Microsoft Corp launched an Internet Explorer 3.0 Starter Kit yesterday, aimed at new Internet users. The kit offers cross-platforms versions of the Internet Explorer browser (Microsoft cross-platforms, that is), with Explorer 3.0 for Windows 95 and NT Workstation 4.0, though Windows 3.1 and Macintosh users will have to make do with the earlier Explorer 2.1. There’s an Internet Connection Wizard for all the platforms except NT 4.0, providing step-by-step sign-up instructions, a month’s free connect time for the Microsoft Network or MCI Internet, an ActiveX Gallery with ActiveX Internet controls from 36 companies, a Personal Web Server that allows users to share HTML pages, a trial version of the Hellbender multiplayer Internet-enabled game, and a trial version of Spyglass Corp’s SurfWatch content filtering software. For those who want to try before connecting, sample content from 23 Web sites is also included on the CD-ROM version. The kit costs $25 as a standalone CD, but is also available as part of the Windows 95 retail box, an incentive, Microsoft hopes, for users of MS-DOS and 16-bit Windows versions to upgrade to 95.
