The program is installed using either six 3.5-inch diskettes or a CD-ROM. Using the diskettes allows the program to be added to older laptops, which generally don't include CD-ROM drives.

Installation is straightforward. Insert the first diskette or CD-ROM and follow the instructions on the screen. Before the installation is completed, users will be asked to select a theme for their Desktop and whether to install the Internet Explorer Web browser. Any components that are not installed during installation—or those users choose to remove—can be added or removed later by left-clicking Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, and then selecting Add/Remove Programs and following the instructions on the screen.

Themed Desktop.

During the installation, you will be asked to select a theme for your Win95 Desktop in the Desktop Themes window.

By selecting a theme for the Desktop, the screen saver, wallpaper, sounds, mouse pointer, type fonts on the wallpaper and certain icons are changed to fit the selected theme. The '60s theme has psychedelic wallpaper and a similar screen saver. The My Computer icon is a peace sign, the Network Neighborhood icon is love beads and the Recycle Bin is a fruit basket. The mouse pointer is lime green and sounds for such processes as bootup, warnings, system shutdown, are reminiscent of that era—such as a Volkswagen Beetle horn honk, a electric guitar, and a sitar.

The Nature theme has a rock cliff as wallpaper, plus a mulch of leaves with four large caterpillars crawling across them as a screen saver. The icons for My Computer, Network Neighborhood, and Recycle Bin are a butterfly, a nest with eggs, and a campfire, respectively. The mouse pointer is forest green and the "working" icon (usually an hourglass) is a flower growing from a bud to full bloom.

The Mystery screen saver is one of the many Desktop Themes available with Microsoft Plus!.

Other themes are Leonardo daVinci, which animates selected drawings of daVinci; and The Golden Era, which focuses on the early part of this century with a man in argyle listening to a 1920s-style radio. The computer's sounds include Morse code, a jet, radio static, and the sound of a lamp chain being pulled. Science, Inside The Computer, Travel, and Dangerous Creatures are the remaining themes. The Science theme wallpaper shows the surface of the moon, and the sounds are similar to Bunsen burners, usual computer sounds, and laboratory sounds.

The Computer theme is an electronic environment, with bright circuit boards, a red-and-yellow cursor, and computer sounds reminiscent of those from "Star Wars" characters. Travel offers a train station as wallpaper, with a propeller plane flying through clouds, and sounds such as water, a car horn, a train whistle, a locomotive, and a bike bell. Dangerous Creatures shows a mountain lion as wallpaper, with a screen saver that shows a shark swimming through the sea and four stingrays. You also can choose not to select a theme, or to select the predictable More Windows or Windows 95 themes.

When you do select a theme from the list, wait a moment for it to be loaded, and you will see a sample of the wallpaper. To preview the screen saver, left-click the Preview Screensaver button on the right of the screen. To halt the preview and return to the wallpaper, just move the mouse. To preview sounds, left-click the Sounds button, select a sound from the list, and left-click the "forward" button (a right-pointing arrow). After a theme is chosen, left-click the Apply button at the bottom of the screen.

The new Desktop offers full-window drag, which lets users see the contents of the entire window as it is moved or resized, and font smoothing, which eliminates the jagged edges that are noticeable when large monitors are used.

If you chose a theme during installation, you will need to reboot the computer after the installation is completed. A Desktop Themes icon will be added to the Control Panel. To choose a theme after installation or to change themes, left-click Start, then Settings, then Control Panel, and then select Desktop Themes.

In our tests, the entire theme did not survive rebooting the computer. The Nature wallpaper disappeared when the machine was rebooted, but the themed icons remained. Likewise, the screen saver would not appear. When the wallpaper was changed to Mystery, there were no problems, although the theme had to be reloaded before the screen saver would appear. Unfortunately, there were no settings readily noticeable that allowed the user to control when a screen saver would be used. Its automatic appearance required the computer to be idle for about five minutes.

System Agent.

The System Agent is accessed using a small icon on the Taskbar and it runs in the background, starting each time Windows is started. Double left-click the System Agent icon to display a list of standard agent items. The list should include Low Disk Space Notification, Scan Disk (Standard and Thorough) and Disk Defragmenter. The pull-down Program menu lets users Schedule A New Program (a system backup, for example) Change A Schedule, Change Properties, Run A Program Now, Disable A Program, Rename A Program, and Exit the system agent. The Advanced menu includes an activity log and items to suspend or stop the System Agent. Standard logs on the main screen show the program name, when each program is scheduled to run, when it last started, and when it last ended.

Low Disk Space Notification. This feature, by default, alerts users at 15 minutes after the hour when only 20 megabytes (MB) of free space remain. Other settings and times can be selected by highlighting Low Disk Space Notification, left-clicking the Program menu, and selecting Change Schedule to alter the time, or selecting Properties to set the alert notification for a different amount of disk space.

ScanDisk. ScanDisk is listed on the menu as both Standard and Thorough menu items, allowing users to schedule a standard scan daily at 6 p.m. (the default) or at any other time, and schedule a thorough scan monthly or as often as desired. The Standard option checks files and folders for errors, and the Thorough option also scans the disk surface itself for errors. Importantly, ScanDisk also includes options to delay the start of the scan until the system has been idle for X minutes. Set this option for whichever period seems appropriate by double left-clicking ScanDisk, and then left-clicking Change Schedule. Selecting Another option box allows users to either stop or continue the scan if they access the computer while a scan is in progress. Programs running while a scan is in progress will run slower than usual.

Each Desktop Theme includes its unique wallpaper background, its own set of icons and sounds and a screen saver.

Disk Defragmenter. Disk Defragmenter offers three types of defragmentation: Full, Files only, and Free space only. It also offers a check box to defragment the disk if it is more than X percent fragmented. The default is 5% fragmented. The defragmenter can be run regardless of the extent of fragmentation, but users will be alerted that the disk is only, for example, 1% fragmented. Running the Disk Defragmenter is as simple as schedulin g a time—just like the other programs in the System Agent. In addition, you also can run the program by selecting Run Now from the Program menu.

Dial-Up Networking.

This feature looks like the usual Win95 Dial-Up Networking feature, which is accessed through My Computer. Unlike the standard Win95 version, Microsoft Plus! includes a menu item that lets users easily set up a computer for remote access. This can be done without Microsoft Plus!, but is more time-consuming. The benefit of installing remote access capabilities is that after configuring a desktop system as a network server, the user can dial into that system from another computer and access files, or allow others to dial in and retrieve files from a shared folder. To hone a point, users can move to the North Woods for the summer and, as long as they have phone access, dial into their computer and retrieve faxes, E-mail messages, and any files they need to continue to operate their businesses as if they were in their office. This feature also speeds up file dissemination among workgroups.

To access your computer from another location, double left-click the My Computer icon, and then Dial-Up Networking. Left-click the Connections menu, then Dial Up Server, and then Allow Caller Access. Next, select Change Password, even though no password has yet been entered, and leave the Old Password box empty. Enter a password in the New Password box and confirm it in the Confirm Password box. Remember, a password will only slow a determined hacker. Choose the most effective password you can by using a combination of letters and numbers of at least eight characters, and one that cannot be found in a dictionary.

Users can enter a welcome message or other comments in a comment box. The message will appear when a remote user accesses this system. Left-click the Options box to select the type of server: default; PPP for Win95, Windows NT 3.5, and Internet; or Windows for Workgroups and Windows NT 3.1. Boxes can be checked (the default) to enable software compression and to require an encrypted password.

Be certain that file sharing is enabled on all the folders you will need to dial into. To do that, go to the Start menu, then select Settings, Control Panel, Network Properties, and File & Print Sharing. The two options are to give others access to files and to give them the ability to print the files. Choose the desired options, and remember that by allowing printing, you also allow faxing and downloading.

Before leaving on a trip, check to ensure that dial-in access works and that files can be downloaded to a remote site and accessed by that computer. If access or downloading are not possible, check the settings and ensure that file sharing was enabled. To cease sharing files or to share only some files, left-click My Computer and the folder that will not be shared. Next, left-click File, then Properties, then the Sharing tab, and left-click Not Shared. Remember to leave the host computer running. You can't dial in if the computer isn't running.

Disk Compression.

For laptop users, disk compression may be one of the most valuable features of Microsoft Plus!. This utility allows drives as large as 2 gigabytes (GB) to be compressed—a significant improvement over the 512MB limit of earlier versions—and includes Drive-Space 3 and Compression Agent. DriveSpace 3 is an updated version of Win95 DriveSpace that lets users adjust the balance of speed and drive space. It also allows the free space to be used to store a file, even if that space is fragmented. Older compression methods sometimes run out of compressed space because of fragmented drives.

The Compression Agent icon will appear in the System Agent menu after you compress the drive, but if it doesn't appear in that menu, you must compress your drive. ( NOTE: If your drive has been compressed, the icon will appear in the menu, and you can skip the next section. )

Compressing a new drive. To compress a drive that has never been compressed, make certain the drive is smaller than 2GB. This information will be in your manual and in the Setup box that appears when the computer is booted. If the drive is larger than 2GB, don't compress it. If it is smaller, double left-click My Computer and select the drive you want compressed. Left-click File, then Properties, and then left-click the Compression tab. Messages on that screen will indicate the size of the drive, both graphically, with a chart, and in numbers of bytes.

Users have two compression options. The first is simply to compress the drive. In our tests, Microsoft Plus! offered to compress a 1GB drive so it would hold an extra 1.232GB, making it, in effect, a 2.2GB drive. The other option is to create a new (virtual) drive and a host drive. By creating a new drive, the amount of data that could be stored in drive C: (the drive targeted for compression) would increase from 1GB to 1.52GB. Additionally, a host drive could be created with 140.5MB of uncompressed space. With this option, drive space would total 2.124GB. The host drive would contain the volume files for drive C: and may also contain some uncompressed files. If the dual-drive optionios selected, you may choose the drive letter for the host drive, choose to hide the host drive, and select the amount of space for that drive.

When a drive is compressed, its entire contents are stored in a compressed volume file (.CVF), which is then stored on an uncompressed host drive. The host typically is hidden from My Computer and Windows Explorer unless it has more than 2MB of free space. If it does have 2MB of free space, it can be used like any other drive.

If you're merely concerned with boosting drive space, the first option probably is the best. The computer makes the decisions and maximizes available space. If, however, users have crucial files that must not be compressed, allocating space on a host drive themselves might be the best option.

Use the ScanDisk utility located in the System Agent to check files and folders for errors. The Thorough option also scans the disk surface itself for errors.

Upgrading compressed drives. If a drive already has been compressed using either DriveSpace or DoubleSpace, it can be upgraded with DriveSpace3 to create even more useable space. To upgrade, mark the Upgrade Now radio button and simply left-click OK. Upgrading and compressing the drive will take an hour or more, so time the upgrade for a day (or night) when the computer won't be needed. Other options are Notify Me Again Next Time My Computer Starts and Don't Notify Me Again.

If the Don't Notify Me Again button is selected, users still can upgrade to DriveSpace 3 by double left-clicking My Computer and then the icon of the drive to be upgraded. Then select File, then the Compression tab, and then left-click Upgrade Now. The screen will show a graphical chart of the drive along with actual bytes and their allocation, compression ratio, and space gained by upgrading. For example, UltraPacked files, HiPacked files, Standard compressed files, uncompressed files, and free space will be listed and color-coded to the graph, along with the total space of the compressed drive, the average compression ratio, and the space gained.

Compression Agent. The new Compression Agent is a new utility that further tightens the compression on DriveSpace 3. The System Agent can run Compression Agent regularly to maintain the maximum compression ratio. Double left-click the Compression Agent icon and select Set tings. Three types of compression are offered. Standard compression provides compression at a 2:1 ratio and is the typical compression method. HiPack compresses data 10% to 20% more than standard compression, for a compression ratio of about 2.1:1 or 2.2:1. The maximum ratio of data compression is obtained with UltraPack and is only possible by running the Compression Agent. After UltraPack files are opened, they will be saved in a less compressed form unless the Compression Agent is run again.

When choosing compression types, be aware that the more tightly a file is compressed, the more time it requires to access that file. When configured for maximum speed, files are not compressed. When configured for maximum space, HiPack compression is used even though UltraPack compression actually has a higher compression ratio. A good strategy is to use UltraPack compression for archived files that are rarely needed, HiPack compression for files that are accessed only occasionally, and standard or uncompressed formats for active files. Users may check the compression of a drive by double left-clicking My Computer, right-clicking the drive you want to check, selecting Properties, and then left-clicking the Compression tab.

To readjust the balance between speed and space—and thus readjust compression ratios—left-click the Help menu and choose Help Topics. Double left-click Microsoft Plus!. For Windows 95, double left-click Using Enhanced Disk Compression, then select Fine-Tuning Compression. Select the Fine-tune For A Balance Of Speed And Space and follow the instructions that appear to get to the Disk Compression Settings window.

Several compression options will be listed in the Disk Compression Settings window. The screen will show four radio buttons and the options of HiPack (not recommended for 486 computers), Standard (the default), No Compression unless the disk is X percent full (90 percent is the default), or No Compression. This screen also includes a checked box that automatically mounts a new, compressed disk. Leave it checked. This allows the computer to read a compressed diskette that was introduced to the system after it booted. For example, if a compressed Zip drive or diskette is inserted, automatically mounting the diskette allows it to be read without any action by the user other than the usual command to open the drive.

Easy Internet Access.

Plus! also offers quick and easy access to the Internet with the Internet Jumpstart Kit. It includes a setup wizard and the Internet Explorer Web browser. To use this feature, you must have a modem and an Internet account. If you don't have an account don't worry, Microsoft has designed the setup wizard to default to its own online service, The Microsoft Network (MSN), where you can get an account. But you also can configure it to dial into any Internet service provider (ISP). So, if you already have or are planning to get an Internet account with another service provider, you will need to know the domain name, Internet protocol (IP) address, mail server address, and news server address of your ISP. Your ISP will be able to give you this information.

You can set up the Internet connection during installation with the setup wizard. The wizard will walk you through the process and ask you for information. You will be prompted to choose MSN or to indicate that you have another ISP. If you choose to connect to a different ISP, this is where you will need to input your ISPs connection information. After you have input all the necessary information, the wizard will ask you to insert the original Win95 diskettes or CD-ROM that contains certain files needed for configuration.

If you choose not to set up your Internet connection during installation or you need to make changes later to the connection information, go to Start, select Programs, Accessories, and then Internet Tools. You will see either the Internet Setup Wizard or Get On The Internet (depending upon your version of Win95 and Plus!), and Internet Explorer. Select the Setup Wizard or Get On The Internet to open the wizard and make the necessary changes.

Your shortcut to the Internet will appear on the Desktop as The Internet icon, which is a globe with a magnifying glass on it. Double left-clicking this icon will open a Connect To dialog box containing the information needed to dial into your ISP. Verify that the information is correct and left-click Connect. Your modem will then dial into your ISP and launch the Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browser.

The System Agent's utilities are: Low Disk Space Notification, Scan Disk (Standard and Thorough), and Disk Defragmenter.

Internet Explorer is a point-and-click browser that can access the World Wide Web, Gopher, newsgroups, and file-transfer protocol (FTP) sites. The basic Internet Explorer screen shows current status information about the Web site it is accessing or the percentage of a Web page that has been loaded. An animated logo in the top-right corner indicates that information is being retrieved.

The toolbar contains all the tools needed routinely to navigate the Internet.

Open. Opens the address bar.

Print. Prints the page(s) of a Web site.

Send. Sends electronic mail.

Back. Lets users return to previous screens in reverse order.

Forward. Lets users move forward if they have previously moved back.

Stop. Stops file transfers in progress.

Refresh. Reloads the current screen.

Open Start Page. Opens a site's home or front page.

Search. Launches an Internet search based upon specific search terms using a selection of search engines.

Read NewsGroups. Launches MSN and allows readers to enter the addresses of newsgroups and read or post messages there.

Open Favorites. Allows users to access their favorite Web sites (that they have saved).

Add to Favorites . Allows users to add new sites to their list of favorites.

Use Larger Font. Expands the font size of documents.

Use Smaller Font. Decreases font size.

Cut. Allows users to remove text to be pasted elsewhere.

Copy. Allows users to copy text to be pasted elsewhere.

Paste. Allows users to paste text that has been cut or copied.

You can go to a Web site by typing its Universal Resource Locator (URL), or Web address, in the address line. It will look something like this: http://www.sandhills.com. After typing the address, press ENTER and the page will be loaded into the browser. Another option is to select Open from the File menu, type in the URL, and press OK. Depending upon the modem speed and the volume of network traffic, the page may load in a few seconds or several minutes.

For more in-depth information about the features of Microsoft's Internet Explorer Web browser, see "Internet Mail &Exchange Features" in this issue.

3D Pinball.

This new version of the arcade classic is played in three dimensions. To access it, go to the Start menu, select Programs, Accessories, Games, and then Space Cadet Table.

To begin play, go to the Game menu and select Launch Ball. The Z and the ? keys control the left and right flippers, respectively. The Spacebar also can be used to launch the pinball. Hold down the Spacebar until the deployment rod is pulled all the way back, then release the Spacebar and the pinball will be launched into the field. At the end of the game, a list of high scores will appear. To play again, press the F2 button or go to the Game menu and select New Game.

Plus! Manual.

The printed manual is a bare-bones version of the online manual, which integrates itself with the Win95 manual. The printed version provides just enough information to get the program running and to provide an overview of the program's capabilities. For more detailed information, users are referred to the Windows Help manual, which is accessed by left-clicking Start and Help. Information about playing the new 3D Pinball game is included in the game's own online help menu.

Microsoft Plus! scatters its elements throughout the system, seemingly integrating itself with the operating system. As a result, the features can be difficult to find because there are so many different places to look. Nonetheless, the disk compression and easy-to-use remote access features are worthwhile additions for PC users who are either cramped for drive space or who frequently are away from their primary computer.

by Gail Dutton

For More Information:

Microsoft Plus!

$49.96 (street)

Microsoft Corp.

(206) 882-8080

(206) 936-7329

http://www.microsoft.com

•Windows 95 operating system

•8MB RAM

•25MB hard drive space

•3.5-inch diskette drive or CD-ROM drive

•monitor resolution of 640 x 480 x 256

•mouse

•modem

•audio card (recommended)