• PC World
• »Software
• »Operating Systems

Microsoft's Plus add-ons for Windows have never ranked very high on anybody's list of must-have software, but the latest version--for Windows XP--hits a new low. It includes jazzy window dressing, several inconsequential multimedia gizmos, and a few games--but nothing of substance to justify the $40 price.

The new Plus's most innovative features have to do with Windows XP's much-touted multimedia capabilities. Topping the list is an application that enables voice commands for Windows Media Player for Windows XP. It took me a good half hour to train the speech recognition engine and get the feature up and running, but in the end I was able, by barking commands, to get Media Player to play tracks, pause, move between tracks, and even run a specific playlist or play music by a particular artist--although occasionally I had to repeat myself a couple of times. Other commands let you hide or display various features, or even summon the help screen if you forget a command.

If you're planning to use Windows XP's CD-burning capability, Plus's CD-label creation program might come in handy. Plus's Personal DJ does simplify playlist creation, but this task wasn't exactly arduous to begin with.

A Speaker Enhancement feature integrated into Media Player is supposed to improve sound quality by optimizing for specific models of speakers. In my tests using Altec Lansing speakers, the sound was louder and seemed richer, with added reverb. However, clarity at the high end seemed compromised. Unfortunately, the feature doesn't yet support all speakers, including the Logitech line.

In the category of most self-serving feature is a tool that converts MP3 files to Microsoft's WMA format. Microsoft says WMA saves space without sacrificing quality, but in our tests of digital audio formats, there was no clear winner between MP3 and WMA (see last month's "Easy as MP3"). Finally, Plus includes extra skins and visualizations (psychedelic animations) for Media Player.

Other Plus features will be familiar to users of Plus packages for Windows 95 and 98. You get four themes--coordinated desktop elements such as wallpaper, cursors, icons, a screen saver, program sounds, and so on. I liked the Aquarium theme, with its turquoise-blue underwater wallpaper, its creaky-ship sound effect for program close, and its screen saver with realistic-looking tropical fish swimming in a virtual aquarium (Microsoft licensed this screen saver from SereneScreen, whose Windows 98/Me version does not work in Windows XP). Space, Nature, and Da Vinci collections round out the theme offerings. You can also try out the 3D Robot Circus, Mercury Pool, or Sand Pendulum screen savers.

Trio of Games

No Plus package is complete without a couple of games, and XP's offers three. My favorite was Russian Square, a Tetris-like puzzle game; the others are a 3D labyrinth and a limited version of HyperBowl, a bowling game set in various scenic locales.

The games, Media Player features, and screen enhancements aren't bad, but they clearly won't be on any business buyer's shopping list--and at $40 they seem overpriced, even for consumers. At least with Plus 98 you got a useful file-compression utility, and Plus 95 had a system agent (which automated several key utilities) and a dial-up networking server. This year's Plus adds up to a big minus.

SUMMARY

Microsoft Plus $40 List

• See more like this:
• windows,
• xp,
• microsoft,
• software,
• games