Microsoft Windows 95 Launch with Bill Gates & Jay Leno (1995)

Dreams come true: the holy grail of Microsoft launch events finally made available for viewing pleasure after nearly 27 years. This launch event stars Jay Leno as he explores Windows 95 and the campus while making remarkably corny and dated celebrity jokes, so it's an unexpected relief to hear Bill Gates talk when he isn't around.

Several pieces of footage from this event have been floating around for many years, but the full uncut version was nowhere to be found up until now, so you'll be witnessing a lot of stuff that hasn't been seen by anyone outside of attendees, the press, and the development team. One example is some of the websites shown near the end, including pages from the older MSN service, and the official homepage for the Windows 95 launch campus complete with rich web graphics. And that was all displayed on Internet Explorer 1.0!

This tape also houses that infamous Windows 1.0 "commercial" with Steve Ballmer that I uploaded previously, in case you're wondering where that originates from. It's also one of possibly several different prints for that video, as there are other old copies floating around shown to have different intros.

A pretty crucial detail at the beginning of the video regarding Windows 95's release to manufacturing date is also brought up, as the one that's present on Wikipedia wrongly states that its August 15th, so that's another mystery cleared up.

I consider this to be the absolute pinnacle of my VHS collection, as I doubt anything else I collect will ever top this. It cost a pretty penny to obtain too! That doesn't mean it won't be the end of my collecting endeavors, as I'll be back to upload more tapes from time to time - mostly on the Internet Archive. So now I bring this crucial piece of software history to you, and I hope you hold this landmark of a tape in high regard as much as I do. Enjoy!

"Start Me Up" by The Rolling Stones (1981)

Chapter selection:
0:00 Prelude and Legal Jargon
2:08 July 14, 1995 - Developer Stories (and geese which make pig noises)
4:22 Windows Then - Steve Ballmer in 1986 "selling" Windows 1.0, except in Nebraska
5:29 Windows Now - Beta Tester Testimonies
6:59 Launch Show Begins! Jay Leno on Stage
11:41 Bill Gates Demonstrates the Start Button
18:12 Comparing Windows 95 against Windows for Workgroups 3.11
20:15 Windows 95 Upgrade Volunteers (Chicago CD vest guy)
24:20 Gates' PowerPoint outlining Windows 95's key technical features
30:59 Demonstration of Networking Features (easy printer installation, group policies)
34:15 Microsoft Mousemobile
35:20 More Beta Tester Testimonies (Ford Motor Company)
39:49 Even More Beta Tester Testimonies from Other Companies
44:09 Bill Gates Discusses End User Benefits of Windows 95
46:11 Pavilion Tour, 3D Gaming Demo
48:29 Windows 95 Upgrade Under Way, Plug and Play Devices Installed
49:06 Yet More Beta Tester Testimonies (Artists, researching on Encarta, the simplicity of AutoPlay)
52:20 Microsoft Office 95 Demonstration
1:05:36 Windows 95 Upgrade Complete, PCMCIA Demo
1:06:28 Bill Miller Demonstrates the Microsoft Network
1:12:54 Windows 95 On-Line Launch Event website
1:16:19 Microsoft Plus! Companion for Windows 95 Demonstration (Space Cadet Pinball is shown here briefly before Jay interrupts Bill yet again)
1:20:23 Brad Silverberg's Closing Notes
1:24:23 Start Me Up advertisement (1st preview)
1:25:36 The Windows 95 Development Team!
1:29:18 Ending, 3D Windows 95 Logo Animation
1:29:47 Empty space on the tape, included only for completeness

[LGR]

Incredible that this has eluded the internet for so very long, wow.
Thanks so much for digitizing and sharing this!

[OLIVR_YT]

Wow, that's quite a leap from Windows 11 to 95. Can't wait.

[MichaelMJD]

This is incredible. Thanks for uploading this!

[BloomsArchitect]

Steve Ballmer was only 30 years in that 1986 video but he looked about 55.

[BryanMagee]

This is very nearly the most 90s thing I've ever seen. Jay Leno, pleated oversized slacks, Clinton jokes, retro tech. I love it.

[SpottedBullet]

No matter what OS you use, it's great to be able to look back on historical moments. Thanks for preserving this!

[pablodeoliveira]

What a blast of a presentation! I remember being a kid getting my first ever PC with Windows 95 pre-installed. Oh man the memories, it all started there.

[ijando]

I was 7 years old when my father scheduled a Saturday night event at home just to try Windows 95 in our 486 DX2 PC. I still remember clearly him asking me to pass the next floppy disk during the installation process and I could not wait to the end to see if the MS Paint had new features :D

[nirv]

Thank you for doing the noble thing and uploading this in it's entirety with no stupid watermark.

[terenceskill]

"Simple and painless!" - if you bought a new PC alongside with it, because it didn´t run on your old one. I remember having witnessed this whole presentation at a Microsoft office in Dresden, Germany in the 90s. A friend of mine had gotten his hands on two tickets and invited me to go there with him. I didn´t understand too much English, at the time and I didn´t even know who Jay Leno is, but I also remember the whole thing to have been great fun, anyway...and I also remember that the canapés served after the video presentation were just miraculous^^ Rewatching this after about 25 years feels just awesome, I have a whole lot of old memories from this period popping up that are not directly linked to this event, but came in tow...it´s absolutely hilarious, thank you very much for the upload!

[NightowlStudio]

Wow, great capture. The sound quality is phenomenal!

[YouCantUnhearThis]

You definitely cannot un-see this. Amazing.

[Everything.Windows]

HD, 60fps, Full video. This is an absolute gem. Thank you so much for uploading this, now I can see Steve Ballmer, Bill, and Jay in full glory haha

[rvkice]

Wow. Steve Ballmer was like the Saul Goodman of computers

[mytube]

Windows 95 was genius design, even today we still largely reuse the same interface. While whoever designed Windows 8 should be fired immediately.

[ghatak]

can’t imagine my life without computer, from using win 95 to win 11, can’t forget those days. windows xp was a big change.

[benny]

Windows 95 launch was really one of the most important moment in computer history, and it was one of the major breakthrough too: running a graphical user interface with multitasking, multi-treading, protected memory on legacy ms dos environment.

[BlueOSMuseum]

UPDATE (1/27/2023): It appears that Jay has also suffered a motorcycle accident just now, not long after the fire incident. I find it really concerning and ominous for both of these events to happen on such short notice.

EDIT (2/10/2023): I haven't paid much attention to the news regarding Jay's condition, but it seems he's back up again, albeit obviously more beat up then before.

Original message from 11/14/2022:
My condolences go out to Jay Leno who recently suffered a fire accident while working on one of his vintage automobiles. I might not care much for his comedic acts, but he's a really cool guy to be around having a passion for restoring cars, and no person should have to endure such pain. Hoping he recovers well soon.

EDIT (11/25/2022): He appears to be back up on his feet now, albeit with the lingering injuries still sadly visible on his face. Good to see he's doing better anyhow.

[WindowsOnWindows]

Oh wow, I’ve waited so long to see this! Thanks for sharing. 😄

[faxepl]

This sounds fantastic. I need to upgrade my PC to Windows 95! 😄