14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 95 turned 20 yesterday and Microsoft wanted to celebrate this important moment in style, so it made the famous Rolling Stones song “Start Me Up” available free of charge in the Windows Store.
As we told you yesterday, Start Me Up was one of the songs used by Microsoft in Windows 95 commercials and was specifically supposed to put the Start menu in the spotlights, as this particular OS version was the first to introduce the feature that was removed in Windows 8 and brought back in Windows 10.
The Start menu became one of the key features of Windows over the years, and although it received lots of improvements as more time passed by and new versions of the OS came out, the idea remains pretty much the same: provide users with a quick way to access installed apps on their computers.
Limited-time offer
And to celebrate this big moment, all users can download Rolling Stones' hit from the Windows Store, but the offer only lasts until August 24 at 11:59 p.m. PST.
“On Aug. 24, 1995, Windows 95 arrived. And if you were around then, you may remember the song that accompanied the commercial introducing it: “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones,” Microsoft said in a short blog post.
If you're a tech-savvy user, you most likely know that Windows 10 still comes with plenty of features that were originally introduced in Windows 95 and the Start menu is just one example.
Redmond tried with several occasions to step away from the Windows 95 approach, and Windows 8 is pretty much the living proof, as the company replaced the Start menu with a brand-new Start screen that took the whole screen and used live tiles instead of program shortcuts.
This idea has been heavily criticized by users ever since, so Microsoft reverted this change in Windows 10 when it decided to bring back the Start menu with some modern touches.