As the # 1 best-selling encyclopedia software brand for the past 8 years *, Microsoft® Encarta® Premium 2008 provides more current content and more engaging multimedia than ever before. Whether you search online or offline, this is a reliable way for everyone in the family to easily find relevant and reliable information on almost any topic. What's more, Encarta Premium 2008 has a look and feel that makes it easy to use. You will be able to start exploring scientific information right away from one of the world's most trusted encyclopedias. Microsoft Encarta Premium 2008 helps families and lifelong learners discover a world of knowledge. Browse more than 60,000 articles, over 25,000 photos and images, over 800 videos and interactive events, and over 3,000 audio and music clips. What's more, Encyclopedia also has an interactive atlas containing 1.8 million map locations. Microsoft Encarta Premium 2008 contains editorially approved content. Unlike many web encyclopedias, the authors of the more than 60,000 detailed articles in Encarta Premium 2008 are experts in their fields. Your children get relevant age-appropriate information from sources you can trust. Children may use Web Links to more than 25,000 Web sites previously selected by Encarta editors for relevant and age-appropriate research materials.
Developed by Microsoft
- Microsoft Encarta was a digital multimedia encyclopedia published by Microsoft Corporation from 1993 to 2009. Originally sold on CD-ROM or DVD, it was also later available on the World Wide Web via an annual subscription – although later many articles could also be viewed free online with advertisements.
- Microsoft Student with Encarta Premium 2008 gives students a full set of tools to help them succeed and get homework done right the first time.: Make research entertaining. Find information on just about any topic. Thousands of articles, photos, sound clips, and links to related information from trusted sources(2)-plus political, climatic, and topographical maps of the world-make discovering.
Microsoft Encarta Reference Suite 2000 Patch Fixes Do not use this patch on Encarta 2001 products. This patch is designed for Encarta 2000 products only. If you experience problems when you install your Encarta program, download and run the Crow.exe update file, and then install the Encarta. Microsoft Encarta is a comprehensive encyclopedia first released in 1993 containing a wealth of information on a number of different topics. It has proven to be a very useful study guide for students, individuals and businesses.
Microsoft Encarta came out in 1993 and was one of the first CD-ROMs I had. It stopped shipping in 2009 on DVD. I recently found a disk and was impressed that it installed just perfectly on my latest Window 10 machine and runs nicely.
Encarta existed in an interesting place between the rise of the internet and computer's ability to deal with (at the time) massive amounts of data. CD-ROMs could bring us 700 MEGABYTES which was unbelievable when compared to the 1.44MB (or even 120KB) floppy disks we were used to. The idea that Encarta was so large that it was 5 CD-ROMs (!) was staggering, even though that's just a few gigs today. Even a $5 USB stick could hold Encarta - twice!
My kids can't possibly intellectualize the scale that data exists in today. We could barely believe that a whole bookshelf of Encyclopedias was now in our pockets. I spent hours and hours just wandering around random articles in Encarta. The scope of knowledge was overwhelming, but accessible. But it was contained - it was bounded. Today, my kids just assume that the sum of all human knowledge is available with a single search or a 'hey Alexa' so the world's mysteries are less mysterious and they become bored by the Paradox of Choice.
In a world of 4k streaming video, global wireless, and high-speed everything, there's really no analog to the feeling we got watching the Moon Landing as a video in Encarta - short of watching it live on TV in 1969! For most of us, this was the first time we'd ever seen full-motion video on-demand on a computer in any sort of fidelity - and these are mostly 320x240 or smaller videos!
Encarta existed in an interesting place between the rise of the internet and computer's ability to deal with (at the time) massive amounts of data. CD-ROMs could bring us 700 MEGABYTES which was unbelievable when compared to the 1.44MB (or even 120KB) floppy disks we were used to. The idea that Encarta was so large that it was 5 CD-ROMs (!) was staggering, even though that's just a few gigs today. Even a $5 USB stick could hold Encarta - twice!
My kids can't possibly intellectualize the scale that data exists in today. We could barely believe that a whole bookshelf of Encyclopedias was now in our pockets. I spent hours and hours just wandering around random articles in Encarta. The scope of knowledge was overwhelming, but accessible. But it was contained - it was bounded. Today, my kids just assume that the sum of all human knowledge is available with a single search or a 'hey Alexa' so the world's mysteries are less mysterious and they become bored by the Paradox of Choice.
In a world of 4k streaming video, global wireless, and high-speed everything, there's really no analog to the feeling we got watching the Moon Landing as a video in Encarta - short of watching it live on TV in 1969! For most of us, this was the first time we'd ever seen full-motion video on-demand on a computer in any sort of fidelity - and these are mostly 320x240 or smaller videos!
A generation of us grew up hearing MLK's 'I have a dream' speech inside Microsoft Encarta!
Remember the Encarta 'So, you wanna play some Basketball' Video?
Amazed by Google Earth? You never saw the globe in Encarta.
You'll be perhaps surprised to hear that the Encarta Timeline works even today on across THREE 4k monitors at nearly 10,000 pixels across! This was a product that was written over 10 years ago and could never have conceived of that many pixels. It works great!
Most folks at Microsoft don't realize that Encarta exists and is used TODAY all over the developing world on disconnected or occasionally connected computers. (Perhaps Microsoft could make the final version of Encarta available for a free final download so that we might avoid downloading illegal or malware infested versions?)
What are your fond memories of Encarta? If you're not of the Encarta generation, what's your impression of it? Had you heard or thought of it?
Sponsor: Develop Xamarin applications without difficulty with the latest JetBrains Rider: Xcode integration, JetBrains Xamarin SDK, and manage the required SDKs for Android development, all right from the IDE. Get it today!
About Scott
Microsoft Encarta
Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.
Microsoft Encarta Download
AboutNewsletter