I miss Microsoft Encarta
Microsoft Encarta came out in 1993 and was one of the first CD-ROMs I had. It stopped shipping in 2009 on DVD. I recently found a disk and was impressed that it installed just perfectly on my latest Window 10 machine and runs nicely.
Encarta existed in an interesting place between the rise of the internet and computer's ability to deal with (at the time) massive amounts of data. CD-ROMs could bring us 700 MEGABYTES which was unbelievable when compared to the 1.44MB (or even 120KB) floppy disks we were used to. The idea that Encarta was so large that it was 5 CD-ROMs (!) was staggering, even though that's just a few gigs today. Even a $5 USB stick could hold Encarta - twice!
My kids can't possibly intellectualize the scale that data exists in today. We could barely believe that a whole bookshelf of Encyclopedias was now in our pockets. I spent hours and hours just wandering around random articles in Encarta. The scope of knowledge was overwhelming, but accessible. But it was contained - it was bounded. Today, my kids just assume that the sum of all human knowledge is available with a single search or a "hey Alexa" so the world's mysteries are less mysterious and they become bored by the Paradox of Choice.
In a world of 4k streaming video, global wireless, and high-speed everything, there's really no analog to the feeling we got watching the Moon Landing as a video in Encarta - short of watching it live on TV in 1969! For most of us, this was the first time we'd ever seen full-motion video on-demand on a computer in any sort of fidelity - and these are mostly 320x240 or smaller videos!
A generation of us grew up hearing MLK's "I have a dream" speech inside Microsoft Encarta!
Remember the Encarta "So, you wanna play some Basketball" Video?
Amazed by Google Earth? You never saw the globe in Encarta.
You'll be perhaps surprised to hear that the Encarta Timeline works even today on across THREE 4k monitors at nearly 10,000 pixels across! This was a product that was written over 10 years ago and could never have conceived of that many pixels. It works great!
Most folks at Microsoft don't realize that Encarta exists and is used TODAY all over the developing world on disconnected or occasionally connected computers. (Perhaps Microsoft could make the final version of Encarta available for a free final download so that we might avoid downloading illegal or malware infested versions?)
What are your fond memories of Encarta? If you're not of the Encarta generation, what's your impression of it? Had you heard or thought of it?
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About Scott
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
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Thanks for the nostalgia Scott! Brings back some great memories.
I remember having tried to use Encarta's globe to show everyone where the Bermuda triangle was located, and through it, show them how ridiculous the whole allegation was. (Of course, the triangle that I drew encompassed the Bay of Pigs and the entire Dominican Republic.) I also used to show its super-biased article on 9/11. Though all of us sympathized with the victims of the incident, we found its ultranationalistic bias very comic.
Eventually, whenever I want to make it a point that Microsoft has never been good at handling the consumers market sector, Student and Encarta are among my examples.
The Microsoft Math component was a keeper though. I still have it.
I remember as a 15/16 youth working in a local independent computer build/repair shop on Saturdays. I had about a 20 minute conversation with someone trying to figure out why their Encarta "wasn't working" - turns out they had put the disc in - but get this - had not closed they tray! Literally - eject button, put disc in, left tray out and wondering why it wasn't working. Unfortunately the rise of touch screens and accessibility to technology and some people are just as bad as this caller was.
My memory of the whole Encarta experience was watch the footage of the Hindenberg disaster, and hearing the genuine despair in the voice of the commentator.
"The idea that Encarta was so large that it was 5 CD-ROMs (!) was staggering, even though that's just a few gigs today."
Back in my day, Encarta came on ONE CD! (95) Now get off my lawn! *wheeze*
Perhaps the most mind blowing of them all - the articles for famous sites around the world (e.g. St. Paul's Cathedral in Rome, if I remember correctly) included 3D panoramic photos that you could click-and-drag in all directions. This was in 1999 - long before we took Google Earth and Streetview for granted!
Encarta helped with all sorts of school projects too - I was one of the first in my class to even word process and print my work, let alone include images I found in Encarta!
Happy days for you.
I was in class of other kids that had it. They were able todo their research for homework by printing off articles. A printer too?! Wow!
By the time my parents could afford to get encarta we got dial up internet!
So I was never a user at home but used it at friends a once or twice
- Encarta 2009, Britannica 14, pocket wikipedia and the oxford english dictionary application for pc
- Many offline tools and books. My philosophy is that my computer is a personalized system shaped by my hand. Like a piece of my mind it is very personal.
After a few weeks in May of 2009, we unfortunately received word from Microsoft that they had come to a negative decision:
"
Thanks for offering to meet in July. Since you and I first spoke, we've decided internally that we won't be sharing Encarta content with Wikimedia, nor with any third party. We expect to leverage Encarta content in future Microsoft products and believe that sharing the content externally would diminish the value of the asset.
I'm sorry we're not able to satisfy your request for this material."
Best of my knowledge, Microsoft hasn't used Encarta content in any product since then and certainly not right now.
I reached out to Microsoft in 2014 to explore the possibility re-discussing the issue and found out that two of the three Microsoft employees that were part of the discussion with Wikimedia no longer worked there.
Maybe 10 years later, a third attempt could be made.
He picked me up from boarding school and drove me to his house.
I remember it was a Fujitsu machine with a massive 800 MB drive, a quad-speed CDROM, 4 MB of RAM, something that could play FM for MIDI and had Encarta 95 on just one disk at that time.
Being totally blind, my usage of windows at that time was severely limited. We didn't have access to a screen-reader, and back then, such things didn't come with the operating system, so we learnt as we went.
My dad taught me how to get Encarta 95 to load once I inserted the disk, I believe it was as simple as pressing enter and that thing we all love to hate these days, autorun, kicked in. When I heard the disk had spun up to speed, I'd wait about 10 seconds, press enter, and wait for the introduction.
I believe the non-standard interface to pull up a search from the keyboard was CTRL+S, where upon I'd type something vaguely multimedia-related, hit enter and hopefully get something to play.
I don't quite recall how that occurred now, perhaps a second enter, or space? I can't remember, but I was absolutely blown away by Encarta and how much information it contained even on one disk.
When I couldn't get it to play nicely, my dad would take over, and we'd explore different music, national anthems played as MIDI via the FM synth, and the sounds of animal calls, tribal chants, Reggae music and random videos.
He also taught me to pull up the find command and search the drive or CD for *.wav, avi, mid etc, which would play either in Sound Recorder or Media Player.
This meant that if he wasn't available to help me, I could still enjoy this new powerhouse of a computer without too much input.
I'd literally spend hours playing random sound files as that was about the most I could do at the time, but I loved it.
With the Encarta CD in the drive of course, the options were greatly improved, and every day I'd find something new.
I got through all the internal C: Drive content in pretty short order.
Windows didn't have as many sound schemes and things that it has today, of course, so it didn't take long.
In any case, I have very, very fond memories of Encarta 95 in particular and was very glad to have come across this article today.
I put an "easter egg" into the dict/thes app. If I remember correctly, type "paul_bartholomew" into the pop-up app, and a window would pop up with info about the author. It's possible I'm mis-remembering the text to type that causes the pop-up.
If I'm remembering it correctly, and if the author of this article doesn't mind giving it a try, I'd love to see that ancient pop-up with my name on it! :)
Thanks!
- Paul B.
Of course looking at the wall, seeing encyclopedias, I know I can touch them, smell them, but I still prefer the ancient songs around the fire where our story was told in verse by the elders and the good paintings we made on the wall.
Its the loss of portable curated lists or databases.
In the Palm Pilot era I had multiple reference documents for all kinds
of topics.
I had several special purpose searchable lists eg.:
- List of Hazard code for transportation ( modern equiv https://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52apxa.htm).
- List of Radio stations by Interstate and Exit. (almost like https://radio-locator.com/)
and other very niche lists that other people have made.
Most were in the same format and one DB tool front ended all of them.
One search form and one result report.
All where downloaded once and then use without connectivity.
With our modern devices having 64G and more free storage you could get an awful lot of static data on to a hand held device.
I guess my own answer is to write and app that does this with a modern look and feel and in-app charge for databases and their updates.
As time goes on, educational technology must move towards "Open, International and non-proprietary Standards, and every corporation, government and academic institution that ignores or attempts to circumvent this reality - born of historical facts, is delusional.
Even Microsoft has had to eat it's arrogance and stubbornness in accepting and adhering to these standards, as is exhibited in products and services like Wikipedia.
The author and readers may have been naive to this situation in 1990s, and/or a but those of us in technology of a universal world knew better, even if it took longer than anticipated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caddy_(hardware)
Good times!
Was an excellent idea. I'm annoyed every time I hear a travel company, that has captured the name, advertising.
What we have now is worse, in many ways. Plenty of it but
- shallow,
- not thought through,
- careless
- and so full of disinformation and propaganda.
I think Microsoft should open source this product so others can improve it and continue it.
It would be great it could become free for the development of those kids that still don't have access for good quality information.
I don't have the cd now, but managed to get the iso and load it using daemon tools, the pages are professionally done and I feel better than wikipedia sometimes.
It is interesting how much of the modern web was anticipated and just waiting for the technology to catch up. I have an old Magellan - that was the name of the startup - CD of catalog PDFs back when people ordered using catalogs. I have a set of digital remote sensing explorer disks that were released anticipating satellite maps. I have an old DeLorme US Atlas anticipating so many things.
Wow, this brings back memories.
When I was at secondary school, before using the Internet was commonplace,but most people had access to a computer Inevitably everyone had the same quotes and references in there history homework.
I also spent many hours playing the game bundled in it and attribute at least partially to Encarta my love now for getting lost for hours in Wikipedia and filling my brain full of mostly pointless knowledge!
Anyone remember Microsoft space simulator too, equally as many hours where lost to me!
I feel so blessed growing up in this era and have the most fond feelings for Microsoft and its products, almost like a father to me that keeps giving and providing, even now in my day job as a Microsoft stack developer. Love you guys and you are an inspirational to me Scott, keep up the good work!
Since the article is about playing with dead technology, the author playfully appends ".aspx" onto the URL.
—n-gate.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKCb1LyH7J8
Talk about training on steroids for the real world.
But yeah, Encarta was classic.
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