Microsoft Encarta
Microsoft's multimedia encyclopedia brought maps, audio and video onto home computers, then could not survive a world where a free encyclopedia updated itself continuously.
Quick facts
- Existence state
- Officially Gone
- Peak stage
- general availability
- Research confidence
- high
- Last verified
What it was
A digital encyclopedia sold on disc and later through a subscription website by Microsoft.
A digital encyclopedia sold on disc and later through a subscription website by Microsoft. Encarta combined commissioned articles with atlases, timelines, quotations and interactive media, becoming a common home and school reference product.
Existence timeline
Microsoft sells a multimedia reference work on CD-ROM.
Annual editions add media, maps and broader language coverage.
A free continuously edited competitor begins changing reference habits.
Microsoft confirms the software and websites will end.
Encarta leaves normal public online availability.
Why it ended
Microsoft announced in 2009 that changing information habits made the product unsustainable and closed Encarta websites after ending the software line.
Last confirmed trace
Installed discs, boxed editions, screenshots and library holdings preserve static final versions; online updates and subscription access are gone.
What it left behind
Encarta helped destroy the print-encyclopedia business before being displaced by Wikipedia's radically different production and distribution model.
How we classified it
The archive unit reached normal public release or operation and is no longer obtainable in its original public form.
Verified normal public availability maps to 100 under Arrival Score V1.
Sources & verification
Last reviewed 2026-08-01. Sources are linked so readers can inspect the evidence directly.