If you’ve been using Windows for a long time, you’ve probably used apps that have been discontinued a long time ago. For some, hearing the name of a long-forgotten app may evoke a wave of nostalgia or recall a time when it brought out a sense of repressed fear in others. However, many of these useful apps were simply ahead of their time.
Let’s take Microsoft Encarta as an example. Microsoft Encarta was the company’s long-defunct encyclopedia app that spanned five discs, or one DVD if you were lucky enough to have a PC with a DVD drive in the early 2000s. . Today, Wikipedia rules the internet and also has the ability to do simple historical searches using AI assistants like Copilot and ChatGPT. With this in mind, we visited Microsoft’s graveyard and unearthed five apps that deserve to be revived in future releases of Windows.
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5 microsoft money
With the cost of living crisis still affecting many countries around the world, budgeting is more important than ever. These days, many people use the best expense tracking apps, but back in the 1990s, Microsoft had a very useful app called Microsoft Money. From its debut in October 1991 to its discontinuation in 2020, the app provided a colorful and detailed overview of your household finances. Track specific budgets with pie charts and graphs, or view upcoming bills for home and more.
Windows 11 doesn’t have anything similar to this app, but it should, especially considering how the Money app works with Copilot, Microsoft’s AI assistant. Imagine the scene. You’re managing your finances with the new version of Money, and Copilot is analyzing your income and spending over the past few months. That could suggest options to cut back on certain items or consider a new line of iPhone 16 Pro products after a strong month. The building blocks are there. Just return your Microsoft Money to complete the package.
4 microsoft encarta
As mentioned above, Encarta was essentially the predecessor to Wikipedia. While many may remember this encyclopedia suite as a five-disc package, Encarta was also briefly available to subscribers online in 2000. This encyclopedia suite has been a great resource for learning about historical events spanning thousands of years. There are approximately 50,000 articles, most filled with images and full-motion videos, providing detailed explanations on a myriad of topics. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until 2009 that Encarta disappeared due to the rise of social networks like Wikipedia and Reddit. Reddit still makes it easy to look up anything instantly, and for free.
Nowadays, if you want to look up the Tudor monarch Henry VIII, you’ll likely search through a search engine like Google or an AI assistant like Copilot. But imagine a scenario where you could instantly access Encarta through Windows and Copilot without having to search the vast World Wide Web. This curated content is instantly accessible to Windows users and could be an attractive feature in future Windows releases. It could also become part of Copilot+, a premium tier of Microsoft’s AI assistant that can do even more.
In the age of smart TVs and streaming devices like Amazon Fire and Apple TV 4K, it’s easier than ever to manage your viewing on all your devices at once. However, Windows still doesn’t have a dedicated app that can provide similar functionality from Amazon or Apple. Windows Media Center may be revived here. For those unfamiliar, Media Center was first introduced in 2002 as part of a special edition of Microsoft’s operating system at the time, Windows XP. Media Center was presented in a blue and green interface, and with support for TV tuner cards, users could browse videos, music, and live TV.
Media Center had a small but passionate following, but it was discontinued shortly after the launch of Windows 10 in 2015. What made Media Center stand out was its ease of use in managing the media stored on your PC. The product’s return could signal Microsoft moving further into the living room to compete with the Kindle Fire Stick 4K and Apple TV 4K. Imagine turning your laptop into Media Center, where you can “cast” to a nearby TV, have all your purchased media at your fingertips, and wrap yourself in an interface reminiscent of Media Center’s original design in 2002. Please take a look. For many people, this will be a very attractive feature.
2 microsoft reader
Remember when Microsoft offered e-reader apps? Probably not. From 2000 to 2007, Microsoft Reader allowed users to purchase and read books in the company’s proprietary “.LIT” format. Companies like Barnes & Noble and Amazon also partnered with Microsoft in 2000 to bring their book libraries to their apps. You can use Reader on your Windows PC or use the highly anticipated mobile version on the company’s Pocket PC device. Of course, Microsoft Reader disappeared once companies like Amazon took control of the e-book market, but it feels like it’s time for a comeback. Microsoft services are currently available on many devices, including the Surface Pro 11, MacBook Air, and iPhone 16 Pro Max. Perhaps Microsoft Reader should return as a service available on all these devices, but optimized for Windows. There are now so many devices that can be transformed into tablets, many of which work perfectly as e-readers for comics, graphic novels, and more. The latest Microsoft Reader could give users another reason to stick with Windows, much like Apple’s Book Store keeps users within the Apple ecosystem.
1 MSN Messenger
If you were a teenager between 1999 and 2008, chances are you used MSN Messenger on your family’s PC. Launched in 1999, the app was for many people the go-to way to stay in touch with friends after school. You can also update your status with ASCII art and emojis, use features like “nudges,” and play multiplayer games. However, with the arrival of Apple’s App Store in 2008 and Google’s Android Store in the same year, MSN Messenger quickly lost its relevance as it became much easier to communicate with friends and family on smartphones and tablets. I lost. But it’s time for MSN Messenger to return.
Microsoft’s messaging app is a bit of a mess right now. While the video calling app Skype has faded into obscurity in recent years, Microsoft Teams, a business-focused app that oddly combines workplace apps Slack and Skype, is primarily intended for work use. The revamped MSN Messenger could fill that gap as a consumer-centric messaging app to replace Skype. The app is likely to combine what Messenger had to offer with features inspired by WhatsApp and Skype. This not only creates a sense of nostalgia for older users, but also gives purpose to the purpose of MSN Messenger while strictly separating Microsoft Teams as a work tool. This gives the user the impression that the two apps serve completely different use cases. In this way, Microsoft can not only bring MSN Messenger back to a whole new generation, but also once again give users a fun way to message each other on Windows.
Pour one for long-defunct apps
We’ve listed five Microsoft apps that deserve a comeback, but there are plenty of other forgotten gems from Apple and Google that could make a comeback, too. Let’s take Google Wave as an example. It was a short-lived social network born in 2009 that featured a great way to communicate and collaborate across apps. Or Aperture, Apple’s great photo editing app released in 2005 that could rival Adobe Photoshop until it was discontinued in 2015. Hopefully some of these apps will be back soon. In the meantime, take a look at this list and see if you recognize any long-lost apps from the past.
