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The launch of Windows 95

In 1995, Microsoft released the new Windows 95 operating system after a $300 million marketing campaign. People queued outside shops waiting to be among the first to buy it.

In August 1995, Microsoft released a new operating system - Windows 95 – following one of the computer industry’s biggest and most expensive marketing campaigns.

Queues formed outside shops at midnight as people around the world waited to be among the first to buy it.

The new software was designed to be more user friendly, easier to understand and aimed at ordinary people not professional programmers. Connecting to the internet would also be more straightforward.

More than 40 million CD Rom copies were sold in the first year, introducing a boom in personal home computing.

Sarah Leary who demonstrated the software on launch day – alongside Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and US talk show host Jay Leno – talks to Jane Wilkinson.

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(Photo: Bill Gates at the Windows 95 launch. Credit: Bill Nation/Sygma via Getty Images)

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