Contoso

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.^[1]

Usage

Contoso and its two websites, contoso.com and contoso.net* are used in documentation and help files for many Microsoft products, including:

• Contoso.com is used as a demo domain in Microsoft Exchange training material
• "Contoso Toolbar", a fictional toolbar, is used to demonstrate the Add-on Performance Advisor in Internet Explorer 9
• 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 2007, 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 Explorer
• 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.

See also

• List of Fictional Microsoft Companies
• Tempuri

References