I was just looking at this video from the launch of Windows 95, and I suddenly got a real blast from the past. At the 17 second mark (you’ve got to be really quick to see it!) there’s just a second with a couple of screens of the Microsoft Network, which was supposed to be Microsoft’s “own version” of the internet. This was way before everyone had internet, and Microsoft still hadn’t discovered it’s true potential.

Mind you: I’m not talking about MSN. This was a totally different beast.

The original Microsoft Network (aka MSN Network: the branding was just as confused then as it is now) was a dialup network (for you youngsters: that means you used a modem to dial in to an access number), and it competed with things like CompuServe and BIX, the Byte Information Exchange. (Hands up anyone that remembers BIX, if old age hasn’t made you incapable of raising your hands, that is…)

It was all dialup in those days, and I somehow acquired an account on the (then still in beta) MSN Network. After helping to iron out some bugs, I even got a T-shirt sent to me later on, with the MSN Network logo and big dead bug on the back, saying something like “I was there at the beginning”.

I sure was. Man, In those days I had phone bills that would make some small countries blush.

Anyway: Hit pause at 16 seconds, then start/stop until you see the click on the Start button. The MSN Network screens come immediately after that.