The system was promoted with a campaign featuring the Rolling Stones song "Start Me Up", gathering crowds at midnight premieres and marking the beginning of an era of mass fascination with technology.
The launch of the system was a real spectacle – Jay Leno and Bill Gates hosted a 90-minute show, and the Empire State Building lit up with Microsoft colors. Sales exceeded 7 million copies in five weeks, and reached 40 million a year later.
Windows 95 offered revolutionary solutions: the "Start" menu, the taskbar, and "plug and play", which simplified working on a PC. The system combined MS-DOS and Windows, switched to a 32-bit architecture, and allowed the use of long file names.
There were also Internet innovations – the Plus! pack with Internet Explorer opened the era of web surfing. Brian Eno's startup sound became a cultural symbol and was included in the American Registry of Recordings.
The legacy of Windows 95 lives on – the "Start" menu and taskbar remain part of every Windows PC.