![]() ![]() The trio of Plus games-Russian Squares, the Labyrinth, and HyperBowl-may look graphically superior to the games bundled with XP, but they all rank high on the bore-o-meter. Like earlier Plus packs, this one includes restricted games in an attempt to tempt you into buying the real deal. And if you want to completely change the way XP looks, check out the WindowBlinds XP beta, which lets you run any of hundreds of WindowBlinds' custom interfaces. Actually, you can get Plus's Aquarium screensaver by downloading the free Aquarium, which also works on Windows 95, 98, Me, 2000, and NT. The Web hosts hundreds or thousands of screensavers and themes at download sites such as and. Unlike the generic MyPictures Slideshow included with XP, the Plus edition ups the ante by letting you stick the pics onto animated backgrounds.Īlthough these themes and screensavers look spectacular, they're not unique. Plus's screensavers are slick, particularly Aquarium, a photo-realistic virtual fish tank that has, believe it or not, fooled a cat on more than one occasion, and MyPictures, a customizable screensaver that lets you use your own digital photos. We were hoping to land themes that would completely recast XP's interface to look like Mac OS X or BeOS. The desktop themes-collections of icons, wallpaper, sounds, mouse pointers, and other graphical elements-are snappy, but you're limited to back-to-nature, outer space, and Leonardo da Vinci-style decor. For instance, it adds a "Convert to Windows Media Audio" command to the menu that pops up when you right-click an audio file-say, an MP3 file within Windows Explorer-and inserts its desktop themes and eight screensavers in the Windows Display Properties Control Panel so that you don't have to hunt around in your download folders. Plus doesn't just dump a bunch of icons under the Start menu, it insinuates itself into the operating system. You can slap Plus onto your hard drive with no hassle. Save yourself $35 to $40 and spend it on something XP really needs: an antivirus program. You can find a lot of the same or similar tools on the Web for free. Where it used to populate Plus with engrossing entertainment (think Pinball in Plus 95) or useful utilities (such as VirusScan in Plus 98), Microsoft Plus for XP gives you only lightweight add-ons: desktop themes, screensavers, borderline games, and audio enhancements that should have been part of the OS from the start. But this time, Microsoft has gone too far. Whenever it launches a new version of Windows, Microsoft offers Plus as an after-market collection of add-ons for home users. ![]()
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