• Nov 26, 1976 — The trade name, Microsoft, is registered with the Office of the Secretary of the State of New Mexico.

In 1976, Microsoft rents its first office in this Albuquerque, New Mexico office building.

• Nov 1, 1978 — Microsoft establishes its first international sales office in Japan, ASCII Microsoft, which markets to original equipment manufacturers, dealers, and end users.
• Dec 31, 1978 — Microsoft's year-end sales exceed $1 million.

• Jan 1, 1979 — Microsoft moves its offices to Bellevue, Washington from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

• Jun 11, 1980 — Steve Ballmer joins Microsoft with responsibility for Operations, including personnel, finance, and legal areas of the business.

By 1980, Microsoft has formed its Consumer Products division and is adapting software like Adventure, Typing Tutor and Olympic Decathlon for various microcomputers, like the TRS-80.

• May 2, 1983 — Microsoft introduces the Microsoft Mouse, a low-cost, handheld pointing device for use with the IBM PC as well as any other MS-DOS-based personal computer.
• Sep 29, 1983 — Microsoft introduces its full-featured word processing program, Word for MS-DOS 1.00 and provides a free demonstration copy to subscribers of The PC World Software Review.

• Sep 30, 1985 — Microsoft ships the first version of Excel, intended to compete with Lotus 1-2-3, for the Macintosh computer.
• Nov 20, 1985 — Microsoft ships the retail version of Windows graphical environment, an operating system that extends the features of the MS-DOS.

Windows, Microsoft's own GUI platform, finally hits the market in November of 1985, not long after Excel for the Macintosh ups the spreadsheet ante.