Vista Ultimate Extras

[RavenNight]

I've seen several blogs and articles commenting on the lack of Ultimate Extras, considering the price premium people paid for Vista Ultimate I think it's reasonable to expect slightly more action from Microsoft, they haven't even taken Dreamscene out of beta! What happened to groupshot and all the other great stuff we were promised? Apparently the Ultimate team has now been disbanded! Anyone else annoyed about this and any chance of Hexus getting a comment from Microsoft about it? (I've sent several emails to the Ultimate blog and so have other people).

[s_kinton]

I was wondering this myself the other day. I cant understand why Dreamscene is still in its Beta stage. Theres been no update to any of the so called Ultimate extras for months. So far we've got bit-locker, which is pointless for most of us, texas hold'em poker which again is not worth anything and Dreamscene which is still in Beta with no sign of finalising. Not value for money in my mind.

The dreamscene content pack is tiny too. We could do with a fair few more options of videos from ms update.

So in summary, yes, I am starting to get a little annyed with the lack of extras that were sold to us as part of the 'Ultimate' windows pack.

[Kumagoro]

I have been wondering whether to get ultimate or not, and its dependent on you get.
Now I know you arnt getting anything new I cant see the point.

[lanceuppercut]

the ultimate team disbanded? was also wondering myself why dreamscene is still listed as a preview/beta for so long!

[vinnyT]

According to the 'windows secrets' newsletter one writer says;

"Dreamscene Extra, he writes, has such serious code problems that the company may have to keep it in perpetual beta. Dreamscene, for example, is reportedly unable to work properly on systems configured to use right-to-left languages, such as Arabic and Hebrew".

So don't hold your breath for dreamscene to come out of beta any time soon.

[paulq]

i havent tried vista and doesnt like i will be for the foreseeable future

[pitbull46]

I get a newsletter from this website, and it's packed with very helpful info regarding Vista Ultimate Extras, or lack of it.

http://www.windowssecrets.com/comp/070628/#story1

[Parm]

I couldn't agree with you more, the lack of Ultimate Extras is very frustrating. We really haven't had value for money yet and they need to get moving with some of the extras they'd promised.

[ajbrun]

It would be nice to have something more from MS, but I can see their official word being "we have no additional updates at this time" for a while now. It was marketed that the extras would be new and innovating, but I don't think there's been anything I've not seen before released so far. All in all, a big disappoint meant regarding the quality, and especially the quantity.

[Pyr0]

glad i didn't pay for mine (i won my copies of vista & office)
i still don't use vista. it's set up as a dual boot (with xp x64), but rarely gets used

[0iD]

x64 imo opinion ( I have it as my main o/s) is not worth the extra, unless you need stuff like bit locker.

[Parm]

Update from the Extras team:

Update on the Windows Ultimate Extras
When we launched Windows Vista in January 2007, we identified Windows Ultimate Extras as a unique series of add-ons that would be available to Windows Vista Ultimate customers. To date, we have released four sets of Extras – Windows Hold’Em, 16 Language Packs for the Windows multi-language user interface, Secure Online Key Backup, and Windows BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool. We want to let our Windows Vista Ultimate customers know that we are actively working to deliver the remaining Extras that we identified in January. Our goal is to provide the highest-quality, most secure and reliable offerings, and as a result we are continuing our work on these offerings. We apologize for taking so long to provide a status update to customers.



We intend to ship Windows DreamScene and the remaining 20 Language Packs by the end of the summer. We will not ship the last two Extras showcased in January (Windows DreamScene and the remaining 20 Language Packs) until they meet the high quality bar required by our enthusiastic customers—and we believe that we can achieve that bar by the end of this summer.



We also intend to deliver additional Extras in the future. In addition to Windows DreamScene and the remaining Language Packs, we plan to ship a collection of additional Windows Ultimate Extras over the next couple years that we are confident will delight our passionate Windows Vista Ultimate customers. We cannot identify dates or provide details at this time—but once we ship Windows DreamScene and the remaining Language Packs, we will provide more information about the next Extras.

Source: http://windowsultimate.com/blogs/ann...te-extras.aspx

Looks to me like they've realised that the public is catching on, and not too happy. This announcement seems to be a "we are still here, things are just moving slowly, very, very slowly".

[ajbrun]

Just a shame they're not saying what other extras could be released in future, or even when...

[Blitzen]

i havent tried vista and doesnt like i will be for the foreseeable future

Your loss tbph

[pitbull46]

Well i'm running Vista Premium 32-Bit, and thinking of upgrading to Ultimate 64-Bit, it's not very much money to upgrade, and having a 64-Bit system is going to be the norm, it will just give me something to tinker about with aswell as Intel Quad Core when prices drop on the 22nd of this month.

[ajbrun]

Well i'm running Vista Premium 32-Bit, and thinking of upgrading to Ultimate 64-Bit, it's not very much money to upgrade, and having a 64-Bit system is going to be the norm, it will just give me something to tinker about with aswell as Intel Quad Core when prices drop on the 22nd of this month.

Unless there's something from Vista Ultimate you need right now, I would just get 64 bit Premium for now, or at least until MS decide what they're doing in relation to the extras.