On October 10, 1996, Microsoft held a day-long conference at its Redmond headquarters where it unveiled the redesign of Microsoft Network (MSN). When it was originally released, bundled with Windows 95, MSN was a proprietary, fee-based information service, competing with other online services like AOL and CompuServe. The new version moved MSN from a proprietary online server to an Internet website, had lower fees, and featured an improved user interface that was easier to navigate. The company predicted that the number of MSN users would double to 3.2 million by the following June.

Here, at the 1996 conference at Microsoft headquarters, a panel including Bill Gates and Microsoft executives Patty Stonesifer, Peter Higgins, and Laura Jennings discusses Microsoft's future on the Internet.

Caption information source: "No Internet feeding frenzy" by Jim Erickson, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 14, 1996, p. B3