Microsoft Plus! is an extra or addon pack for windows XP. It contains a lot of features or programs.
All programs are grouped under names:
1) Digital Media
2) Games
3) Themes
4) ScreenSavers
1) Digital Media includes:
"Plus! voice command for windows media player". As the name indicate, it improves accessibility of windows media player by including voice recognition.
"Plus mp3 audio converter"can be used to convert MP3 and WAV files to WMA. WMA format claims to have double the quality of MP3, that is.,
WMA with 64 kbps has the same quality of MP3 with128 kbps bitrate!
Well, after conversion, the quality seems pretty same to me. The only difference is that some songs with large variation in audio pitch may not sound exactly the same. But the compression quality is great. I have all my MP3 converted to WMA and saves GBs of disk space. Conversion speed is fair.
"Plus CD Label maker" is a small graphic editing application used to create CD Labels, just like Nero CD label maker but with less features.
"Plus speaker enhancement" helps in audio enhancement according to different speakers. If your speaker is listed in the "speaker profiles" list, you can get good audio output. But many speakers are not supported/listed.
"Plus! windows media player skins" provide a good selection of skins for Windows Media Player.
"Plus! 3D Visualizations" include many visualizations for Windows Media Player. But the skins and plugins slow down / crash Media Player often and is a problem that needs consideration. Only install plugins you really need.
"Plus! personal DJ" can be used to create playlists for Windows Media Player. Now, playlist files contain a list of media files in your computer. You can create a playlist with your favorite songs and play at any time. It can be done in any media player, but "Plus! personal DJ" makes it easier.
2) Games include 3 games
"Russian Square Plus!",
"Labyrinth Plus!", and
"HyperBowl Plus!"
3) Themes include
"Plus! Aquarium"
"Plus! Space"
"Plus! DaVinci"
"Plus! Space"
Which are the same themes you get with Windows Media Center Edition.
Not a good collection of themes!
4) ScreenSavers
ScreenSavers too doesn't have a good collection. There are only 3 or 4 screensavers that too came with Windows Media Center Edition.
Overall, they could have done a lot better withe Microsoft Plus!
Also, they have discontinued this program. All of the features like the speaker enhancement, games, etc are a part of Windows Vista now.
You may find it in some online or retail stores, ebay, etc.
Microsoft Plus! 1.0 is not supported in vista, but it can be run. But you may not get to use all the features.
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