Last Updated on June 28, 2025 by Dave Farquhar
It was 29 years ago this week that Microsoft introduced Internet Explorer 2.0. Version 1.0 had been almost an afterthought, just one of the components in the Windows 95 Plus pack. But with version 2, Microsoft was taking Netscape seriously, and, as they say, Microsoft doesn’t like to lose.
Insurance in case this Internet thing catches on
Internet Explorer contained technology Microsoft licensed from Spyglass Mosaic. It was an insurance policy in case this Internet thing caught on. Notably, Microsoft did not initially bundle it with the operating system, marooning it in the Plus Pack like an afterthought.
Initially, Internet Explorer was less important to Microsoft’s overall strategy than MSN, Microsoft’s own competitor to AOL. Windows 95 did include MSN, something I recommend hacking out if you build a retro Win95 box. It’s not like you can use the service anymore even if you wanted to.
Microsoft knew it was a mistake by May, before the release. Bill Gates outlined a plan in a memo titled The Internet Tidal Wave. IE version 2 carried out Gates’ plan. Microsoft added capabilities to bring it closer to feature parity with Netscape, then started giving it away and aggressively promoting it.
How Internet Explorer 2.0 fixed Microsoft’s browser
The first time I saw Internet Explorer was in August 1995, in a small computer lab at the University of Missouri. Its journalism school had been running a digital newspaper for several years, initially as a dial-up service in the pre-internet days. Microsoft partnered with the University of Missouri to launch the news portion of MSN, and as part of the partnership, Microsoft sent several Compaq Deskpro PCs running the retail release of Windows 95 with Office 95 and the Plus pack.
It was at once a remarkable and unremarkable experience. Every browser not named Netscape was, at best, just okay. The MSN people ran Internet Explorer out of corporate loyalty, not because it was great.
But there was something electric going on. Generation X went to college, discovered the Internet, and decided this thing was way too important to not have at home. Bill Gates had seen the potential for delivering news and other information to the home using technology, and wondered if that could be a profitable venture. Then he completely missed the perfect vehicle for it.
The runaway success of Netscape got Bill Gates’s attention, so Microsoft started giving Internet Explorer 2.0 away for free, bundling it with the operating system, and doing whatever else they could to spur adoption. Everything except pay royalties to Spyglass, that is. Since they were giving the browser away, they argued they didn’t owe royalties. Spyglass sued, and they settled for $8 million in January 1997.
The rise of Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer 2.0 approached feature parity with Netscape but I didn’t see it as much of anything special either. It was really with Internet Explorer version 3 that Microsoft closed the gap with Netscape. During that generation, which one was better probably was a matter of personal preference. But it wasn’t long at all before IE caught and passed Netscape in market share. It’s hard to compete with free.
David Farquhar is a computer security professional, entrepreneur, and author. He has written professionally about computers since 1991, so he was writing about retro computers when they were still new. He has been working in IT professionally since 1994 and has specialized in vulnerability management since 2013. He holds Security+ and CISSP certifications. Today he blogs five times a week, mostly about retro computers and retro gaming covering the time period from 1975 to 2000.