Microsoft Announces Digital Media Winter Fun Packs for Windows XP

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Nov. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Just in time for the holidays, Microsoft Corp. today announced the immediate availability of 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 and more -- perfect for everyone who enjoys digital media on their Windows XP-based PC. The Fun Packs are available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/holiday/ . Visitors to the holiday site also will find useful how-to articles and holiday project ideas that show how to get the most out of digital media with Windows XP.

"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 -- Something for Everyone

With the Windows Media Player 9 Series Winter Fun Pack, consumers can spice up the 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 home movies a wintry makeover with Winter Transitions and Effect, including Snow Bursts between clips and a snowstorm effect users 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, enabling consumers to take their home videos on the go with them 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. Users can watch wintry images rotate on the desktop with the Winter Fun Wallpaper Changer or see their own photos get covered with frost and snow using the Winter Fun Photo Screensaver. Plus! Photo Story 2 LE, a special bonus download, helps users add narration, music and more to the holiday greetings and photos they want to share via e-mail or on the Web.

Availability
The new, free Microsoft Winter XP Fun Packs are now available for download at http://www.microsoft.com/holiday.

Source: Microsoft Corp.