When Windows 95 dropped in August ‘95, Microsoft wasn’t just pushing an OS—it launched The Microsoft Network (MSN) right out the gate, trying to take on AOL and CompuServe. It started as a built-in online service, baked into the Windows 95 taskbar with that little “butterfly” icon. You’d pop in your dial-up, connect, and boom—news, weather, email, even chat rooms. Version 1.0 was clunky but ambitious. Then came 2.0 in late '96, ditching the old interface for something more web-like, and by ‘98 they pivoted hard—MSN became more of a web portal than an actual online service. Microsoft wanted in on the internet gold rush, and MSN was their ticket. It wasn’t perfect, but if you were online in the mid-to-late ‘90s, you probably clicked that icon at least once.