Microsoft Reports Record Sales for Windows 95

Consumers Flock to Stores for Opening Weekend

REDMOND, Wash. - Aug. 29, 1995 - Microsoft Corp. announced today that it
estimates that more than 1 million copies of Microsoft Windows 95, the
upgrade to the Windows operating system, were obtained by customers at
retail during the first four days of availability in North America. The
upgrade to the MS-DOS operating system, version 6, previously the
fastest-selling software product, took 40 days to reach the 1 million
mark, and the Windows 3.1 operating system took 50 days to achieve a
similar feat.

"Opening-weekend sales have exceeded our expectations," said Brad Chase,
general manager of personal systems division marketing at Microsoft. "In
the United States alone, every second a store was open, customers
purchased eight copies of Windows 95. This is better than the
record-setting receipts for Jurassic Park' in its opening weekend and more
than double those of "The Lion King."

Sales of Microsoft Plus! have also exceeded expectations. Approximately
20,000 retail stores nationwide took part in the sales launch, which
featured a variety of consumer promotions and sales events, and kicked off
at 12:01 a.m. on Aug. 24 at many locations.

"We had very high expectations going into the launch of Windows 95, and
they have been met, if not exceeded, by our sales results," said Larry
Mondry, executive vice president of merchandising at CompUSA. "Windows 95
is just flying off the shelves."

Product Support

Record sales of Windows 95 have had an impact on Microsoft's Product
Support Services as well. Despite an unprecedented level of preparedness,
sales of Windows 95 have resulted in calls that have temporarily exceeded
the phone capacity for Microsoft and its support partners. As a result,
Microsoft is returning busy signals to some of the calls to its standard
phone support lines, rather than place some customers on hold for a long
time.Microsoft expects calls to Product Support Services to be high during
the first several weeks after the launch of Windows 95.

"We're doing everything we can to help customers access the technical
information they need and apologize for this inconvenience," said Deborah
Willingham, vice president of support at Microsoft. "The good news is that
the types of questions we are receiving are in line with our
expectations." Willingham added, "Phone support is only one resource for
customers; we also have vast amounts of technical information on Windows
95 available online and in the product itself."

Microsoft offers a wide range of technical information about Windows 95 on
the Internet, the MSN online service and other online services. Online
information includes software and hardware compatibility lists, a
member-to-member forum on CompuServe, the Microsoft Knowledge Base, the
Windows 95 Migration Planning Kit and the Microsoft Download Library.
Microsoft's FastTips ([800] 936-4200) is a no-charge phone service
available 24 hours a day with prerecorded and fax-back answers to the most
commonly asked questions about Windows 95. As previously announced,
Microsoft has extended its standard support hours in the United States for
Windows 95 for the first several months of product availability to help
customers get up and running. Standard product support hours are 5 a.m. to
8 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday and Sunday,
including the Labor Day holiday.

Microsoft will update customers daily with information on support tools and
service via the Windows 95 home page on the Internet at
http://www.windows.microsoft.com in the What's New area.

"We are off to a great start at retail in North America, but we still have
work to do," said Chase. "We need to continue helping organizations widely
deploy Windows 95 and support the software and hardware companies
designing Windows 95-based products. Windows 95 will increasingly come
preloaded on new PCs and will be available worldwide in close to 30
languages in the coming months. We are committed to Windows 95 for the
long term."

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in
software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of
products and services for business and personal use, each designed with
the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take full
advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.
 
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