Microsoft Works

The cheap office suite that came with the PC, from a 1986 Macintosh program to Works 9, replaced by Office Starter

Replaced
19902026

Microsoft Works was a low-cost integrated word processor, spreadsheet and database, first released for the Macintosh in 1986 (based on Don Williams' MouseWorks), for DOS in 1987 and for Windows in 1991, and bundled on millions of home PCs; the Works Suite of 1997 to 2006 added Word, Encarta, Money and Streets & Trips. Version 9 of 2007 was the last. Microsoft announced its end in October 2009 and replaced it with Office Starter 2010 in June 2010.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 1986
  2. September 1986 Launch
    Works 1.0 for the Macintosh

    Word processor, spreadsheet, database and comms in one.

  3. 1987
  4. 14 September 1987 Version
    Works for DOS

    The PC version that went into millions of homes.

  5. 1991
  6. 1991 Version
    Works for Windows
  7. 1997
  8. October 1997 Version
    Works Suite (Home Essentials 98)

    Works plus Word, Encarta, Money and more.

  9. 2007
  10. 6 September 2007 Version
    Works 9

    The last version, with a free ad-supported edition.

  11. 2009
  12. 14 October 2009 Shutdown announced
    Office Starter 2010 to replace Works

    Free, ad-supported Word and Excel.

  13. 2010
  14. 15 June 2010 Shutdown
    Office 2010 ships; Works discontinued

The site through time

Browse microsoft.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

1986 1990 1994 1998 2002 2006 2010 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Microsoft 1986–2010 Founded Based on MouseWorks by Don Williams and Rupert Lissner

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Microsoft said on 14 October 2009 that Works would be discontinued and that new PCs would instead ship with Office Starter 2010, an ad-supported, reduced version of Word and Excel; Office 2010 and Starter were released on 15 June 2010 and Works 9, the last version, went out of production. The Works calendar and database had no successor. Support for Works 9 ran until 2013.

Our analysis: Works existed to be the thing on a new PC that opened letters and spreadsheets and did not cost $400. For twenty years that was a real product with tens of millions of copies, sold to OEMs for a few dollars each. It died when Microsoft found a cheaper way to do the same job: a free, cut-down Office that upsold to the real one, and later Office Online. The file format was the lasting damage; .wps and .wdb documents from Works are still hard to open.

History [edit]

Everything in one box

Works began as MouseWorks, an integrated program for the Macintosh by Don Williams and Rupert Lissner, which Bill Gates licensed in 1986 and shipped as Microsoft Works 1.0 for the Mac in September 1986: a word processor, spreadsheet, database and communications module in one application, at a fraction of the price of buying them separately. Works for DOS followed on 14 September 1987 and became a fixture on PCs sold to homes and small offices, and Works for Windows arrived in 1991. It was never a serious rival to Office; it was the thing you got instead of Office, preloaded by Packard Bell, Compaq, Dell and Gateway, and it opened a great many school essays and household budgets.

Works Suite, from 1997 (as Home Essentials) to Works Suite 2006, bundled Works with a full copy of Word, Encarta, Money, Picture It! and Streets & Trips, and sold on the OEM channel for years. Works 9, released in September 2007, was the last version: a paid retail edition and a free, ad-supported Works SE for PC makers. By then Works had a task launcher, a calendar and templates, and its files still could not be opened by anyone who did not have it.

Office Starter

On 14 October 2009 Microsoft announced Office Starter 2010, a free, advertising-supported version of Word and Excel for new PCs, and said it would replace Works. Office 2010 and Starter shipped on 15 June 2010 and Works stopped. Starter itself was dropped in 2012 in favour of Office Online and trial subscriptions. Works documents live on as .wps and .wdb files that need converters, and the name survives mostly in the phrase "it came with Works".

The domain today

microsoft.com carries only a lifecycle page for Works.

Similar projects

Microsoft Bob A cartoon house instead of a desktop, sold for one year in 1995 1995–1996 Google Desktop Google search for your own hard drive, plus a sidebar of gadgets, retired when the cloud made it pointless 2004–2011 Windows Live Writer The blog editor bloggers loved, from Onfolio to Windows Essentials 2012, abandoned by Microsoft and rescued as open source 2006–2017 Aperture Apple's professional photo manager, the first of its kind, dropped for Photos and finally unable to launch 2005–2015 Microsoft FrontPage The web editor that built a generation of home pages, bought from Vermeer in 1996 and retired in 2006 1995–2006 Microsoft Money Microsoft's personal finance program, eighteen years against Quicken, ended when the banks went online 1991–2009

Sources [edit]

  1. Microsoft Works 1.x (DOS) WinWorld 1 January 2015 [archived]
  2. Microsoft Works 9.0 WinWorld 1 January 2015 [archived]
  3. Office Starter 2010 unveiled, replacing Microsoft Works Redmond Magazine 14 October 2009 [archived]
  4. Ad-supported Office Starter 2010 to replace Microsoft Works PCWorld 14 October 2009 [archived]
  5. Microsoft Works Microsoft Lifecycle 1 January 2013 [archived]

Last verified: 16 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).