Encarta Encyclopedia Free Software Now

Although mainly sold on CD-ROM and DVD, Microsoft experimented with free access models:

: Included thousands of photos, illustrations, music clips, videos, and interactive animations. Encarta Encyclopedia Free Software

: It originally debuted at $395 , though this price quickly dropped to $99 as it became frequently bundled with new multimedia PCs. Although mainly sold on CD-ROM and DVD, Microsoft

Microsoft announced the discontinuation of Encarta in March 2009, citing shifts in how people consume information. Microsoft Encarta Retrospective Encarta Encyclopedia Free Software

: An abridged online version offering around 16,000 articles for free to students and teachers.

Encarta was born from Microsoft's internal project in the late 1980s. After being rejected by Encyclopædia Britannica , Microsoft licensed text from Funk & Wagnalls Encyclopedia for its initial 1993 release.