Nearly 50 years ago—April 4, 1975—Microsoft was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. Back then, everything centered around the development and sales of BASIC code interpreters. Only later were MS-DOS, Windows, and Office added to the mix.
Microsoft is celebrating their upcoming 50th anniversary in an unconventional way: with the creation of wallpapers that are as plain as they are ugly, which will be available to download free of charge. Microsoft published the wallpapers on X/Twitter and wrote:
“50 years of innovation, memories and moments that have shaped us. To celebrate this, we are providing you with some nostalgic wallpapers. Download yours and relive the magic. #Microsoft50”
Microsoft
The wallpapers show the card game Solitaire, the extremely simple painting app Paint, the word processor Word, and the iconic spreadsheet app Excel. DOS and Basic were obviously unworthy of wallpapers. You can download the wallpapers via the tweet here.
If you want to celebrate Microsoft’s history with a stroll down memory lane, check out the most pivotal events in Windows history, this visual tour of Windows through the ages, this history of Microsoft hardware, and that time Microsoft tried to scrap Windows and start over.
Further reading: Why is Windows called “Windows”?
This article originally appeared on our sister publication PC-WELT and was translated and localized from German.