Celebrating 30 Years of Microsoft Press

Back in the fall of 1983, a publisher and a group of editors were hired to start Microsoft Press. They introduced their first two books at the 1984 West Coast Computer Faire. Those books were Cary Lu's The Apple Macintosh Book and Peter Norton's Exploring the IBM PCjr Home Computer. According to old press releases that we’ve been able to find in the archives here at Microsoft, they sold 55,000 units of the Apple Macintosh Book in the first three months.

Today, 30 years later, we have almost 1,000 titles still available in some format. Many of the old books are in our digital eReference Library and are no longer printed. It’s been fun to look back at our old book covers and titles.  We will be celebrating our 30 years throughout the next 12 months with videos from authors, blog posts from authors and former editors, as well as posts that revisit great books from Microsoft Press throughout the years. We hope you’ll enjoy celebrating with us and sharing your stories with us about what Microsoft Press books have done for you.