List of Fictional Microsoft Companies

Microsoft uses a variety of fictional companies in the documentation and training material for it's products. Microsoft documentation and learning materials often contain fictional scenarios and descriptions of how their products can be deployed and used in these scenarios. Many of these companies are used in such examples. Some of the fictional companies have associated websites, almost all of which redirect to Microsoft.com.

Companies

All websites redirct to Microsoft.com, unless marked by an asterisk (*)

Name	Website	Usage
A. Datum Corporation	adatum.com	Example company in Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 demos^[1]
AdventureWorks Cycles		Used as an example in Microsoft CRM^[2] and Biztalk^[3] training material Used in example databases for Microsoft SQL Server^[4]
Alpine Ski House	alpineskihouse.com	Used as an example company in Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 sample application^[5]
Awesome Computers		Used as an example company in Windows Server 2003 documentation^[6]
Balwin Museum of Science		Used as an example location for MapPoint .Net documentation^[7]
Blue Yonder Airlines	blueyonderairlines.com* (has been both a demo website^[8] and a redirect page to `microsoft.com`^[9] in the past, but is no longer a functional website)	Used as an example site for various features of Windows Installers, including embedding links in installers and creating URL based installers^[10]
City Power & Light
Coho Vineyard	cohovineyard.com and cohovineyarddemo2.com*
Coho Winery	cohowinery.com	Used as an example in documentation for XML Serialization ^[11]
Coho Vineyard & Winery
Consolidated Messenger
Contoso Ltd.	contoso.com and contoso.net* (`contoso.net` is used in Microsoft documentation, but is not owned by Microsoft)	`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.net` is used as an example domain in Microsoft Lync Server 2010 documentation^[12] Used as an example company in Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 sample application^[13]
Contoso Bank	Contoso Bank Website	Demo site for SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer
Contoso Pharmaceuticals
	cpandl.com	Used as an example in documentation for XML Serialization^[11]
Electronic, Inc.
Fabrikam, Inc.	fabrikam.com	Used as an example domain in Remote Desktop Connection
Fourth Coffee	fourthcoffee.com and http://fourthcoffee1.com*	`fourthcoffee1.com` was used as a demo site for Microsoft Office Live
Graphic Design Institute
Humongous Insurance	humongousinsurance.com
Itexamworld.com
LitWare Inc.	litware.com and litwareinc.com
Lucerne Publishing	lucernepublishing.com
Margie's Travel
	malvertising.info	Demo site for SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer
Northridge Video
Northwind Traders	northwindtraders.com	Demo company for database capabilities in Microsoft Access
Parnell Aerospace
ProseWare, Inc.	proseware.com
School of Fine Art	fineartschool.net	Used as an example domain in the help file for Microsoft Outlook 2007 Used as an example location for MapPoint .Net documentation^[14]
Southbridge Video
StrikeStrike	strikestrike.com	Demo site for SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer
TailSpin Toys
Tasmanian Traders
The Phone Company
Trey Research Inc.	treyresearch.net	Example company in Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 demos
WingTip Toys	wingtiptoys.com	Used in the Microsoft Office Frontpage 2003 demo Used in the Small Business Server test drive
Wide World Importers	wideworldimporters.com
Woodgrove Bank	woodgrovebank.com*	Demo site used to show security features in Internet Explorer

References

^ "Simplify Single Sign-on Using ADFS". Microsoft Technet. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.07.simplify.aspx. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "ReportViewingUrl". MSDN Library. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa645136.aspx. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "BizTalk Server 2010 Administrator Training Kit". Micrsoft Download Center. http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=27148. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "AdventureWorks Sample OLTP Database". MSDN Library. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms124659(v=SQL.100).aspx. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "PerformancePoint Server 2007 Sample: Planning Data". Microsoft Download Center. http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=3064. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "ISP model". Microsoft Technet. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc780576(WS.10).aspx. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
^ "Maximizing Address Find Rates in MapPoint .NET Version 3.0". Microsoft Technet. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms980188.aspx.
^ "Blue Yonder Airlines". Archived from [blueyonderairlines.com the original] on 2009-04-06. http://web.archive.org/web/20090406021611/http://www.blueyonderairlines.com/. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "Blue Yonder Airlines". Archived from [blueyonderairlines.com the original] on 2005-02-08. http://web.archive.org/web/20050208001935/http://www.blueyonderairlines.com/. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "Hyperlink Control". Microsoft Technet. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/query/dd407936. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ ^a ^b "XmlSerializerNamespaces Class". MSDN Library. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.xml.serialization.xmlserializernamespaces.aspx. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "Microsoft Lync Server 2010". Microsoft. http://download.microsoft.com/download/F/E/E/FEEAF18B-7F9C-41C6-8FBF-899390902B94/LS_Supportability.doc. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
^ "PerformancePoint Server 2007 Contoso Demo Data". Microsoft Download Center. http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=17165. Retrieved 2011-11-26.
^ "Maximizing Address Find Rates in MapPoint .NET Version 3.0". Microsoft Technet. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms980188.aspx.

External links

Microsoft Technet article on fictional companies