Microsoft Home is a defunct line of software applications and personal hardware products published by
Microsoft. Microsoft Home software titles first appeared in the middle of 1993. These applications were designed to bring multimedia to
Microsoft Windows and
Macintosh personal computers. With more than 60 products available under the Microsoft Home brand by 1994, the company's push into the consumer market took off. Microsoft also announced at that time
Microsoft Plus!, an add-on enhancement package for Windows, which was continued until the
Windows XP era. The range of home software catered for many different consumer interests from gaming with
Microsoft Arcade and
Entertainment Packs to reference titles such as
Microsoft Encarta,
Bookshelf and
Cinemania. Shortly after the release of
Microsoft Windows 95, the company began to reduce the price of Microsoft Home products and by the rise of the
World Wide Web by 1998, Microsoft began to phase out the line of software.