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Microsoft

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

By greg shultz February 8, 2012, 9:25 AM PST

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Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe CD cover for Microsoft Plus 98! Companion for Windows 98 was also the 15 page manual.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Microsoft Plus! 98 CD had a light blue background that matched the operating system CD.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntOnce you put the CD in the drive, the splash screen appeared and was accompanied by the u201cMicrosoft Sound,u201d which was the default Windows 98 Startup sound.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntIf you selected the Custom Setup, you saw the Options list and could select the items that you wanted to install.

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ntMicrosoft Plus! 98 came with a 6 month trial of McAffee VirusScan, File Cleaner, Start Menu Cleaner, Compressed Folders, Deluxe CD Player, Picture It! Express, Microsoft Golf 1998 Lite, Spider Solitaire, Lose Your Marbles, and a 18 new desktop themes.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntMcAffee VirusScan was integrated right into the Windows 98 Maintenance Wizard to make scanning for viruses easy and trouble-free. It also included VShield, which sat in the background and monitored memory and your hard disk for virus-like activity. After your 6 month trial was finished, you had to purchase a license to continue using it.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntTo help you keep your hard disk clean, the File Cleaner utility from CyberMedia was integrated into the Windows 98 Disk Cleaner where it would find and recommend noncritical files for removal.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntA new feature called the Start Menu Cleaner was added to the Windows 98 Maintenance Wizard and it was designed to automatically keep your Start Menu organized by removing broken items and empty folders.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Compressed Folder feature was designed to help you save disk space by allowing you to compact files at up to a 90 percent compression ratio. It was integrated into Windows Explorer in order to make archiving files a simple drag and drop operation.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Deluxe CD Player was an enhanced version of the CD player that came with Windows 98. Among the awesome new features was Deluxe CD Player’s ability to download tracklists and other information about your CDs while they were playing.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntPicture It! Express was a basic version of full Microsoft Picture It! personal imaging software. In the Express version you could perform basic editing procedures, such as soften edges, adjust contrast, and remove red eye from photographs. You could then publish them online to a service called PhotoNet.

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nt Image created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntMicrosoft Golf 1998 Lite was a limited version of Microsoft Golf 1998, an awesome new golf game that featured extremely realistic graphics and an awesome new Recommended Power Index feature, which allows you to more precisely control your swing.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntSpider Solitaire, which is now a standard Windows game, made its debut with Microsoft Plus! 98.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntLose Your Marbles from SegaSoft was an addictive game of marbles, in which you had to line up marbles of the same color to remove them before the constant influx of new marbles piled up within the borders drawn in the dirt and ended the game.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntOne of most popular features in Microsoft Plus! 98 were the Desktop Themes, which provided a number of topical themes. Each one had a different color scheme, sounds, screen saver, wallpaper image, icons, fonts, animated cursors, and more. The Desktop Themes app, found in the Control Panel, made it easy to select, preview and customize the various themes.

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ntYou’ll also notice Rotate theme monthly button at the bottom of the Desktop Themes window. This feature made it easy to randomly sample each one of the 18 desktop themes, listed below, that came with this package.

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ntttt

ntttttArchitecture

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ntttttCathy

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ntttttCityscape

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ntttttCorbis Photography

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ntttttDoonesbury

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ntttttFalling Leaves

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ntttttFashion

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ntttttFoxTrot

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ntttttGarfield

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ntttttGeometry

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ntttttHorror Channel

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ntttttJazz

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ntttttPeanuts

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ntttttPhotodDisc

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ntttttRock’n’Roll

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ntttttScience Fiction

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ntttttWindows 98

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ntttttWorld Traveler

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

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Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntWhen you selected a theme, such as Architecture, you could see the theme’s color scheme, font, wallpaper, and desktop icons in the preview area. You could click the Screen Saver button to see a full screen preview and you could click the Pointer, Sounds etc button to preview the sounds and animated pointers. When you clicked OK, the theme would be applied to the desktop.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Architecture theme featured an Escher-like wallpaper image and drafting tools icons.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver in Architecture was an awesome display of 3D floating objects. This screen saver, as well as several others in Plus! 98, was a Direct3D API-accelerated screen saver designed by Computer Artworks and using William Latham’s pioneering Organic Art techniques. These Organic Art screen savers were incredible!

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntPlus! 98 came with a group of desktop themes based on popular comic strips. The Cathy theme is the first one of these on the list.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper displayed Cathy, the Everywoman who humorously deals with life’s ups and downs.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver consisted of heart shapes floating across the screen.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Cityscape theme had neat icons and great Start and Exit sounds.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper displayed a surreal looking skyline right out of a science fiction movie. Check out the My Computer icon—it is a gargoyle.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver consisted of several shapes, such as 3D blocks, that moved across the desktop and picked up the wallpaper as they did so.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Corbis Photography theme was based on the huge digital image collection owned by Bill Gates’ Corbis Corporation.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper for the Corbis theme featured a collage of images in the center of the screen. The images in the collage changed on a regular basis.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver displayed a slide show of selected images. This world famous photograph of Florence Owens Thompson was taken during the Great Depression.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Doonesbury theme pulled together a set of items representing Garry Trudeau’s long running comic strip.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper featured images of Mr. Butts walking across the screen.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver showed a series of floating images from various strips, like this one showing Mike Doonesbury video conferencing with Kim Rosenthal, his girlfriend/wife. (Didn’t Microsoft just buy Skype?)

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Falling Leaves theme was a very pleasant theme to commemorate the Fall season.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper showed a wonderful collection of Fall leaves.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThis screen saver, also an Organic Art screen saver, displayed leaves floating all around the screen in a beautifully orchestrated dance.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntFashion provided an interesting theme and was a favorite of my wife.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper showed a mannequin in a store window. Check out the lipstick and purse icons.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Fashion screen saver showed black and white images of fashion models in various poses.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntAnother comic strip theme was FoxTrot.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper featured the Fox family. The first time a setup this theme, I was momentarily freaked out when I saw that the characters’ eyes blinked at random intervals.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver showed Quincy, Jason’s pet iguana, strapped to a rocket flying and around the screen. Apparently, a regular gag in the comic.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntLike the comic strip, the Garfield theme was very popular.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntWhile Garfield and friends pose on this wallpaper, the animated ants walked away with their picnic lunch.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntIn this screen saver Garfield and Odie bounced across the screen on Pogo sticks accompanied by a boing sounds.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntGeometry was never one of my best subjects in school, but in Plus! 98, it was one of my favorite themes.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe desktop wallpaper displayed an interesting geometric pattern.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Organic Art screen saver by took the wallpaper pattern and very artistically animated it.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Horror Channel theme was based on the collection of horror films owned by Universal Studios.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper showed a creepy monster traipsing around a graveyard.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver consisted of grainy black and white stills from some of the classic horror films.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Jazz theme had great sounds featuring various instruments playing jazz riffs. I really liked the jazzy Windows Exit sound!

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

ntThis wallpaper showed chalk board-like drawing of a jazz trio. The guy in the center was partially animated–he tapped his foot.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntAnother Organic Art screen saver, this one showed a dancing display of musical notes.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntOf course, what collection of comics would be complete without Peanuts.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper showed several staples from the comic. Lucy always pulls away the football.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver showed a series of classic images from the strip, like Joe Cool and Woodstock.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe PhotoDisc theme featured amazing images from PhotoDisc a Seattle based publisher of digital stock photography free of royalties.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper displayed an image of a rusty wire frame globe.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver was a slide show of neat images such as this one of the moon.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Rock-n-Roll theme was one of my favorites as it had a great set of electric guitar riffs in its sound scheme.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper featured a Fender Stratocaster-styled electric guitar.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThis Organic Art screen saver showed guitars flying all over the screen in intricate patterns.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Science Fiction theme had outlandish features as well as an interesting sound scheme.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper showed a barren looking planet surface with strange creatures suspended in the air.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Organic Art screen saver showed the same barren looking planet surface but the strange creatures floated across the screen and at times melded into each other or split apart into multiples.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe Windows 98 theme was an enhanced version of the default Windows 98 theme.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper featured the Windows flag.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver showed the wallpaper at the bottom of a pool of water and ripples or drops on the surface temporarily obscured the image.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe World Traveler theme featured awesome scenic images from around the world.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe wallpaper showed a photo of a fisherman floating in a serene lake.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntThe screen saver was a slide show of amazing photographs.

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

Dinosaur Sighting: Microsoft Plus! 98 – Companion for Windows 98

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ntConsumer Companion for Windows 98 Offers Powerful New Utilities Desktop Themes and Exciting Games u2013 Official Microsoft Press Release

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ntMS Plus! For Windows 98 u2013 CNET Archives

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ntImage created by Greg Shultz for TechRepublic.

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By greg shultz
My first computer was a Kaypro 16 \"luggable\" running MS-DOS 2.11 which I obtained while studying computer science in 1986. After two years, I discovered that I had a knack for writing documentation and shifted my focus over to technical writing.
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