Encarta 95 dropped in August 1995 and hit hard for anyone rocking a Windows 95 machine—it was basically the Google of its time, but offline. Microsoft built it as a full-on digital encyclopedia with videos, images, maps, and even interactive timelines. No internet? No problem. You’d pop in the CD-ROM and get access to thousands of articles across every topic you could imagine—school reports leveled up overnight. It was the third major version after the original Encarta in '93 and the '94 update, and each year it just kept getting sharper with better media and more content. Back then, this wasn’t just software—it was a flex. If your family had Encarta, it meant your computer wasn’t just for Solitaire anymore.