Windows 98 Release to Manufacturing Date

This article details the official release to manufacturing (RTM) date of Microsoft Windows 98, distinguishes between its manufacturing milestone and general retail availability, and highlights the key technical aspects of this landmark operating system release.

Microsoft officially released Windows 98 to manufacturing on May 15, 1998. The Release to Manufacturing milestone signifies the completion of the software's core development cycle, resulting in the final "gold master" code being delivered to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to pre-install on new personal computers and duplicate onto installation media.

The RTM build was designated internally as Build 1998 (version 4.10.1998). While computer manufacturers received the operating system in mid-May, general consumers could not purchase retail boxed copies until June 25, 1998, when the operating system reached official retail availability worldwide.

Windows 98 introduced several major architectural and usability upgrades over Windows 95. It featured deep integration with Internet Explorer 4.0, native support for the FAT32 file system, improved Universal Serial Bus (USB) peripheral compatibility, and the Windows Driver Model (WDM). Reaching the RTM stage on May 15, 1998, marked a critical transition point that solidified consumer-grade computing standards for the late 1990s.