Enhancing Windows XP with Microsoft Plus! (Unboxing & Exploration)

[@goqwertygo]

I work from one of the largest world wide hotel chains, in central reservations. I had to call a "Whatever, Whenever hotel" and their hold music was Velkommen. I immediately got nostalgia goosebumps😄

[@JustPyroYT]

Wow. Thats pretty cool

[@macecail]

When I hear that song, I immediately start crying of nostalgia

[@goqwertygo]

@@macecail I almost did too, the memories 🥺

[@prebenjaeger]

Wonder why Stan chose the Danish/Norwegian word for "Welcome". Fits well though.

[@Gui427]

@@macecail Windows XP until Vista were tha masterpiece in music and artwork.

[@markusTegelane]

Fun fact: The "Get more themes online" dropdown option in Windows XP (when you right clicked on the desktop and selected properties) originally linked to a page that mentioned Microsoft Plus for XP.

[@michealpersicko9531]

So that's why there arent that many themes on here and what is here is shit. Microsoft probably didn't want to give everyone a shit ton of themes no one would use so they basically decided to just host them on a server for anyone to download if they wanted Plus I imagine at 35 dollars they would have been selling each copy of Plus XP at a loss if they did that.

[@cubehead-exists]

@@michealpersicko9531 you CAN get windowblinds now, though. There's also the Zune, Royale, Royale Noir, and Embedded theme.

[@cubehead-exists]

@@WillLasvegas r/ihadastroke

[@WillLasvegas]

@@cubehead-exists I fell asleep with this video playing in bed!!! 😂😂😂

[@Otto500206]

​@@cubehead-existsWindowsblinds isn't free though.

[@garminizator]

The amount of pain this video just bestowed upon me is simply insane. I mean nostalgia of course, but the times long gone by hurt nonetheless. Absolutely love the content here mate, thanks for taking us back in time.

[@funniflow]

That's how I feel using the Wii U, 3DS, and pretty much any Nintendo console (that has a UI) other than the Switch, seeing their playful sound effects, UI design, and music while knowing on the Switch there's... nothing. no soul. mii maker is in settings now, no music anywhere, its just "modern" now.

[@wearwolf2500]

The silver colour was always my preference. Felt more like a fancy 3D version of the 9x UI. The default blue seems a bit cartoonish to me.

[@hawk_7000]

Agreed, out of the included XP-style ("Luna") themes, the silver one was the one I liked as well. (And yes, the default blue theme was popularly referred to as the Fisher-Price theme at the time...)

[@Aeduo]

I liked the classic theme best. Olive is nice though. I think at the time I prefered silver though because I was in to boring neutral colors at the time, because I was an edgy teenager. :p

[@AdrienMelody]

I loved the childish plastic blue color 😂

[@IndellableHatesHandles]

@@Aeduo Olive is even more boring. Highly corporate, but good for going under the radar.

[@Aeduo]

@@IndellableHatesHandles given the three options, it's at least not mostly yellow or gray. But yeah I wouldn't say I really like any of them a whole lot. The blue titlebar is "quirky" but in an almost conservative way because everything else is yellow/beige.

[@user-is7xs1mr9y]

Yes, you should definitely make a video on screensavers. I used to love the ones from Windows 98, including Organic Art from Plus! 98. I was obsessed with Serene Screen screensavers, they were so beautiful. I remember seeing one in a laptop from a store circa 2007. It was a pocket watch submerged in a pond, with river stones, falling leaves and some fish, but after all of this time searching for it, I have had no luck. I still love screensavers just because they're so pretty and cool. I tried Linux Mint MATE for a while and one thing I absolutely loved is that it has like a million screensavers, but sadly the distro overall feels a bit basic for me, so I'm on Cinnamon, but I would love to find a way of installing cool screensavers, I'm sure there are ways, but I'm still a noob.

[@Zontar82]

never knew there was a plus for xp, but seeing what they were offering vs what was on offer for plus 98/95, seems like i didn't miss that much

[@alfonsojon1997]

This was the video that got me on your channel back in the day! I miss XP, not sure how much of it is me preferring it vs me feeling nostalgic for the past.

[@alfonsojon1997]

By the way, you can run Plus! 98 on XP and it (mostly) works, assuming you install using compatibility mode. The themes even work!

[@lejacobofficial]

I miss the early 2000s and 2010s' windows era too, i really prefer the old one too, i just miss it too.

[@JeffreyPiatt]

@@alfonsojon1997 windows versions that included the Classic Theme could still support properly the original Desktop theme files and display them properly basically up to Windows 7. 8-11 they load but the windows borders don't change color because the formatting is incompatible with Aero Era themepack files.

[@bluephreakr]

You can still use it in modern day if you install Legacy Update (a utility recently covered in this channel) and are willing to find alternative ways of getting things done.

[@CarsandCats]

I've installed it twice in the last 3 days. XP Home and XP Professional. I like it better than Windows 10.

[@Acehalo2]

I think the Screensaver deep dive would be a great idea. I also loved finding screensavers back in the day, there were some genuinely creative and cool screensavers. I just found one on my old computer that I’m wiping that had a 3D zombies screensaver and one of my favorites was a physics stick figure kung-fu battle that had a persistent leaderboard bracket of all the generated stick figures who would were generated from the sessions. I wish I still had the files for that one! Great video, thanks for the Plus showcases, they are an unknown to me and I’ve been using windows regularly since 3.11.

[@bluephreakr]

In the wide and wonderful world of open-source there has always been Jamie Zawinski's XScreenSaver project. While more technical, and arguably more boring if the topics those screensavers are suppose to cover is of no interest to you, there's a lot to look at, _all without having to install it on your hard disk._ Just flash a USB device with Ventoy and throw in a distribution of interest. Good waste of an hour that'd be.

[@Hyuduro]

My favorite Screensaver was of a guy stranded on an island. Used to sit and watch for hours as a kid.

[@robotomo4249]

That fish screensaver takes me back, I completely forgot all about it until now. I wasn't born to experience using XP in any memorable way (born in 2004), but I did use it up until maybe 7-8 years old. I don't remember anything about using Windows XP, but that fish screensaver, along with a few select other things, is what I hold in the back of my mind for some reason.

[@Zamazenta48]

Oh I Also Born on 2004 And used Windows Xp I think Till my 10 year Old

[@dontlookfo2763]

i was born in 2006 and only used xp when i was very very young, like 2-4 years old (i used to play roblox on the family computer), and when i got my first pc (5 years old) it came with vista but my dad put win7 on it before he gave it to me... so i dont remember anything about windows xp either, yet for some reason it invokes a wistful feeling in me, as though i wish i could go back even though i don't remember at all xD

[@NoahClevinger]

Very relaxing video, Michael! It was also pretty cool to hear a bit of history on the outro song.

[@TheSUPERWIND2023]

This is awesome, LGR and MJD posting on the same day!

[@konman2809]

Windows 8.1's support is coming to a close in just mere 9 days! A end of support video would be great even though Windows 8/8.1 is not the most memorable Windows release.

[@K9arcade]

I have Win XP Plus but I only installed the screensavers and the Media player visualisations. If I ever had a party I could shock my friends when they see a dancing Abe randomly. Also to add I main that aquarium theme atm since it's kinda neat to come back to my desk after going on a walk to see it up there

[@Disbanded9998]

Black people

[@scottharvey-davies1607]

The nostalgic soup in the corners of my head always get warm and fluffy when I watch your channel my friend. Thank you for the continued content. Happy Holidays and wish you and yours all the very best for the New Year.

[@kadenrickard6710]

Fun fact about Microsoft Plus XP I tested this on Windows 7 Professional SP2 and it acually works along with the skins and virtualizations.

[@chosa25]

I can't belive that there's someone like you who would spend so much time to make a 40 min video about an old piece of software, which might be interesting to someone like me. Keep doing stuff like this bro🙌

[@mattelder1971]

24:48 The aquarium screen saver was actually a limited version of a commercial one. I believe you could purchase the full version through the settings, if I remember correctly. edit: yeah, that's what the "visit us online" button was for.

[@Leahi84]

SereneScreen Marine Aquarium is the name of the full version. I own a copy of the latest version of it, which is version 3. One of my favorite screensavers of all time.

[@andresbravo2003]

Windows XP Plus is quite amazing that I played Hyperbowl Plus edition and also the Labyrinth which I do loved to.

[@jonothan]

Would love an in-depth screen saver focused video!

[@HaikuOezu]

Ah yes, this one. I have fond memories of downloading Plus for Windows XP off Kazaa 👌

[@dyllburg]

Duuuuude! I’ve been looking for the nature theme for so long thinking it was a custom theme. Thank you so much!!! My hand me down laptop had that and it was so iconic to me.❤

[@RemyJustice97]

30:08 Robot Circus: **exists** Michael: I don't know what else I expected

[@TheLivingCatastrophe]

**insert Amazing Digital Circus reference here**

[@jmfindorff]

I remember my dad installed Microsoft Plus XP on my first computer and I remember loving messing around with the games and various themes.

[@piratebear3126]

I had so much fun with the Media Player themes and the games in XP Plus as a kid. Never got the full version of Labyrinth, but did eventually get Hyper Bowl on iOS where it’s still available for $1. It was weird finally getting to play the other courses.

[@GYTCommnts]

This made me remember the software goodies of Creative SoundBlaster too! I remember the LAVA! Player... I think it was some experiment to compete with the popularity of Winamp back then. I can't find a video about that player... You could make some series about that type of stuff. You did some, if I remember correctly. That packs were awesome!

[@simonpetrus1981]

Michael, This PLUS pack for Windows XP brings back such good memories✅👍🏻.

[@CesareVesdani]

I used Microsoft Plus on Windows XP. This is an amazing additional package.

[@alfonsojon1997]

The voice recognition works incredibly well

[@BrennanWest85]

Michael: Makes a video Me: **I click** Love your content Mike!

[@Mr_King_l]

this video unearthed my childhood games I used to play on my fathers computer that i have been looking for for YEARS. Thank you for that, now to go track them down and see if they are still sold somewhere or abandonware.

[@Choralone422]

I was also really into screen savers in the Windows 3.1 through XP days. Since it took so long for most PCs to boot Windows into a "usable" state it was easier just to leave things on unless you weren't going to use the PC for an extended period of time. Plus sleep/resume modes on a desktop PC were pretty iffy for a LONG time. I didn't have the full XP Plus! pack but I did have the screen savers from it. I can't remember how I had acquired them though. :) I also used the fish one for a number of years.

[@public_staticvoid.]

from the winter expansion pack this year i saw the teaser. and i gotta say, the wait was worth it.

[@smugshrug]

I would've loved that Oddworld visualizer as a kid. I played that a lot on the Xbox. Very great series of games.

[@themissinfowar6629]

You liked Munchs Odyssey? (；๏д๏) (๏д๏)

[@smugshrug]

@@themissinfowar6629 is it unpopular or something?

[@j.w.techchannel]

It's cool that you have made new videos on the Microsoft Plus! packs. I enjoyed watching this one 👍

[@dexber95]

13:35 made me chuckle

[@brian_voll]

My favorite XP theme I think was a Zune theme. Orange Start button and a black theme. I’d love to see it in a video someday.

[@Disbanded9998]

Mine is embedded

[@Disbanded9998]

I like the blue

[@MrBad993]

I didn't even know Plus! Had an XP variant. Very cool!

[@AdrienMelody]

This is such a great channel to just turn on and chill to 👌🏻

[@mubashirsoomro6]

There used to be a windows xp theme software, it was a commercial one iirc. It totally changed the look and feel, and I distinctly remember a wolverine theme on it.

[@siegpasta]

man windows XP is so nostalgic.. as a kid my fathers computer had it and that's how I grew up learning about computers with windows XP. the good old times.

[@KyleRichoux]

I remember your original Microsoft plus videos. It's nice to see you use this on actual hardware this time

[@mdk-west]

Michael, any plans on doing a QnA soon? I would love to see one!

[@Rallymen007]

the live 3d water from the screensavers made me think of old nvidia demos, from when chrome water with waves was a futuristic graphics idea. good times

[@Holdenwhite96]

A new MJD Video! Keep up the good work!

[@NeedForSpeed.2004]

When I found out XP Plus was a thing, I immediately downloaded an .iso file, burned it onto a CD, and installed it onto what was my main computer at the time which was only a few years ago. At the time, I really just liked Windows XP and my old XP machine was working, so I used it.

[@Kudlaty771]

Ah, yes. The Latitude D610. If it wasn't one of these, it was a Dimension of the grey box variety... What a wave of nostalgia. lol

[@rodhester2166]

Happy New Year...Thanks for all the videos.. I always liked the Plus stuff.. When I build an xp machine today, I usually install 98 and 98plus and then upgrade to xp and add plus digital media edition. I need to find the xp plus.

[@39zack]

Your right, people dont use screensavers as much, but some should. One of my IPS screens do have easy ghosting, it looks like burn-in, but it goes away if the screen is off for some time or something else happens on the screen. This is something that only can happen on IPS panels and not TN panels. OLED can get brun-in

[@afrenchcocorico164]

You should check out Windows Vienna. It's a modified version of vista with a new theme, new gadgets, and maybe also extended kernel, which is another thing for vista.

[@abucketofelves]

Aquarium screen saver author is Jim Sachs from Serene Screen - there's a video in that, it was used in all kinds of things back in the day and the company is still going.

[@Leahi84]

I bought this screensaver many years ago, and still use it. Whatever the latest version is. Love it.

[@cheesycoke]

The work laptop at my dad's old workplace had the Da Vinci screensaver, wonder where they got it from because I have serious doubts they got XP Plus

[@rohanking1918]

Dear Michael MJD you are my inspiration to start computer engineering and software engineering and also i made my own operating system i love your content keep it up ❤

[@beez1717]

You should take a look at After Dark. What an amazing set of screen savers they were!

[@ZeroHourProductions407]

I only knew about _Plus!_ existing for Windows 95 and 98. I had no idea that there was even one for Windows XP.

[@GregAxd]

I love your content Michael!

[@bobithethingy7529]

Nothing more great than a MJD Video

[@silvestrac.berdigay2902]

What a great video to end the year 2022 and start the awesome year of 2023!

[@rodhester2166]

Yes.. screen savers video would be awesome. I remember graphics cards always came with some awesome screen savers, I still use them and there are so many free ones.. it is overwhelming. lol

[@animerror]

Really love watching your videos while doing something else!

[@CaptainJZH]

As an aside, I think screensavers are coming back somewhat due to OLED screens being susceptible to burn-in

[@mlg_killer_hd]

Mjd, can you test windows (7-c) blackcomb, its pretty significant and the ui is very enhanced, even featuring a brand new setup wizard and login interface. but also has huge chnages under the hood, speeding up the OS In terms of load times, installation times et. It also has 16bit app support out of the box and an extended kernel

[@pacthesir]

24:36, When my household used to run windows xp and windows 7, we had a CD that actually had this screensaver + 3 more aqua screensavers, think the reason being is that there was a separate company that animated this screensaver, so they later packaged it along with the other new ones. I still own the CD with them, and yes, back then it really was cool, even my parents had it as their screensaver... and of course, so did I.

[@EtaYorius]

I think i remember this, or maybe it was Win98 Plus! but it might had been this... i remember placing animated Diablo1 and King Of Fighters 98 Gif files right on the desktop as part of the Wallpaper, and i don't quite recall if it was an addon to Win XP or what it was. I recently got a Pentium3 and set it up similarly to the one i had back in the late 90's so i might give it a look into this XP Plus! disc.

[@JeffreyPiatt]

That was probably Active desktop a feature of IE being integrated into the os you could make a HTML file a desktop. Plus 98 included a lot of themes that used AD.

[@tailsprower9542]

Eddie is hiding behind the windows 98 box :0

[@bluephreakr]

Is there consideration in future to cover Compiz 0.8, XScreenSaver or ProjectM? Those seem to be some real neat projects that would make for nice follow-ups with what open-source users have to play with, in the same vain as other computer personalization endeavours you covered on Windows previously with rich stories behind them. I was in the middle of writing an E-Mail to you, Michael but I wanted to see if there was *any* interest whatsoever before I bother to engage in longer-form conversation about these projects.

[@blainepalmerza]

Awesome video, Michael!

[@Leahi84]

I still use my aquarium screensaver (which is the modern, licensed version of the one in this video) to this day, even though I have a modern monitor. It's just nice to look at when the computers not being used. Its SereneScreen: Marine Aquarium. The latest version is 3.

[@ericg7490]

It’s also available on the Roku 4Ks. It’s called Aquatic Life. It’s free. Looks great on a large TV. No sound though.🙁

[@Disbanded9998]

The old SpongeBob seascape screensaver works in my monitor so I use it, pretty nice

[@Space_Debris]

The best way to control the ball in _HyperBowl_ is with the TrackPoint, made popular on ThinkPads.

[@himynameisben95]

13:00 "you've got four skins" hehehe

[@gilly5809]

I remember having this as a kid and I loved it. I used to play the labyrinth and bowling games on it

[@NorthSanman]

I have had a Windows XP computer for my entire life. It has a wide variety of software, like Microsoft Plus and Microsoft Works.

[@WhtKenny]

I watch all your videos at 1.25 speed playback and I have to say, I love the outro song at that speed.

[@damwaterthomas1980]

Happy holidays and I also hope you have a good time during New years eve real soon.

[@sideburn]

Looks like Kai’s powertools played a role in the design of Plus.

[@CHGOfficial512]

I honestly had no idea, that windows plus versions existed. I have checked out and used countless windows versions and addons but this is something new for me. P.S. Can you share the Rick.mp3 file? Where did you get it from?

[@JeffreyPiatt]

Plus! was basically a expansion pack for the current release of windows with what were effectively officially supported powertoys and features that they were working on for windows but didn't make the cut. Desktop Themes as a CPL was introduced in Plus for Windows 95 before it became standard in windows 98.

[@Disbanded9998]

@@JeffreyPiatt Wait. Ultimate extras are WINDOWS VISTA PLUS?!

[@WindowsXPFrog]

I miss music visualisations. We need ones built into Spotify.

[@therealofcubital]

38:33 33:40 info, he said this game was made in a demo version, that's why all the maps were locked

[@blakebedford-palmer6676]

Those sounds from the Da vinci theme brought back memories I didn't know I had

[@kevincampbell989]

Oh man I played that Labyrinth game on my aunts office computer lol those were the days.

[@LuneLovehearn]

38:14 MJD's signature "everything goes wrong video"

[@xiseme9826]

Having one of these screen savers back then was such a flex lol

[@FILHIMSELF64]

In the da vinci theme when you maximaze and minimize it more sounds like the windows 7 log on and log of sounds

[@beez1717]

You can play hyper bowl at the Metreon in San Francisco using a giant bowling ball controller you push to make the ball move. It's so cool! It's essentially a large trackball.

[@gentuxable]

My favourite luna themes were Zune and Media Center. Embedded was also cool.

[@TJDunaway]

When you're recording the laptop for these plus and program demos, consider mirroring to another display so you can easier

[@connorm955]

I remember Hyperbowl and playing around with picture it express, so i guess the computer had plus installed. It was some beige Dell tower with a Trinitron my dad got from his friend. It was our second PC.

[@CarsandCats]

I actually bought Plus! back in the day. I still have it for some reason.

[@danielivanov930]

i remember back in the day there was an interractable live wallpaper for xp on which you can feed the fish in the aquarium when you click .Dont remember if it was a wallpaper or screensaver .

[@spoopyangie]

Aquarium home threw me into the memory lane... hard! Also, I need Maxx's Kingdom visualization in my life lmao

[@trctheraulchannel2023isback]

This worked on my Windows 11! (except the themes)

[@douglofreddo7886]

"Bet On It" slaps. Very strong agree there.

[@jasond1245]

I remember this from 20 years ago and thought the voice control was so cool

[@psychorabbitt]

I still use a screensaver to keep from having my desktop icons burn into my LED screen - which has happened. Thankfully the burn in wasn't bad enough and I was able to fix it by just keeping a blank white image full screen on the monitor for several days while I was at work.

[@dpchase84]

I used to love plus for kids. It was amazing while growing up

[@TrustyGun2]

Wow! I used to play Labrinth Plus and Hyberbowl on my Dad's computer when I was a young lad I never knew it came from this pack!! He also had the fish screen-saver Crazy.

[@stewart_fisher]

13:35.. ok who else was immature and giggled, when Michael mentioned how many skins there is?

[@edmn]

This papaya tastes perfect! 😳

[@Lunix12181]

Something About windows XP gives me nostalgia even though I wast around at that time (maybe because bliss)

[@Megadoomable]

39:18 No way! I thought that game was obscure. I used to play it on my mom's Windows XP computer all the time, but could never remember the name.

[@Emerald_Fox]

13:35 I have what?

[@graygraygraygraygraygray]

HAH!

[@_______DR_______]

Not just me with the juvenile sense of humour then 😂

[@emilaltg]

4 skins