Microsoft Plus! is a discontinued commercial

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

enhancement product by

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

. The last edition is the Plus! SuperPack, which includes an assortment of screensavers, themes, and games, as well as multimedia applications. The Microsoft Plus! product was first announced on January 31, 1994, under the internal codename "Frosting". The first edition was an enhancement for

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

, Windows 95 Plus! The enhancements that make up Microsoft Plus! were generally developed by Microsoft itself. The Plus! packs also included games and content from third-party companies; for example, in Plus! for

Windows XP Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct successor to Windows 2000 for high-end and business users a ...

, the '' HyperBowl'' game developed by HyperEntertainment Inc. was included. Plus! features that enhance the base operating system or provide utility are generally included free of charge in the next release of Windows. Microsoft Plus! was discontinued and replaced by Windows Ultimate Extras in

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, released five years earlier, which was then the longest time span between successive releases of Microsoft W ...

. Windows Ultimate Extras would later be completely removed in

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, ...

Versions

Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95

This was the first version of Plus! and had an initial cost of US$49.99. It included Space Cadet Pinball, the Internet Jumpstart Kit (which was the introduction of Internet Explorer 1.0),

DriveSpace DriveSpace (initially known as DoubleSpace) is a disk compression utility supplied with MS-DOS starting from version 6.0 in 1993 and ending in 2000 with the release of Windows Me. The purpose of DriveSpace is to increase the amount of data the ...

3 and Compression Agent disk compression utilities, the initial release of

theme Theme or themes may refer to: * Theme (Byzantine district), an administrative district in the Byzantine Empire governed by a Strategos * Theme (computing), a custom graphical appearance for certain software. * Theme (linguistics), topic * Theme ( ...

support along with a set of 12 themes, dial-up networking server, dial-up scripting tool, and the graphical improvements such as anti-aliased screen fonts, full-window drag, the ability to stretch or shrink the wallpaper to fit the screen and high color icons. Task Scheduler as it is present in later Windows versions was included as System Agent. A utility to notify the user of low disk space (DiskAlm.exe) also ran as part of System Agent. Plus! for

was initially marketed for adding features for "high-performance computers", the minimum system requirements were an

80386 The Intel 386, originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386, is the third-generation x86 architecture microprocessor from Intel. It was the first 32-bit processor in the line, making it a significant evolution in the x86 architect ...

CPU with 8

megabyte The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes ...

s of

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

. Later releases of Windows 95 (OSR2 and onwards) included DriveSpace 3 and Internet Explorer 3.0. Windows 98 included all of the enhancements included in Plus! for Windows 95. Space Cadet Pinball was not installed by default, but included on the Windows 98 CD. Although Windows NT 4.0 is not intended to support desktop themes, each desktop theme from this pack (except the More Windows theme and the Windows 95 256-color theme) along with the Space theme from the Microsoft Plus! for Kids pack (albeit with a different startup sound) and three additional exclusive desktop themes is installable on this operating system via the Windows NT 4.0 Resource Kit. The screen-saver and wallpaper files include images from the

Codex Leicester The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as the Codex Hammer) is a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The codex is named after Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719. The codex provides an insight into the m ...

, which Microsoft co-founder, then CEO

Bill Gates William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American businessman and philanthropist. A pioneer of the microcomputer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s, he co-founded the software company Microsoft in 1975 with his childhood friend ...

bought in 1994. Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 shipped with the following Desktop Themes: * Dangerous Creatures (256 color) * Inside Your Computer (high color) * Leonardo da Vinci (256 color) * Mystery (high color) * Nature (high color) * Science (256 color) * The 60's USA (256 color) * The Golden Era (high color) * Sports (256 color) * Travel (high color) * Windows 95 (256 color) * More Windows (high color) All of them were included in

Windows 98 Windows 98 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the second operating system in the 9x line, as the successor to Windows 95. It was Software ...

and Me, except that in Windows 98, the "Windows 95" and "More Windows" themes were modified to use Windows 98's version of The Microsoft Sound, as well as to change instances of "Windows 95" to "Windows 98", and in Windows Me, the two themes are combined into a new theme entitled "Windows Millennium", with a unique background.

Microsoft Plus! for Kids

This version was released in 1997 and aimed at children of ages 3 to 12. It includes three new applications: Talk It!, a

text-to-speech Speech synthesis is the artificial production of human speech. A computer system used for this purpose is called a speech synthesizer, and can be implemented in software or Computer hardware, hardware products. A text-to-speech (TTS) system conv ...

program that says what users type using various voices; Play It!, an electronic keyboard with music and sound effects; and Paint It!, a version of

Paint Paint is a material or mixture that, when applied to a solid material and allowed to dry, adds a film-like layer. As art, this is used to create an image or images known as a painting. Paint can be made in many colors and types. Most paints are ...

oriented for kids. It also contained a "picture picker" along with clipart, fonts, 10 new desktop themes, and Protect It!, a parental controls program. Plus! for Kids was the only Plus! release from the Microsoft Home and Entertainment division rather than the Windows Operating System development group. Four desktop themes from this collection - Baseball, Jungle, Space and Underwater – were included in Windows 98 and

Windows Me Windows Me (Millennium Edition) is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It was the successor to Windows 98, and was released to manufacturing on June 19, 2000, and t ...

; the Underwater theme, however, was modified to have its sounds play in different events. There is also a demo version for Microsoft Plus! for Kids; however, it only contains the readme for the program and the Underwater theme. The pack can also be installed on Windows NT 4.0 if the user is granted administrative privileges, according to the

Readme In software distribution and software development, a README file (computing), file contains information about the other files in a directory (file systems), directory or archive (computing), archive of computer software. A form of Software doc ...

document included with the pack, although Protect It! and the desktop themes cannot be installed, mainly due to design differences between

and NT 4.0.

Microsoft Plus! 98

As the sequel to the original suite of enhancements to Windows, Plus! 98 included eighteen new desktop themes (some of which were based on popular comics such as ''

FoxTrot The foxtrot is a smooth, progressive dance characterized by long, continuous flowing movements across the dance floor. It is danced to big band (usually vocal) music. The dance is similar in its look to waltz, although the rhythm is in a time ...

'' and ''

Garfield ''Garfield'' is an American comic strip created by Jim Davis (cartoonist), Jim Davis. Originally published locally as ''Jon'' in 1976 (later changed to ''Garfield'' in 1977), then in nationwide Print syndication, syndication from 1978, it chro ...

''), along with new programs and tools for

. An "organic art" 3D screensaver rendered unique infinite 3D visual shapes. A Start Menu cleanup utility was added to Windows 98's Maintenance Wizard. A Cybermedia Non-Critical File Cleaner utility was integrated into

Disk Cleanup Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.exe) is a computer maintenance utility included in Microsoft Windows designed to free up disk space. It was introduced in Windows 98 and has been a part of Microsoft Windows ever since. In 2018, Microsoft introduced a seco ...

ZIP file ZIP is an archive file format that supports lossless data compression. A ZIP file may contain one or more files or directories that may have been compressed. The ZIP file format permits a number of compression algorithms, though DEFLATE is t ...

integration with

Windows Explorer File Explorer, previously known as Windows Explorer, is a file manager application and default desktop environment that is included with releases of the Microsoft Windows operating system from Windows 95 onwards. It provides a graphical user i ...

was first introduced with this version under the name of "compressed folders". New games, such as '' Microsoft Golf 1998 Lite'', '' Lose Your Marbles'' and the now popular '' Spider Solitaire'' were also part of Plus! 98. A Deluxe CD Player with

CDDB CDDB, short for Compact Disc Database, is a database for application software, software applications to look up audio CD (compact disc) information over the Internet. This is performed by a client which calculates a (nearly) unique disc Identifier ...

support and a basic "express" version of Picture It! were also included. Finally, Plus! 98 came with

McAfee VirusScan McAfee Antivirus is an antivirus software created and maintained by McAfee (formerly known as Intel Security, and Network Associates prior to that). Originally marketed as a standalone product, it is also bundled with McAfee Antivirus Plus, McA ...

3.0, along with a six-month supply of free updates. Some Plus! 98 features such as compressed folders and the Spider Solitaire game were included in

and later Windows versions. The Deluxe CD Player was included with

Windows 2000 Windows 2000 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft, targeting the server and business markets. It is the direct successor to Windows NT 4.0, and was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RT ...

. Although Windows Me does not include all of the Plus! 98 features and Plus! 98 Setup is blocked by Windows Me as incompatible, it can be installed on Windows Me by copying the setup files to the local hard disk and renaming Setup.exe before running it. It is possible to use the Plus! for Windows 95, Plus! for Kids, and Plus! 98 desktop themes on Windows 2000 and Windows XP, by copying PLUS!.DLL, THEMES.EXE, and Themes folder from the %ProgramFiles%\Plus! directory from an existing Windows 98/Me computer to a Windows 2000/XP computer. It is recommended to run the Desktop Themes control panel (THEMES.EXE) in Windows 98/Me compatibility mode, to avoid crashes. The screensaver .scr/.dll files are stored in %WINDIR%\system on Windows 98/Me, and can be copied over to %WINDIR%\system32 directory on Windows 2000/XP.

Microsoft Plus! Game Pack: Cards & Puzzles

This Plus! pack was released at the time of Windows Millennium Edition; however, it could also be installed on Windows 95-98, NT 4.0 and 2000. It included the Microsoft Entertainment Pack: The Puzzle Collection - a collection of 10 arcade games and Microsoft Bicycle Card Collection, another set of 12 card games (Hearts, Spades, Cribbage, Pinochle, Crazy 8's, Oh Hell!, Go Fish, Old Maid, Euchre, Gin Rummy, Schafkopf and Skat). A trial version of Microsoft Pandora's Box was also included.

Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP

Marketed as "The Ultimate Companion for Windows XP", Microsoft Plus! for

was launched alongside the Windows XP operating system on October 25, 2001. This version of Plus! was created to show off the enhanced capabilities that Windows XP presented with its updated

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP, officially referred to as Windows Media Player Legacy to retronym, distinguish it from Windows Media Player (2022), the new Windows Media Player introduced with Windows 11) is the first media player (application soft ...

and

DirectX Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces (APIs) for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with "Direct" ...

3D core technologies. Continuing the feature categories of the previous Plus! products, the product features were desktop themes, screen savers, games, and utilities. Plus! for Windows XP includes: *Plus! Themes (Aquarium, Nature, da Vinci and Space) *Plus! Screen Savers (Aquarium, Nature, da Vinci, Space, Robot Circus, Sand Pendulum, Mercury Pool and Plus! My Pictures Premium screensaver) *Plus! Voice Command for

*Plus! Personal DJ *Plus! MP3 Converter *Plus! CD Label Maker *Plus! Speaker Enhancement *Plus! 3D Visualizations for Windows Media Player ( Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee, Maxx's Kingdom and Plus! Undersea Wonders) *Plus! Skins for Windows Media Player (Aquarium, Nature, da Vinci and Space) * Plus! Hyperbowl *Plus! Russian Square *Plus! Labyrinth

Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition

Marketed as "The Ultimate Photo, Music, and Movie Enhancement Pack for Windows XP", Microsoft launched Plus! Digital Media Edition along with Windows XP Media Center Edition. Plus! Digital Media Edition signified the first time Microsoft had released a second Plus! product based on the same base operating system. Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition was also the first Microsoft product to be made available for sale to consumers via e-commerce as full product download through online retailers. Released on January 7, 2003, Plus! Digital Media Edition built upon two newly enhanced Windows XP core components: Windows Media Player and

Windows Movie Maker Windows Movie Maker (known as Windows Live Movie Maker for the 2009 and 2011 releases) is a discontinued video editing software program by Microsoft. It was first included in Windows Me on September 14, 2000, and in Windows XP on October 25, 200 ...

2. This product version focused more on utility features for photos, music and movies rather than including the more traditional Plus! features like themes, screen savers, and games. Plus! Digital Media Edition includes: *Plus!

Photo Story Microsoft Photo Story is a free application that allows users to create a visual story ( show and tell presentation) from their digital photos. The software uses the Ken Burns Effect on digital photos and allows adding narration, effects, trans ...

2 *Plus! Party Mode *Plus! Analog Recorder *Plus! CD Label Maker *Plus! Dancer *Plus! Audio Converter *Plus! Effects and Transitions for

2 *Plus! Alarm Clock *Plus! Sleep Timer *Plus! Skins for Windows Media Player 9 Series *Plus! Sync & Go for Pocket PC Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition is the only version of Microsoft Plus! to require activation. Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 includes some of the themes and screensavers from Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP, as it retains the Aquarium, Da Vinci, Nature and Space themes. It also includes some applications from Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition, namely, Audio Converter, CD Label Maker, Dancer and Party Mode and the My Pictures Premium screensaver. A Windows Media Player skin called Darkling, developed by The Skins Factory is included, the skin is exclusive to Microsoft Plus! Digital Media Edition.

Microsoft Plus! SuperPack for Windows XP

On October 19, 2004, Microsoft replaced its two separate Plus! products for Windows XP with a single combined version called the Microsoft Plus! SuperPack for Windows XP. There were no new features or functionality added nor are the two separate products integrated. On Windows XP Media Center Edition the Pack was not needed as it had included the Plus Pack features. The Plus! series has been discontinued, as some of its features have been integrated into

and later Windows versions.

External links

References

{{Microsoft Kids Internet Explorer 1995 software Plus!