In an effort to add some features to my new Windows XP purchase, I decided to buy Microsoft's XP Plus! packet. FYI - here's what kind of components my computer is running on:
AMD Athlon 1200mhz
512mb pc133 SDRAM
40gb Hard Drive
ATI Radeon VE 64mb DDR

Here's a review of the features:

MP3 to WMA Conversion Utility: Although this is a neat utility, it is really useless. This program will convert your MP3s to Microsoft's compact WMA format. Although this is very practical for people with large MP3 collections and a need for hard drive space, it's not very practical for the everyday user since they will most likely never notice the difference in the file size. Also, there are many freeware programs what will do this also.

Windows Media Player Skins: This feature works by changing the look of Windows Media Player. Although nice looking, many of these skins (and an assortment of others) are available online for free.

Plus! Personal DJ: This utility lets you make customized song lists so that you can play certain songs in any order you would like. I don't know who Microsoft is trying to fool here, but this feature can already be found for FREE, in Windows Media Player, which comes standard in all current Windows operating systems. There are also many freeware programs that can do this.

Speaker Clarity and Richness Improvement Utility: Microsoft claims that this will "Boost the clarity and richness of music with new speaker enhancement technology.It's supposed to make music and sounds sound better while in Windows Media Player. While testing it, I couldn't tell the difference between when it was on or off.

New Windows Media Player Visualizations: A media visualization is a part of Windows Media Player where a graphical display of you music is shown, which moves with your music's beats. Windows has many visualization that already come standard with Windows Media Player, and the PLUS! packet adds very few visualizations. The first one is a display of a character from Microsoft X-Box Oddworld game. He dances to your music. The second one is what looks to be a dancing beat, that, guess what?, dances to your music! While these are nice - they aren't worth the money. Also, when they are running, they use many system resources, and will slow your computer down considerably.

Arcade Games: 3 Games are included with Plus! - A bowling game, a computer form of the board game "Labyrinth", and Tetris. These games were fun to play, and pretty addictive, but I wouldn't pay for them.

Windows Media Player Voice Control: When I first installed the Plus! packet, I though this was going to be the main feature of it. The idea is, if you have a microphone, you can use your voice to command Windows Media Player. You can used commands like, "Play", "Stop", "Open File", etc. Although it it sounds like a good idea, it's very tricky to get set up. You have to go through voice training lessons so that the software can become acclimated to your voice - and even after that the controls don't work very well. There are no instructions on how to set the voice command software up, and it became more of a nuisance than a useful feature.

Cd Label Maker: This neat software does what it is supposed to do - make cd covers, and labels to go into jewel cases to hold your cds. I found this software very useful, and easy to use - but a times limited. If you have a cd burner and use Roxio's EZCD Creator software, you will have no use for this feature since Roxio includes a powerful CD label maker with the suite.

Screensavers: Probably the best part of Plus! The first screen saver is of a fishtank where you have fish that swim around on your desktop. There is also the sound of bubbles running in the background, to make the fishtank simulation more real. The fish look very life-like, and it's a very calming screensaver. The second screensaver is supposed to mimic the effect of mercury dropping into a pool of itself, with ripples as drops of the liquid metal drop into the puddle. Nice - but it requires a powerful video Card to look good. And the third screensaver is a customizable one where you can insert pictures of loved ones, pets, etc, and make them move across the screen. I also like this screensaver.


Now - this is the end of out exploration into Microsoft's Windows XP Plus! Packet. Although some of the features included in this collection are fun, the majority of them can be found for free on the internet. Also, the Windows Media Player Visualizations will cause your system to run like a snail. I was surprised that it was such a resource hog, especially on my well equipped system. Due to this facotr, I have decided to remove XP Plus! from my system, and have since sold it on ebay. For $40, Plus! is not worth it. Don't waste your money on this product, go out and buy yourself some computer memory instead.

Recommended: No