I agree completely. I rather like Vista and prefer it to XP for just about everything. Sometimes I think the performance lags a little, but I feel that SP1 will really help in this department.

The intention of this thread, however, was not to bash Vista, but rather to call attention to the lack of Ultimate Extras. This is where MS has let us down. I wouldn't mind seeing some "Longhorn" features rebranded as Ultimate Extras, as well as cool system tools or productivity apps.

MS really needs to take action to rectify the egregious lack of Ultimate Extras.

They are "extras" not "requiered".  I think you "get what you get and you don't throw a fit" (as we tell my littlest daughter).

Marketing them as they did, MS implies that you are getting these things for free in addition to the core feature set.  By doing it this way they owe you nothing.  More extras would be nice. . . but I doubt you'll see much more.

Always add another year to what they announce as a release date for an OS.

XP is the most stable OS I've ever used. It only goes south when I do something I shouldn't. With the Stardock stuff and a few other goodies "It's all good".

Zubaz: as I've said before you Stardock guys are so tied in with MS you'll never say anything bad about them. Understandable but the facts are facts. Vista isn't as good as MS said it would be. MS let people down. Those are facts. That's life.

I had problem after problem trying to dual boot Xp and Vista. I uninstalled Vista and put it on the shelf for awhile. I recently uninstalled XP and went full time Vista and it is working very well. No complaints now.

You don't know me very well. 
Xp was great.  I use it on most of my PCs.  Vista is better in some ways and worse in others.  I expect the "worse" things to get better . . just like every other app.

This discussion is about the Ultimate extras.  Anyone who bought Ultimate for the extras is/was an idiot in my book.  Those who bought Ultimate for the featureas of Home Premium + Business may have made a good choice (based on thier needs).

And for what it's worth . . no matter what my relationship is with Stardock, I bought my own OS, my WC subscription, and ODNT.  I speak my mind about the products I purchase. 

I actually did buy Vista Ultimate for other reasons, and I'm not disappointed (although I admit that performance enhancements via SP1 are needed). I actually like Vista a lot. I have no problems with it, now that drivers are mainstream.



Here, however, I disagree. Perhaps MS didn't outright lie, but let's call a spade a spade: It was false advertising -- or at least premature enthusiasm for concepts that they didn't deliver.

The signs that "things fell apart" are pretty clear: When Ultimate first shipped, the official Windows Ultimate Extras team web site was up-and-running quickly, with all sorts of exciting dialog and fanfare. But very, very quickly, they stopped writing. And that's the worst part: The failure to communicate. They basically just stuck their heads in the sand.

Contrast that, for example, with how Brad is always quick to respond to criticism even more candidly than applause. Just a few weeks ago, he posted about how Stardock had or had not served the community, and what his plans were for the future.

When a product like Ultimate launches with promises of great things to come (which help entice the user to purchase that version), then they at least owe it to us users to remain accessible and to stay in frequent contact.

There is a saying in surgery about what decides the character of a good surgeon. It's called the Three As: "Availability... Affability... and lastly, Ability."

We would be more understanding of problems in the last category if they at least made an honest and concerted effort in the first two.

I just find it funny.

No where does Microsoft say how many extras would ship nor when they would ship. If they dont send any extras for 5 years so be it. They never said they would have a set amount of extras out a year or any extras out at any given time.

They did say they would put out more language packs and release Deskscapes. Which they did. Other than that there is nothing that has been said about extras. If people buy the OS thinking that they will get all sorts of "EXTRA" goodies that is their fault.

They are called extra for a reason.:p

Last time I messed with Vista Ultimate the extra game they offered wouldn't even install...

How about 'Affordability'?

Gotta be high on that '3 A's' list....;p

Well I purchased Ultimate as soon as it came out... the Dream feature is really nice, but I also use some of the other features such as IIS (Internet Information Server). I have yet to complain about my machine. The only thing that would not install is my 3 year old HP black laser printer, which is ok because I had just purchased a new full colour laser printer which works just fine.

Sorry to hear not everyone had the same experience as me.

I also am a Microsoft Certified Professional and Certified in A+/Software. I've been playing around with computers since 1982 with a sinclear my buddy had and I purchased a TI 994A with the whole 16K on board and a cassette recorder to save my files to!

Is Windows 7 the new name for what I thought was Vienna? Just curious. OH...BTW...I'm glad I stuck with the home premium version. All this Ultimate nonsense is just that...my two cents.

Hi,

I have been disillusioned with the extras available as well.

Bitlocker - dont need it
Language packs - whoppeeeee
Hold em pocker - wow thats me stopped playing half life 2 etc.
Dreamscene - totally pointless unless i want to keep my processor running at 20%
all the time and its a core 2 duo running each core at 3.3 Ghz

Cant they give us something that would actually be worth having such as the animated logon screen, flashier photo, video folders etc as seen in the longhorn concept.

Im thinking that most people who have bought ultimate have fairly high spec machines and so would be able to run fancier graphics etc no probs. For example in the Windows Experience Index my base score is 5.7 and thats my processor.

If they also wanted to redesign the sidebar so it was more configurable and was easier to put system info into it that would be great. Merge a programme like Samurize with Vista Sidebar and you would have a great little app.

Vienna is the name of the next version of Media Center.

So, I acquired Vista Ultimate mainly for the Dreamscene Extra. I've no problems with Ultimate or anything, so this isn't a 'omg Vista sucks' rant. Rather, I learned that Stardock released Deskscapes 2.0, which enables Dreamscene to run on all versions of Vista with Aero.

My thinking is Home Premium, with less features than Ultimate, would be better for my system cpu/ram wise.

Here's my inquiry: could I downgrade to Home Premium from Ultimate WITHOUT losing any of my data? Or would that require a clean install? Thank you.

What...no one uses the complete system backup feature in Ultimate?

Did anyone buy Ultimate for the networking features?

I got Vista Business and a few third-party add-ons (including DreamScapes) and am as Ultimate as I need to be.

You must have gotten your hands on a hybrid version, part DreamScene, part DeskScapes.  

DOH!

IIS 7 is also available on home premium Ive installed it, used it, configured multiple sites on it, as well as installing, php, perl, and python on it. Also Now thanks to stardock I have animated wallpapers so I wouldn't really consider either of those a reason to purchase vista ultimate. I'm glad I got home premium it's been nice to use and I don't have any complaints.

Just thought of one more thing that would make for a great Ultimate Extra: A ribbon customizer for the Office 2007 apps. I know, it's not technically part of Vista (but rather, part of Office). Still, how nice would it be to rearrange some ribbon groups or add new commands and entirely new groups?

Tons of ideas... But no Extras!

get a mac. i know pretty deep huh?

I am so happy I never installed my free Vista upgrade. My XP is so much better.

BTW MS is working on its next OS, since Windoes 6 (Vista) has been such a bomb. Read about Windows 7 WWW Link

Pic of MS 7 is here http://news.softpedia.com/newsImage/Windows-7-Milestone-1-M1-Ultimate-Build-6-1-6519-1-4.png.

Release is scheduled for 2010

I wouldn't necessarily say that it's been a bomb. It's definitely sold a lot of copies. And personally, I rather like Windows Vista. SP1 definitely took care of the few issues that I was having. My problem isn't with Windows Vista at all -- but with the Ultimate Extras (or lack thereof!).