On this day: How Microsoft changed the world with Windows 95 launch

Microsoft’s launch of Windows 95 was a world-changing moment, with Bill Gates dancing on stage to the Rolling Stones' Start Me Up.

The Stones were paid a reported $8 million for the song – used as a reference to the operating system’s "Start" button.

Friends stars Matthew Perry and Jennifer Aniston also starred in a video for the product, while New York's Empire State Building and Toronto’s CN Tower were lit up in Microsoft’s colours.

It was a defining moment for technology: the software launch resembled that of a film or album, and the new OS was many people's introduction to using a PC for entertainment, rather than just work.

Windows 95 introduced many of the now-iconic features of Windows, including the Start button and taskbar.

Customers queued round the block to buy it: a sight now associated with Apple launches. But in 1995, Microsoft was leading the charge.

When Windows 95 launched, only a quarter of British households had computers – this had doubled by 2001, according to the Office for National Statistics.

The software introduced the familiar "desktop" with links to files, folders and applications.

The interface had previously appeared in Apple Mac computers, and before that in a graphical interface created by research company Xerox Parc.

Responding to accusations that Windows had copied the ideas of Apple's Steve Jobs, Gates said: “The main "copying" that went on relative to Steve and me is that we both benefited from the work that Xerox Parc did in creating the graphical interface.”

Shortly after the released of Windows 95, Microsoft launched Internet Explorer as a belated add-on.

The OS was initially shipped without a browser.

The addition came after a panicked-sounding Bill Gates sent a memo to Microsoft staff headed "The Internet Tidal Wave".

Gates realised that Microsoft had to offer its Internet Explorer software free with Windows 95 to compete – a decision that would ignite the so-called "browser wars".

He wrote: "One scary possibility being discussed by internet fans, is whether they should get together and create something far less expensive than a PC which is powerful enough for web browsing."

Gates announced his determination to "match or beat" rival Netscape Navigator with Internet Explorer.

Later, Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with every Windows PC, and insisted that other companies do so as well.

It worked: at one stage, the browser had a staggering 95% market share.

It was also very nearly a costly decision. A 1998 US Department of Justice investigation into the practice suggested that Microsoft should be broken up over anticompetitive practices.

In Europe, the company had to introduce a "Browser Choice" pop-up screen, and was fined €561m by the European Commission when the screen was removed in a Windows 7 update.

Today’s Windows 10 is recognisably the grandchild of Windows 95, with much of the screen furniture exactly the same including the taskbar.

And the OS still comes with the iconic Start button – Microsoft removed it in 2012, but restored it again after outcry from consumers.

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