You know that Windows 98 makes your computer run faster and more reliably, but did you know that with Microsoft Plus! 98 you can get even more out of your computer? Microsoft Plus! 98 gives you:

• Better system utilities, including McAfee virus scan
• Better looks with stellar desktop themes and screensavers to help liven your work
• More fun with three new games, an interactive CD program, and more

Below is the low-down on each of these areas of Microsoft Plus! 98, which you can order online now or purchase at your local software store.

System Utilities:  Appealing in that chopped cauliflower kind of way...
...because it's good for you, not because you actually like it. But this maintenance plan gives you immediate, tangible results. Microsoft Plus! 98 helps your system run faster and more securely with innovations like File Cleaner, Start Menu Cleaner, and Compressed folders, which let you:

• free up inefficient use of hard drive space
• clean broken links and empty folders
• save more hard drive space by compressing your files
• increase your security with password protection

And since these programs work with the Windows 98 Maintenance Wizard you already have, your computer runs these programs all by itself. It's the kind of stuff you know you should do regularly, but you're about as likely to do as you are to change the oil in your car every 3,500 miles. Microsoft Plus! 98 works with Windows 98 Program Manager to perform these updates on its own; you just sit back and reap the benefits.

McAfee Virus Scan, widely hailed as the best virus exterminator on the market, is your personal bodyguard when you move through the cyber world. McAfee's latest version comes with Microsoft Plus! 98, and you get six months of free updates to keep you equipped to fend off even the most scurrilous invaders. And as with the other system utilities that come with Microsoft Plus! 98, you can use Windows 98's Maintenance Wizard to set up your computer to scan your system regularly and reduce the likelihood of contracting computer viruses.

Quench your eye candy cravings
Maybe you've bought zippy screen savers in the past or tried zany wallpapers all in the spirit of having fun, but seeing them on your screen leaves you a little unsatisfied: it's in the right ball park, but ends up being a swing and a miss.

Seventeen new desktop themes come with Microsoft Plus! 98. These release a whole universe on your computer by cleverly changing your icons; giving you evocative screen savers of scenes like far-east mountain ranges or quixotic, liquid visual designs; and replacing the plain, predictable sounds that react to your computer's system events.

 The various desktop themes appeal to every personality: from popular, syndicated cartoons to geometry, high fashion to science fiction, architecture to jazz. Even a late-night work session to complete a wearisome report is enlivened by the Horror Channel desktop's breathy Dr. Frankenstein exclaiming, "It's alive, it's alive!" when you start up your computer; or its heart-stopping screams when you launch a program, or its creaky doors and plodding footsteps when you minimize or restore a window. And if you want to keep yourself out of a rut, you can choose an option to automatically change your desktop themes every month.

More fun
Microsoft Plus! 98 comes with three stellar new games: Golf 98 Lite, Lose Your Marbles, and Spider Solitaire. Golf 98 Lite brings rich, green graphics to your screen and location-based sounds that are so realistic you can almost smell the cut grass when you hear your driver whip through the still air. The crisp, hyperkinetic pace of Lose Your Marbles and Spider Solitaire--a version that turns the old predictable ho-hum solitaire on its head--are so addictive that when you have to return to your work you feel like a surly skateboarder who's been banned from the city's sidewalks.

Microsoft Plus! 98's Deluxe CD Player not only lets you listen to CDs while you do your work, but it instantly identifies the artist, the track titles, and the album, and has a nifty Internet feature that ferrets out information about them and links you to it. You not only know the artist's music, but, for example, where Patsy Cline went to high school, or what Lisa Loeb studied in college. Or you can track down the artist's albums you don't have, read about them, and learn how to get them. The Deluxe CD keeps a history of what you listen to, so all of this information is always at your fingertips.

Picture It! Express, the Swiss Army knife of photo programs: it's simple enough for true beginners to use, yet sophisticated enough to be useful for people who want to do more. Whether it's pictures of your kids you've scanned and want to send to their grandparents, or an image you like and downloaded from the Net, Picture It! Express lets you:

• Crop, rotate, flip, or layer photos with other designs, or
• Adjust color contrast, get rid of red-eye, or do something as specific as whitening teeth

If you're someone who has no experience with photo programs, Picture It! Express is the perfect choice for you. The online help comes with clear, comprehensive movies that show you, step-by-step, how to layer different images so, for example, the balloons you've added to your daughter's birthday invitations don't cover her face, or how to make a picture you took of your husband look less green yourself without having to take it to the photography store.

For more information about what Microsoft Plus! 98 can do for you, take a look at the details of Microsoft Plus! 98.