List of fictional Microsoft companies

Microsoft uses a variety of fictional companies in the documentation and training material for its 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 redirect 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] Example URL in Microsoft Office
AdventureWorks Cycles	adventure-works.com	Used as an example in Microsoft CRM[2] and Biztalk[3] training material Used in example databases for Microsoft SQL Server[4] Used in tutorials for Microsoft Office XP on disk.
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]
Baldwin 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*	Used as a demo company in early Office 365 introduction videos
Coho Winery	cohowinery.com	Used as an example in documentation for XML Serialization [11]
Coho Vineyard & Winery
Consolidated Messenger		Used in some Microsoft Certification Exams questions
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.com/Service.asmx?WSDL" is used in Microsoft InfoPath Designer 2013 when designing a "Web Service". "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 virtually all Microsoft Certification Exams Contoso.net is used as an example domain in the account configuration wizard from Microsoft Outlook 2007, while Contoso.com is used as an 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] Used an example website in Internet Information Services
Contoso Bank	Contoso Bank Website	Demo site for SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer
Contoso Hotel (no longer owned by Microsoft)	Contoso Hotel Website	Contoso Hotel has been used in several Microsoft Office Tutorials, for example how to embed a PowerPoint Presentation into a website PowerPoint Tutorial Example
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 Used as an example eCommerce Storefront in the fashion industry in Dynamics AX 2012 Retail R2 Used as a fictional computer manufacture in FlexGo documentation Used as an example company in documentation for Outlook Electronic Business cards[14] Used as an example company in a Publisher brochure template Used as an example company in Skype for Business screenshots
Fourth Coffee	fourthcoffee.com and fourthcoffee1.com*	fourthcoffee1.com was used as a demo site for Microsoft Office Live Fourth Coffee is used as site template in Microsoft WebMatrix
FusionTomo	http://www.fusiontomo.com/	Demo company used in MOS certification training
Graphic Design Institute
Humongous Insurance	humongousinsurance.com
Itexamworld.com
LitWare Inc.	litware.com and litwareinc.com
Lucerne Publishing	lucernepublishing.com	Used in Office 365 Training.
Margie's Travel
	malvertising.info*	Demo site for SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer
Northridge Video
Northwind Traders	http://www.northwindtraders.com (defunct)	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[7]
Southbridge Video
StrikeStrike	strikestrike.com* (Site is no longer owned by Microsoft)	Demo site for SmartScreen Filter in Internet Explorer
TailSpin Toys	tailspintoys.com	Used by Microsoft Australia in various Team Foundation Server demo environments and training materials. Used by Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System as a Demo environment.
Tasmanian Traders
The Phone Company
Trey Research Inc.	treyresearch.net	Example company in Active Directory Federation Services 2.0 demos Some of the company's properties are seen in some missions in Microsoft Flight Simulator X e.g. "Oil Rig Transport"
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	Used by Microsoft Dynamics Retail Management System as a Demo environment supplier.
Woodgrove Bank	woodgrovebank.com* No longer active.	Demo site used to show security features in Internet Explorer

References

1. "Simplify Single Sign-on Using ADFS". Microsoft Technet. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
2. "ReportViewingUrl". MSDN Library. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
3. "BizTalk Server 2010 Administrator Training Kit". Micrsoft Download Center. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
4. "AdventureWorks Sample OLTP Database". MSDN Library. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
5. "PerformancePoint Server 2007 Sample: Planning Data". Microsoft Download Center. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
6. "ISP model". Microsoft Technet. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
7. "Maximizing Address Find Rates in MapPoint .NET Version 3.0". Microsoft Technet. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
8. "Blue Yonder Airlines". Archived from the original on 2009-04-06. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
9. "Blue Yonder Airlines". Archived from the original on 2009-04-06. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
10. "Hyperlink Control". Microsoft Technet. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
11. "XmlSerializerNamespaces Class". MSDN Library. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
12. "Microsoft Lync Server 2010". Microsoft. Retrieved 2 December 2011.
13. "PerformancePoint Server 2007 Contoso Demo Data". Microsoft Download Center. Retrieved 24 September 2013.
14. "Update the picture on the Electronic Business Card to match the contact picture". Microsoft Office. Retrieved 10 September 2014.

External links

• Microsoft Technet article on fictional companies