4 Iconic Windows Apps That Quietly Faded Into History – BGR

Windows has become the most-used desktop and laptop operating system since its first release in 1985. Its user-friendly interface had intuitively designed windows, icons, and menus that played a significant role in ushering in the era of personal computing.

But what has made Windows so popular isn’t just the operating system itself. The software that accompanies the OS is where users really get to interact with their PC or laptop, with apps for communication, creativity, entertainment, and productivity available right out of the box. Of course, technology moves quickly, and with every software update, with every major Windows release, the apps users have come to love are at risk of being replaced. Over the years, several apps have been discontinued despite their popularity, and many have simply been updated or rebranded without much notice. Here are four such iconic Windows apps that you can now only find in the history books.

Before texting and social media dominated our communication methods, MSN Messenger established itself as the digital hangout for millions of users. It was launched in 1999, and over the next few years, it amassed a total user base of 330 million people. MSN Messenger allowed people to chat in real time, send files back and forth, make voice and video calls, and even see when their friends came online. It was particularly popular among young people, as users could create personalized profiles with custom display names and status messages. A library of emoticons was also available for users to digitally express themselves. Such features are commonplace in contemporary messaging software, like Slack and Microsoft Teams, but in the early 2000s, they were groundbreaking.

However, the 2000s also saw the rise of social media, with MySpace and eventually Facebook offering other features and connectivity to rival MSN Messenger. Smartphones were also gaining traction as everyday devices, and after the first iPhone was launched in 2007, users had a wide variety of affordable and free options for staying in touch with friends, family, and colleagues. Microsoft attempted to modernize the platform by rebranding MSN Messenger as Windows Live Messenger, but millions of users had already moved on, and the changes failed to attract a new audience. Microsoft officially started phasing out the software in 2013 by integrating it into Skype, and Skype itself was then discontinued in 2025.

Nowadays, you can edit videos on your iPhone or Android device, but in the early 2000s, it required a desktop or laptop computer. In September 2000, Microsoft brought video editing capabilities to the masses with Windows Movie Maker, a piece of software that came bundled with Windows Millennium (Windows Me). The software allowed users to import video clips using digital cameras that are old by today’s standards and provided a wide range of editing features without the need for expensive, professional video editing equipment. Similar to the concept of Apple iMovie, which was released around the same time, Windows Movie Maker aimed to put storytelling with a camera into the hands of everyday people.

With the rise of high-speed internet connections and platforms like YouTube gaining popularity on the internet, Windows Movie Maker users had plenty of ways to distribute their video creations. Because it was easy to use and free as part of the Windows operating system, Movie Maker was accessible to millions, and likely an important cog in the workflow for countless cat videos, home videos, and early internet viral clips. Microsoft changed Movie Maker’s name to Windows Live Movie Maker in 2009, and with new video format standards and plenty of free video editing options on the market, Microsoft officially ended support for the software in 2017.

While today there is a near-endless amount of information accessible to anyone with a keyboard and an internet connection, there was a time when all of that information was only available offline. You could, of course, go to a library to track things down, but you could also turn to Microsoft Encarta. Initially distributed as a CD-ROM application, Encarta was a multimedia encyclopedia produced by Microsoft from 1993 to 2009. Having sold more than 350,000 copies by the end of 1993, it quickly became a Windows PC necessity and the go-to source for high school student bibliographies. To further increase its popularity, Microsoft began bundling Encarta for free with the purchase of certain PCs.

But the internet wasn’t far behind Microsoft Encarta. Online access was changing the way people obtained information, and the launch of Wikipedia in 2001 established an entirely free source of consolidated, user-edited information. At the time of its release, Encarta cost $395. But even with a price drop to $99, the bundling with PC purchases, and an eventual subscription-based website, Encarta could not compete with the free and instantly-accessible Wikipedia. Microsoft officially shut down the Encarta website in 2009 and stopped selling Encarta products shortly after.

With the shocking results of AI-powered browsers and with our ability to access the internet from our phones, it may be difficult to remember the simpler times of internet exploration. But that’s precisely the era Microsoft Internet Explorer helped create.It launched in 1995 to a marketplace largely dominated by Netscape Navigator, but because it was bundled for free with the Windows operating system, Internet Explorer quickly caught on with PC users. For many who grew up in the 1990s, Internet Explorer was part of their childhood. At its peak in 2003, the browser had a 95% market share, with millions of people using it as their primary way to access the internet.

Several competitors were on their way, though, as Firefox launched in 2004 and Google Chrome in 2008. Microsoft was unable to keep up with changing web standards, and security was becoming more and more important for those accessing the internet. Mishandled renderings of web pages, slow performance, and poor security were common complaints among users. Microsoft tried leaning into the browser’s worsening image, launching a campaign in 2012 called “the browser you loved to hate,” but it did little to revive Internet Explorer’s reputation. Microsoft launched Edge as its default Windows and cross-device browser in 2015 and officially retired Internet Explorer in 2022.