( CNET ) -- The company paid to treat people to free newspapers in London , lighted the Empire State Building in Windows ' colors and draped Toronto 's CN Tower with a 300-foot banner -- all part of a massive $ 300 million ad campaign that accompanied the product 's arrival . Windows 95 , which was separate from the company 's business-oriented Windows NT product , added a number of features over its predecessors including better network support , the ability to send faxes ( yes , there was a time when that was a big deal ) along with basic audio recording , audio playback , and video playback tools . Features now thought of as core parts of Windows , such as the start menu and taskbar , also made their debut with Windows 95 . Plus , it just looked a whole lot better graphically and was far more stable than past consumer versions of Windows . Internet Explorer debuted around the same time , but was sold separately as part of Microsoft 's Plus Pack for Windows 95 . It was eventually bundled in directly with the operating system in an update to Windows 95 released the following year . By the time Windows 95 was finally ushered off the market in 2001 , it had become a fixture on computer desktops around the world . `` If you look at Windows 95 , it was a quantum leap in difference in technological capability and stability , '' Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald said at that time . A decade and a half after Windows 95 hit the market , though , one question looms large for Windows : Are all its best days in the past ? Clearly it was a different time and Microsoft might be hard pressed to capture that kind of consumer attention no matter what it did . But , never mind the long lines , will Microsoft be able to continue to sell Windows at the price and volume it has ? It 's one of the most important questions facing Microsoft as a company . While the company has expanded far beyond its Windows roots , Windows and Office remain the engine driving the vast majority of the company 's profits even as it looks to cell phones , search , and online services to augment its mainstay businesses . At the moment , the Windows business is doing quite well , with Windows 7 selling at an impressive clip . Indeed Windows 7 is selling far faster than Windows 95 did in its early days , though that 's as much a testament to how large the PC market is as anything else . The longer-term question is whether Windows can outpace what I call the generic web experience . In the coming years , smartbooks , tablets , cell phones , Netbooks and shapes we probably have n't thought of will all be capable of delivering the web , which is for many people their main use of a PC . For Windows to be as relevant on Windows 95 's 20th anniversary as it is today , the company will have had to manage to evolve the operating system significantly . I see a few ways this can happen , but none is a sure thing . First , Microsoft ( or a third-party software maker ) can develop a new killer app that only runs on Windows . It 's been a long time since this happened , but certainly it 's not impossible . New user interfaces can also be added . Touch is already there , as is voice control to some degree , but gesture recognition such as that found in Kinect could pave the way for new uses . Second , it could evolve Windows and Windows Live to offer a dramatically better way of doing the same tasks that most people do on the Web . Sure , we can manage our photos and music on the Web today and that is getting easier . However , tapping local storage and graphics , Microsoft has the potential to offer a better way and , with the latest version of Windows Live , is trying to do so . Third , Microsoft could enhance the value of Windows by having a browser that is demonstrably superior to non-Windows rivals . This appears to be a tall order , given that Internet Explorer , while still leading in market share , has been well behind rivals when it comes to being seen as the technical leader . For the record , this challenge is not just the one facing Microsoft . It 's also the one facing Apple 's Mac business . And while Microsoft must justify the $ 100 or so premium that it charges for Windows , Apple commands an even higher premium when comparing the Mac to one of these `` generic Web '' devices . But Apple also has another entrant in the game -- a viable alternative Web experience delivered in the form of the iPad . Microsoft , at least so far , appears to have only Windows , in its various flavors . © 2010 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved . CNET , CNET.com and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CBS Interactive Inc. Used by permission .
Windows 95 added a number of core features such as the start menu and taskbar . Windows and Microsoft Office remain the engine driving the vast majority of the company 's profits . The question is whether Windows can outpace what we call the generic web experience .