Windows 98 — Home Windows with Built-in USB and the Browser Folded In

Windows 98 was released on Thursday 25 June 1998. That day Microsoft announced in Redmond that the new system was immediately available in more than 40 countries and from more than 12,000 retail outlets in North America, and that more than 200 PC makers planned to ship Windows 98 consumer machines that day or within 30 days. Japan was not in the first wave: the Japanese-language edition went on sale a month later, on Saturday 25 July 1998.

In Microsoft's release, Bill Gates called it "the first version of Windows that we designed specifically for home users." The US upgrade for Windows 95 and 3.1 users had an estimated retail price of $109.

The dates

The code name during development was "Memphis". The RTM date and the code name come from Wikipedia.

What was new

Windows 98 was built on Windows 95 and continued the same line. The launch release grouped its case under three headings.

• Internet integration — Windows 98 used key Internet Explorer technologies to unify the desktop, so that users could find and navigate to information in the same way whether it sat on their own PC or on the Internet. It added troubleshooting wizards and Web-based help
• Performance and reliability — Microsoft said it made opening applications, connecting to the Internet and shutting down faster, and added self-maintenance and update features
• Hardware and entertainment — native support for USB, support for DVD, and the ability to receive and display television broadcasts on a PC with a tuner card

USB took up much of the release. It said USB dramatically simplified installing peripherals and delivered true "plug and play" to consumers, naming everything from force-feedback joysticks to digital cameras. David Fair of Intel, chairman of the USB Implementers Forum, expected more than 150 new USB products to reach the market over the following year. Both were forecasts at launch, not results.

Microsoft Plus! 98, a companion with utilities, desktop themes and games, went on sale worldwide the same day.

The blue screen before launch

Two months before release, Windows 98 stopped in public. According to CNN, on Monday 20 April 1998 Gates was demonstrating how simple the new system would be in his keynote at COMDEX/Spring 1998 in Chicago when it crashed as a Microsoft employee plugged a scanner into the computer. "I guess we still have some bugs to work out," he said, smiling. "That must be why we're not shipping Windows 98 yet." He moved to another computer to finish.

The same CNN report noted that Gates said nothing about the appeals court hearing in the Justice Department's case scheduled for the next day.

A lawsuit in the same year

Windows 98 shipped in the middle of an antitrust fight. On 18 May 1998 the Justice Department and 20 states sued Microsoft, and the complaint included its plan to tie Internet Explorer to Windows 98, then still in development. The feature the launch release described as unifying the desktop with Internet Explorer technologies was exactly what was in dispute. The case itself, from the 2000 breakup order to the expiry of the final judgment in 2011, is covered in United States v. Microsoft. For the browser rival, see Netscape.

The Japanese edition: a month later, at midnight

Microsoft Japan announced on 17 June 1998 that the Japanese edition would go on sale on 25 July. According to PC Watch, Microsoft had promised to ship the Japanese edition within 30 days of the English one, and counting from 25 June it kept that pledge. Gates attended the announcement alongside the presidents of NEC, Sony, Fujitsu and Matsushita Electric.

Prices were open, with these estimated retail prices. One package contained versions for both PC/AT compatibles and the NEC PC-9800 series.

Microsoft Japan said it expected to ship 500,000 units, including preinstalled copies, in the first three months.

Sales began at midnight in Akihabara. PC Watch's report from the street said crowds swelled suddenly after 11 p.m. the night before, to a size matching the Windows 95 launch three years earlier. The difference was that PC makers were less visible than at the Windows 95 launch; shop staff ran the show.

Second Edition (1999)

A year after launch, on 10 June 1999, Microsoft announced the immediate availability of Windows 98 Second Edition (SE). The main additions:

For Windows 95 and 3.1 users the estimated retail price stayed at $109, the same as Windows 98, and existing Windows 98 users could buy an updates CD-ROM for $19.95 plus shipping and handling. Microsoft presented Internet Connection Sharing as a first step toward a networked home.

The end

The home line that began with Windows 95 ended with Windows Me, Windows 98's successor in 2000, and home Windows moved onto the NT line with Windows XP.

Support was extended once. According to INTERNET Watch, support for Windows 98 and 98 SE had been due to end on 16 January 2004, but in January 2004 it was extended, together with Windows Me, to 30 June 2006. In the end, paid support and critical security updates for Windows 98, 98 SE and Me finished on 11 July 2006, according to Microsoft's notice as quoted by GIGAZINE.

For the wider Windows story see the Microsoft timeline and the operating systems timeline; for the company, see Microsoft.