 2016, Microsoft announced a project named Microsoft Azure Information Protection. On March 1, 2016, Microsoft announced the merge of its PC and Xbox divisions, with Phil Spencer announcing that Universal Windows Platform (UWP) apps would be the focus for Microsoft’s gaming in the future. The successor to Windows Phone 8.1, Windows 10 Mobile, was released November 20, 2015. On July 29, 2015, Microsoft released the next version of the Windows operating system, Windows 10.
present: Acquisitions, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows 11
Activity grew quickly as developers from around the world began to participate, and by early 2007 commercial open source companies, such as Aras Corp. began to offer enterprise open source software exclusively on the Microsoft platform. Later, in 2006, the company launched Microsoft adCenter, a service that offers pay per click advertisements, in an effort to further develop their search marketing revenue. In 2002, Microsoft launched the .NET initiative, along with new versions of some of its development products, such as Microsoft Visual Studio. Microsoft, in 2000, released new products for all three lines of the company’s flagship operating system, and saw the beginning of the end of one of its most prominent legal cases. Windows CE 2.0, the handheld version of Windows, was released this year, including a host of bug fixes and new features designed to make it more appealing to corporate customers. In 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was released, marking the beginning of the takeover of the browser market from rival Netscape, and by agreement with Apple, Internet Explorer was bundled with the Apple Macintosh operating system as well as with Windows.
Ireland became home to one of Microsoft’s international production facilities in 1985, and on November 20 Microsoft released its first retail version of Microsoft Windows (Windows 1.0), originally a graphical extension for its MS-DOS operating system. With the release of the Microsoft Mouse on May 2, 1983, Microsoft continued to expand its product line in other markets. Later, the market saw a flood of IBM PC clones after Columbia Data Products successfully cloned the IBM BIOS, quickly followed by Eagle Computer and Compaq. In 1983, in collaboration with numerous companies, Microsoft created a home computer system, MSX, which contained its own version of the DOS operating system, called MSX-DOS; this became relatively popular in Japan, Europe and South America.
Microsoft Works, an integrated office program which combined features typically found in a word processor, spreadsheet, database and other office applications, saw its first release as an application for the Apple Macintosh towards the end of 1986. Microsoft also marketed through an Apple dealer in West Palm Beach, Florida two products for the Radio-Shack TRS-80. The company, which has operated in India for more than three decades, employs more than 22,000 people in the country and has been expanding cloud and data center capacity to support advanced computing needs. Microsoft’s latest India investment plan tops its earlier announcement this year of investing $3 billion in building cloud and AI infrastructure, as well as new data centers and skilling the workforce over the next two years. The announcement underscores the growing global competition among major technology companies to expand in India, which has become one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets. NEW DELHI (AP) — Microsoft on Tuesday announced its biggest-ever Asia investment, amounting to $17.5 billion, in India over the next four years to advance the country’s cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
To cope with the potential for an increase in demand for products and services, Microsoft opened a number of «holiday stores» across the U.S. to complement the increasing number of «bricks-and-mortar» Microsoft Stores that opened in 2012. On October 1, Microsoft announced its intention to launch a news operation, part of a new-look MSN, at the time of the Windows 8 launch that was later in the month. On July 31, 2012, Microsoft launched the Outlook.com webmail service beta to compete with Gmail. A developer preview was released on September 13, and was replaced by a consumer preview on February 29, 2012.
Microsoft has just released its final security update (KB ) for Windows 11 in 2025, and with it comes a handful of new features and changes that cap off the year. Microsoft already employs more than 22,000 people across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, Noida, and other cities, including engineering teams that build AI products such as Copilot Studio, Azure AI Search, AI agents, speech and translation tools, and Azure Machine Learning for global markets, while also supporting the company’s domestic operations. The push has accelerated this year, with OpenAI and Anthropic setting up offices in India, and Google and Perplexity striking partnerships with major telecom operators Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, respectively, to deepen their reach in the market.
More apps in one place
- On July 22, 2020, Microsoft announced plans to close its Mixer service, planning to move existing partners to Facebook Gaming.
- On September 3, 2013, Microsoft agreed to buy Nokia’s mobile unit for $7 billion (~$9.27 billion in 2024).
- Microsoft, in 2000, released new products for all three lines of the company’s flagship operating system, and saw the beginning of the end of one of its most prominent legal cases.
- In May 2016, the company announced it will lay off 1,850 workers, taking an impairment and restructuring charge of $950 million (~$1.21 billion in 2024).
- You can learn more about the new features that are rolling out with today’s update in our dedicated article that explains every new feature that’s now available.
- In December 2018, Microsoft announced Project Mu, an open source release of the UEFI core used in Microsoft Surface and Hyper-V products.
Microsoft also said it is rolling out new sovereign cloud options for Indian customers, including a Sovereign Public Cloud now available across its India regions and a Sovereign Private Cloud powered by Azure Local for both connected and air-gapped operations. As part of the push, Microsoft also announced it will work with the Ministry of Labour and Employment to integrate advanced AI capabilities into two of its flagship digital public platforms — e-Shram and the National Career Service — to offer AI-driven services to more than 310 million informal workers. Microsoft said it will continue expanding its three existing data-center regions in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune. The Redmond-based company also said it will open a new data center region in Hyderabad by mid-2026, its largest in India, comprising three availability zones — a footprint the company described as roughly the size of two Eden Gardens stadiums.
Microsoft investing $17.5 billion in India for AI and cloud infrastructure
On February 17, Microsoft released an update to its business line of software in Windows 2000. In November, Microsoft released the first version of their popular database software Microsoft Access. In March 1992, Microsoft released Windows 3.1 along with its first promotional campaign on TV; the software sold over three million copies in its first two months on the market.
2007: Foray into the Web, Windows 95, Windows XP, and Xbox
Nonetheless, the Indian government has been pushing aggressively to draw more big-tech investment, framing large-scale data-center and AI projects as central to its economic and digital-public-infrastructure ambitions. Additionally, Microsoft said its skilling efforts are also accelerating, noting that through its “ADVANTA(I)GE India” initiative, it has trained 5.6 million people since January — well ahead of its goal of training 10 million by 2030 — with the programs enabling more than 125,000 individuals to secure jobs or start businesses. The offerings would help enterprises meet regulatory and data-residency requirements and support high-performance workloads with access to the latest Nvidia GPUs and Microsoft 365 services, the company noted.
Microsoft launched its Indian headquarters as well, which would eventually become the company’s second largest after its U.S. headquarters. Windows 98 came with Internet Explorer 4.0 SP1 (which had Windows Desktop Update bundled), and included new features from Windows 95 OSR 2.x including the FAT32 file system, and new features designed for Windows 98, such as support for multiple displays. In November 1996, Microsoft Office 97 was released, which is the first version to include Office Assistant. While Microsoft largely failed to participate in the rise of the Internet in the early 1990s, some of the key technologies in which the company had invested to enter the Internet market started to pay off by the mid-90s. Microsoft entered the personal digital assistant (PDA) market in November with Windows CE 1.0, a new built-from-scratch version of their flagship operating system, designed to run on low-memory, low-performance machines, such as handhelds and other small computers. In an attempt to extend its reach in the consumer market, the company acquired WebTV, which enabled consumers to access the Web from their televisions.
- The new features include improvements to File Explorer and file sharing, mobile device integration, quality of life improvements, and much more.
- The station was launched on July 15, 1996, to compete with similar news outlets such as CNN.
- On August 24, 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, a new version of the company’s flagship operating system which featured a completely new user interface, including a novel start button; more than a million copies were sold in the first four days after its release.
- By the mid-1980s Microsoft had gotten out of the Unix business, except for its ownership stake in SCO.
- On March 26, 2020, Microsoft announced it was acquiring Affirmed Networks for about $1.35 billion (~$1.61 billion in 2024).
Moreover, the investment aligns with New Delhi’s push to accelerate digital infrastructure and AI adoption across sectors, as India looks to position itself as a global technology hub while addressing concerns around data governance and equitable access. Announced on Tuesday, the investment — Microsoft’s largest in Asia — will fund new data centers, AI infrastructure, and skilling programs from 2026 to 2029, building on the $3 billion the company committed in India in January. Within hours, CrowdStrike released a patch for the faulty update that prevented future crashes, but affected computers had to be fixed manually, so problems persisted for some time. In January 2023, CEO Satya Nadella announced Microsoft would lay off some 10,000 employees. Microsoft has not released statements regarding Activision’s recent legal controversies regarding employee abuse, but reports have alleged that Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, a major target of the controversy, will leave the company after the acquisition is finalized. Microsoft plans to incorporate Ally.io into its Viva family of employee experience products.
In 2008, Microsoft wanted to purchase Yahoo (first completely, later partially) in order to strengthen its position on the search engine market vis-à-vis Google. On the advertisement side of the deal, Microsoft’s Atlas ad-serving division became the exclusive provider of previously unsold advertising inventory on Viacom owned web sites. The deal also made Viacom a preferred publisher partner for casual game development and distribution through MSN and Windows.
Microsoft also released a new version of its Office suite, called Microsoft Office 2007, alongside Windows Vista. Formerly codenamed «Longhorn» in the early development stages, Windows Vista was released to consumers on January 30, 2007. On June 15, 2006, Bill Gates announced his plans for a two-year transition period out of a day-to-day role with Microsoft until July 31, 2008. In guise of competing with other Internet Companies such as the search service Google, in 2005 Microsoft announced a new version of its MSN search service. However, Microsoft encountered more turmoil in March 2004 when antitrust legal action would be brought against it by the European Union for allegedly abusing its market dominance (see Microsoft Corp. v. Commission).