• November 13, 2003 •
Microsoft Announces New Windows XP Winter Fun Packs
By: Arie Slob
Microsoft today released three new digital media Fun Packs for Windows XP, which offer a collection of free and easy-to-use winter-themed downloads for users of Windows XP. Created as a special thank-you to Windows XP customers and based on consumer requests, the Fun Packs include enhancements and tools to help users of Microsoft Windows XP have more fun this holiday season with their digital music, photos and home movies. The Fun Packs include features to help consumers make attractive greeting cards from digital photos, enhance their digital music experience with Windows Media Player, add winter movie effects to home movies.
"These free Fun Packs are an exciting holiday treat for any Windows XP user," said Jonathan Usher, director of the Windows Digital Media Division at Microsoft. "These Fun Packs will get you in the holiday spirit, whether you want to enjoy digital music in Windows Media Player, spice up a holiday home movie or use your digital photos to make the best holiday greeting cards you've ever made."
Three Fun Packs
- With the Windows Media®Player 9 Series Winter Fun Pack, you can spice up your computers desktop with cool seasonal Player Skins and holiday visualizations and let Windows Media Player 9 Series automatically find the holiday tunes already on the PC with Holiday Music Auto Playlists. For power users, a new power toy can easily export media library information to a wide range of formats that include HTML, Extensible Markup Language (XML) and Microsoft Excel. Also available as a bonus download is "Kris, the Holiday Elf," a Plus! Dancer LE-based character sure to delight users of all ages.
- Home movie buffs will enjoy the Windows Movie Maker 2 Winter Fun Pack, which gives your movies a wintry makeover with Winter Transitions and Effect, including Snow Bursts between clips and a snowstorm effect you can add to videos and titles. The pack also includes Winter Background Images, royalty-free Winter Music and Sound Effects, as well as updated profiles for saving home movies for playback on Windows Mobile™ -powered Smartphone and Pocket PC devices, making it possible to take your home videos on the go with you this holiday season.
- For digital photo fans, the Windows XP Digital Photography Winter Fun Pack provides seven Holiday Greeting Card Templates for personalizing photos before they are e-mailed or printed. You can watch wintry images rotate on the desktop with the Winter Fun Wallpaper Changer or see your own photos get covered with frost and snow using the Winter Fun Photo Screensaver. Plus! Photo Story 2 LE, a special bonus download, helps you add narration, music and more to the holiday greetings and photos you want to share via e-mail or on the Web.
Note: While the Winter Fun Packs are unsupported, Microsoft reports having taken great care to ensure that they operate as they should. For this reason, Microsoft Technical Support is unable to answer questions about the Winter Fun Packs. The Windows XP Winter Fun Packs are for Windows XP only.
The hardware and software requirements for Microsoft Windows XP Winter Fun Packs are as follows:
| Component | Requirement | Recommendation |
| Processor | Computer with a 350 MHz or higher processor | Computer with a 500 MHz or higher processor |
| Operating System | Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional | Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional |
| Memory |
|
|
| Hard Disk | 300 MB of available hard-disk space | 300 MB of available hard-disk space |
| Drive or Drives | CD-ROM or DVD drive | CD-ROM or DVD drive |
| Display |
|
|
| Audio | Windows XP-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones | Windows XP-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones |
| Mouse | Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device | Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device |
| Other Devices | Internet connection may be required for some features | Internet connection may be required for some features |
Windows Movie Maker 2 and the Windows Movie Maker 2 Winter Fun Pack
To use Windows Movie Maker 2 and the Windows Movie Maker 2 Winter Fun Pack, you need:
| Component | Requirement | Recommendation |
| Processor | Computer with a 800 MHz or higher processor | Computer with a 1.3 GHz or higher processor |
| Operating System | Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional | Windows XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional |
| Memory |
|
|
| Hard disk | 1.5 GB of available hard-disk space | 1.5 GB of available hard-disk space |
| Drive | CD-ROM or DVD drive | CD-ROM or DVD drive |
| Display |
|
|
| Audio | Windows XP-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones | Windows XP-compatible sound card and speakers or headphones |
| Mouse | Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device | Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device |
| Other devices | Internet connection may be required for some features | Internet connection may be required for some features |
*Note Microsoft recommends the following graphics accelerators:
- Matrox G400 and G450
- SiS300
- Trident BladeXP 128
- 3Dlabs Permedia 3
- Video cards using the ATI Radeon and Rage 128 chipsets
- Video cards using the NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 and GeForce chipsets
If you are using a video adapter containing the ATI or NVIDIA chipsets, we recommend you download and install the latest video card software drivers from the manufacturer's Web site.
**Note You can confirm that your video adapter is compatible with Windows XP by reviewing the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) page at the Microsoft Windows Hardware Quality Labs Web site. Type the video adapter manufacturer name in the Search box, and then select Display from the list of hardware types.
Downloads:
- Windows Media Player 9 Series Winter Fun Pack 2003 (WinterPlayerPack.msi [3.44 MB]). Bonus download: Dancer LE: Kris, The Holiday Elf [9.98 MB]
- Windows Movie Maker 2 Winter Fun Pack 2003 (WinterWMM2Pack.msi [14.4 MB]).
- Digital Photography Winter Fun Pack 2003 (dpfunpack.exe [6.57 MB]). Bonus download: Plus! Photo Story 2 LE [5.1 MB]
Last years Winter Fun packs are also still available for download!
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