Microsoft started 40 years ago today, April 4, 1975 in Albuquerque, New Mexico by co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates. They launched a business to sell the Altair BASIC interpreter that was used on the MITS Altair 8800 personal computer. Needless to say, Microsoft has grown in the last 40 years from two people to over 100,000 employees working on tons of different products and services all over the world. It's not an exaggeration to say that the company has changed the world as it was one of the major forces behind the entire personal computing era. We decided to take a look back at the biggest highs and lows of Microsoft's past four decades. It's safe to say that the company has had huge successes, but also some embarrassing failures as well. Best VPN providers 2020: Learn about ExpressVPN, NordVPN & more

The Highs

Windows 95 While Microsoft had released versions of its Windows operating system for years, the launch of Windows 95 in 1995 was the start of an all-new era for both Microsoft and personal computing in general. The simpler user interface was perfect for the PCs of its time to operate and the launch of Windows 95 corresponded with the huge expansion of Internet access to the public at the same time. PC sales exploded, and it was no longer just being used by tech-savvy people in their homes. Everyone had a PC, and nearly all of them ran Windows 95.

Microsoft Office First announced by Bill Gates in 1988 Microsoft Office was a suite of productivity software applications that became as popular if not more so than Windows. Once it launched, both individuals and businesses began adopting Word, PowerPoint and Excel as their default applications for creating documents. Microsoft Office compatibility became a requirement for businesses. Today, while Microsoft still sells standalone versions of its Office apps, it's now moving towards selling Office 365 subscriptions as a service.

Xbox When Bill Gates announced in 2000 that Microsoft was going to launch a game console, many were skeptical that the company knew anything about the business. Gates and the initial Xbox launch team put those fears to rest with the launch of the original Xbox in 2001. It was a powerful gaming machine that had a dedicated Ethernet port for online gameplay, along with an internal hard drive for game updates. It also helped that the Xbox had one of the best launch games ever made for any console: Halo. Microsoft had an even bigger success with the Xbox 360 and while the current Xbox One has had its growing pains, it too looks like it will be successful as well. The Lows

Windows Vista Vista's development was troubled from the start, causing delays that forced Microsoft to launch it in January 2007 worldwide, over six years after the launch of Windows XP. Even with all that extra time, users found that Vista had a number of driver and hardware issues, causing many people to stick with XP. In the end, Vista stands as perhaps the worst Windows launch in history (and yes, we think it was worse than Windows 8)