Author: Children Trundle. The Microsoft Network, or MSN, is a collection of services brought about by the Microsoft Company. This range of Internet services started on August 24, 1995 as an online service and Internet service provider, at the same time when the Windows 95 operating system was released. While at the beginning it was just a simple online service for Windows 95, since then MSN has come up with more and more various and complex products. The same MSN brand had previously been used for the promotion of the Messenger and Hotmail services in the 1990s. Then, lots of services got reorganized in 2006 when Microsoft reinvented MSN in the form of Windows Live. In spite of the alterations, MSN.com, MSN’s Internet portal, maintained its popularity. Actually it occupies a 6th place on the list of the most popular Internet domain names.

In the initial form, MSN was designed to correspond to the requirements of a dial-up online service provider, and the progress of technology made it more than that.

It used to supply informational content by relying on an artificial folder-like interface integrated into the Windows Explorer file management program of Windows 95.

The most common of capabilities provided by the first form of the MSN included email service, chat rooms, newsgroups, weather info, product support and discussion. Although the WWW space could not be accessed directly through the MSN platform, in time Internet access could quickly be offered through the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. The browser option could downloaded from the MSN service and was part of the Windows 95 package.

The first MSN classic version proved insufficient for the growing demands of the Internet, and only a year after its launch, Microsoft had to come up with MSN 2.0.

Besides Internet access, this updated version brought web-based multimedia content under the name MSN Program Viewer. In the United States and Canada, MSN has been maintained as a dial up Internet provider, yet it comes second after AOL. The MSN service presently includes anti-virus and firewall protection as well as an email account on MSN.com.

After the changes in 2006, many MSN services were renamed under the new brand name Windows Live. Among these services that suffered modifications, MSN Groups, MSN messenger, MSN Hotmail, MSN Spaces, MSN Virtual Groups and MSN Alerts were included. With the release of Windows Live, new services were announced: Windows Live Favorites and Windows Live OneCare Safety Scanner. This move was simultaneous with the moment when MSN started providing online entertainment and news as well as in the form of a common interest content provider through its Internet portal, MSN.com. Windows Live provides most of the company’s online software and services.