Up to Front, the FrontPage Editor, which was used for designing pages, was a separate application from the FrontPage Explorer which was used to manage web site folders.
Bundled on CD with the NT 4.0 Server release, Front.1 would run under NT 4.0 (Server or Workstation) or Windows 95.
Īs a 'WYSIWYG' (What You See Is What You Get) editor, FrontPage is designed to hide the details of pages' HTML code from the user, making it possible for novices to create web pages and web sites easily.įrontPage's initial outing under the Microsoft name came in 1996 with the release of Windows NT 4.0 Server and its constituent Web server Internet Information Services 2.0. Vermeer was acquired by Microsoft in January 1996 specifically so that Microsoft could add FrontPage to its product line-up allowing them to gain an advantage in the browser wars, as FrontPage was designed to create web pages for their own browser, Internet Explorer. FrontPage was initially created by Cambridge, Massachusetts company Vermeer Technologies, Incorporated, evidence of which can be easily spotted in file names and directories prefixed _vti_ in web sites created using FrontPage.