Microsoft Plus!

The boxed add-on pack that gave Windows its themes, Space Cadet Pinball and the first Internet Explorer, sold from 1995 to 2004

Replaced
19902026

Microsoft Plus! was a series of retail add-on packs for Windows, code-named Frosting, that began with Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95 on 24 August 1995 (desktop themes, DriveSpace 3, Space Cadet Pinball and the Internet Jumpstart Kit that introduced Internet Explorer 1.0) and continued with Plus! 98, the Plus! Game Pack, Plus! for Windows XP (2001), Plus! Digital Media Edition (2003) and the Plus! SuperPack (2004). It was superseded by Windows Vista's built-in features and Ultimate Extras in January 2007.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 1994
  2. 31 January 1994 other
    Frosting announced
  3. 1995
  4. 24 August 1995 Launch
    Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95

    Themes, DriveSpace 3, Space Cadet Pinball and Internet Explorer 1.0.

  5. 1998
  6. 25 June 1998 Version
    Plus! 98

    $44.95 with Windows 98.

  7. 2001
  8. 25 October 2001 Version
    Plus! for Windows XP

    $39.95 with Windows XP.

  9. 2003
  10. 7 January 2003 Version
    Plus! Digital Media Edition

    Sold as a download.

  11. 2004
  12. 19 October 2004 Version
    Plus! SuperPack

    The two XP packs re-boxed; the last release.

  13. 2007
  14. 30 January 2007 Shutdown
    Windows Vista ships without a Plus!

    Ultimate Extras take its place.

The site through time

Browse microsoft.com/windows/plus as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Microsoft 1995–2007 Founded Code-named Frosting; last release October 2004

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: The Plus! SuperPack of 19 October 2004, a re-boxing of the two Windows XP packs, was the last release. Windows Vista shipped on 30 January 2007 with themes, games and media features built in and with Windows Ultimate Extras as the paid-tier equivalent of Plus!, and no Plus! was made for Vista; Microsoft then dropped Ultimate Extras too when Windows 7 arrived.

Our analysis: Plus! was a way to sell for $50 the things that did not make the Windows deadline or that antitrust lawyers preferred kept in a separate box, and it worked when Windows shipped every three years and had no themes, no compression and no browser of its own. Once Windows itself came with desktop themes, a media player, games and Internet Explorer, the pack had nothing left but screensavers and pinball, and the Vista Ultimate Extras that replaced it were abandoned in turn.

History [edit]

Frosting

Microsoft announced Frosting on 31 January 1994 as a companion pack for the coming Chicago release, and it shipped alongside Windows 95 on 24 August 1995 as Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95, at about $50. It contained the things Windows 95 did not: twelve desktop themes with matching sounds, cursors and wallpaper, DriveSpace 3 disk compression and the Compression Agent, a dial-up networking server, anti-aliased fonts and full-window drag, 3D Pinball Space Cadet, and the Internet Jumpstart Kit, which was how most people first met Internet Explorer 1.0. The kit was the reason Plus! matters to browser history: IE was born as an add-on in a box.

98, XP and the SuperPack

Plus! 98 arrived with Windows 98 on 25 June 1998 at $44.95, with more themes, Lose Your Marbles and Spider Solitaire, McAfee VirusScan and a Deluxe CD Player. The Plus! Game Pack: Cards & Puzzles followed in 1999. Plus! for Windows XP was announced on 26 September 2001 and released with XP on 25 October 2001 at $39.95, with 3D screensavers, an MP3 converter, a personal DJ, and games from Hyperbowl to Labyrinth. Plus! Digital Media Edition, announced in December 2002 and sold as a download from 7 January 2003, was the first Microsoft product sold that way, with photo, music and movie tools; and on 19 October 2004 the two XP packs were re-boxed as the Plus! SuperPack, with nothing new inside.

Windows Vista, on 30 January 2007, shipped with themes, games and media features that made a pack redundant, and offered Ultimate Extras to buyers of its top edition instead. No Plus! was ever made for Vista, and Microsoft said in February 2009 that Windows 7 would have no Ultimate Extras either.

The domain today

microsoft.com/windows/plus redirects to the Windows home page.

Similar projects

Windows Live Writer The blog editor bloggers loved, from Onfolio to Windows Essentials 2012, abandoned by Microsoft and rescued as open source 2006–2017 Microsoft Bob A cartoon house instead of a desktop, sold for one year in 1995 1995–1996 Google Desktop Google search for your own hard drive, plus a sidebar of gadgets, retired when the cloud made it pointless 2004–2011 Windows Movie Maker The free video editor a generation learned on, dropped by Microsoft in 2017 2000–2017 Microsoft FrontPage The web editor that built a generation of home pages, bought from Vermeer in 1996 and retired in 2006 1995–2006 Microsoft Money Microsoft's personal finance program, eighteen years against Quicken, ended when the banks went online 1991–2009

Sources [edit]

  1. Microsoft suggests $209.95 retail price for Windows 95 The Seattle Times 7 June 1995 [archived]
  2. Microsoft announces immediate availability of Microsoft Plus! 98 Microsoft 25 June 1998 [archived]
  3. Microsoft announces Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP Microsoft 26 September 2001 [archived]
  4. Microsoft announces Plus! Digital Media Edition for Windows XP available today for download Microsoft 7 January 2003 [archived]
  5. Microsoft announces immediate availability of Plus! SuperPack for Windows XP Microsoft 19 October 2004 [archived]
  6. Microsoft: no Ultimate Extras for Windows 7 Ars Technica 6 February 2009 [archived]

Last verified: 18 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).