Contoso
Encyclopedia
Contoso also known as Contoso Ltd. is a fictional company used by Microsoft
as an example company and domain. The board of directors consists of industry insiders led by visionary giant and CEO Dan Jump. On April 1, 2011, an April Fool's Day joke from Google
Enterprise said that Contoso abandoned many of Microsoft's technologies in favor of Google Apps
.
*contoso.com redirects to Microsoft.com, contoso.net no longer seems to be owned by Microsoft, and Contoso Bank's Website contains a demo online banking site.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
as an example company and domain. The board of directors consists of industry insiders led by visionary giant and CEO Dan Jump. On April 1, 2011, an April Fool's Day joke from Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Enterprise said that Contoso abandoned many of Microsoft's technologies in favor of Google Apps
Google Apps
Google Apps is a service from Google providing independently customizable versions of several Google products under a custom domain name. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including: Gmail, Google Groups, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and...
.
Usage
Contoso and it's two websites, contoso.com and contoso.net* are used in documentation and help files for several Microsoft products:, including:- Contoso.com is used as a demo domain in Microsoft ExchangeMicrosoft ExchangeMicrosoft Exchange can refer to:* Microsoft Exchange Server, an email server software product from Microsoft* Microsoft Exchange Client, the former companion client software for Exchange Server that was embedded into some versions of Microsoft Windows...
training material - "Contoso Toolbar", a fictional toolbar, is used to demonstrate the Add-on Performance Advisor in Internet Explorer 9Internet Explorer 9Windows Internet Explorer 9 is the current version of the Internet Explorer web browser from Microsoft. It was released to the public on March 14, 2011 at 21:00 PDT. Internet Explorer 9 supports several CSS 3 properties, embedded ICC v2 or v4 color profiles support via Windows Color System, and...
- Contoso.com is used as an example domain in Microsoft Exams 70-515, 70-640, 70-680 and 70-685
- Contoso.net is used as an example domain in the account configuration wizard from Microsoft Outlook 2007Microsoft OutlookMicrosoft Outlook is a personal information manager from Microsoft, available both as a separate application as well as a part of the Microsoft Office suite...
, while Contoso.com is used as a example in the help file - Contoso Bank's Website* is used as a demo site for SmartScreen Filter in Internet ExplorerInternet ExplorerWindows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
- Contoso Pharmaceuticals is also sometimes used
*contoso.com redirects to Microsoft.com, contoso.net no longer seems to be owned by Microsoft, and Contoso Bank's Website contains a demo online banking site.