Free Software — Encarta Encyclopedia

: After the encyclopedia was discontinued, the online dictionary remained accessible for free until 2011 . Discontinuation and Legacy

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

At its 2008 peak, contained over 62,000 articles and a massive library of multimedia assets. : After the encyclopedia was discontinued, the online

: Famous for the MindMaze trivia game, where players explored a medieval castle by answering encyclopedia-based questions. : Famous for the MindMaze trivia game, where

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.

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

: It originally debuted at $395 , though this price quickly dropped to $99 as it became frequently bundled with new multimedia PCs.