Rating: 
Summary: not really a must...
Review: Although many of its stuff are pretty fun to use and creative, but after all, it is not really a "must" have item. and though its only 18 bucks, still seems a bit expensive for its actual usage.
Rating: 
Summary: Photo Story
Review: The software on Media Edition has one real gem - Photo Story.You install Photo Story version 1 that comes on the Media Edition disk then get the free upgrade that comes with the ver. 2 Digital Media Edition download upgrade. Photo Story Ver. 2 lets you edit your story until you get it right. Photo Story allows you to easily build a moving jpg slide show with added non-copywrited windows media file music. It writes a wma movie file which you can be transferred to a VCD. It will not write your photo story to a DVD. You can convert your wma movie file to a DVD file with other software. I used MyDVD that came with my Sony DVD writer. MyDVD does a direct conversion from Picture Story's WMA to a DVD. The songs you buy from Music Match for 99 cents are copyrighted and will not work with Photo Story. Here are some examples of Photo Story... Photo Story is the way to go until you are ready move to industrial strength slide software like Memories to TV. I doubt I'll ever need anything better that Photo Story.
Rating: 
Summary: Yep, it's shareware
Review: I gave this a 3 because I like to dink around with half done games, graphics, and code. Hpyerbowl and the Fish Tank cannot be upgraded to an enjoyable level without more from the checkbook. This is a teaser, and not like the win95 Plus pack, or maybe we've all gotten spoiled. For $29.99 it's a boarder-line sell. But, I bought it, and it's not bad. But, it's not so good either. I don't think we've run the fish tank in months. I should go figure out how to turn it back on. It's kind'a cool, but like most of the pack, it doesn't do much.
Rating:
Summary: a waste of money from Micro$oft
Review: this is the biggest gimmick from micro$oft, you buy or "buy" their overly expensive opperating system that you are basically forced to buy. And they don't include stuff, so you'll have to buy or "buy" later. The only thing i wanted this for was the ability to change my startbar colors and the themes, because silver and blue just dont cut it. I "bought" this off the interweb to see the different themes, and the stupid product overwrote some of my newer files; eg. windows media player, i wasn't sure if my version i had was older or newer than the one in plus!, and it made windows media player the default veiwer for a bunch of stuff like .mpg's and .mp3's was first lame thing that happend. the other themes were all lame, I had better looking themes when i used window blinds and StarDock skincaster. After using this product i think i'm going to buy Stardock since the choices in skins is far better. The only reason i gave this 2 stars was because of the pretty cool voice recognition thingy.
Rating: 
Summary: great, but only for one item it comes with...
Review: Most of the softwate with this is not only junk, but not even the full version. They include some pretty useless stuff like dancers and "movie enhancements". They include an alarm clock which seems nice, but who leaves they're computer on all night, every day, to use as an alarm clock? Besides all this it's worth the money for photostory. I used this for my grandfathers birthday party and he loved it. I used old photos and some of his favorite songs and it was very moving. Also, you can now download an update from microsoft which allows you to burn the movie to a cd or dvd. I only gave this four stars because everything else in this is pretty bad, but buy it for photostory.
Rating: 
Summary: $30 for "shareware" software?!?!
Review: I paid $29.99 for this thinking that, while extremely overpriced, at least I would be getting the Aquarium screensaver and the Hyperbowl game. Lo and behold, both are merely "shareware" versions or "teasers"!!!
You get only 2 lanes to bowl in Hyperbowl, and worse, only lets you play single player UNLESS you care to pay an extra $15.95 for the full version. WTF?!?!!?
Then there's the Aquarium that has 3 fish. If you want the "full" version with more fish, etc., that's another $19.95.
Needless to say I returned the item. I refuse to pay $30 for a collection of shareware.
Rating:
Summary: waste of money
Review: Total waste of money. Doesn't do a thing. Speaker custumization is lame. Didn't bother to look at the games. The screensaver that looks like an aquarium was not so bad but after awhile a glitch can be seen in it so that too wont pass as a consolation.
Rating:
Summary: More Microsoft Fluff
Review: As usual, Microsoft comes up with a product that promises more than it delivers.
I expected to turn my cassette tape collection into MP3s but could not.
Plus! has an analog recorder all right, but the resulting files are in Microsoft's proprietary WMA format.
Plus! includes an audio converter. You would think that this converter would enable you to convert your WMA files into MP3 files but it does not.
The help file (a missnomer for any Microsoft help files) says I can convert to MP3 if I have an MP3 codec installed. If you don't know what a codec is, get lost!
Thank you Bill! Not only does Microsoft charge 20 bucks for something that should be standard with Windows but it still falls short of what anyone would expect.
The recorder splits tracks as it records and lets you splice either ends of tracks. However, Plus! will not let you splice the end of one track, delete the spliced end, and combine the shortened track with the next track. In essence, you can cut the begining or the end of a track but not take out, say a silence from the middle of a track. How stupid!
It is quite frustrating to see Microsoft devote time on mediocre gadgets like these when it has so much catching up to do to make its main applications work properly.
Then again, I guess Microsoft is not about making great products, just great money...
Rating:
Summary: I gave it a try....and liked it.
Review: Good Windows XP add-on and now that Photo Story 2 is included it has made it much better... Basically Photo Story 2 is a program that allows you to take a ton of Photos, narration and sound then export them to a Movie file or CD for sharing with friends and family.... That program alone is worth the price but you get a whole lot more...
Rating:
Summary: 50 New Movie Maker 2 additional components
Review: Come to http://www.windowsmoviemakers.net and see what we are making using these new effects. With Plus! Effects & Transitions for Windows Movie Maker 2, you get 25 new amazing video effects and 25 new video transitions for Microsoft® Windows® Movie Maker 2. What a bonus! MovieMaker
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