Microsoft! we want more Ultimate extras!


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all my college gets is business edition

Yeah, same. We get Vista Business, XP Pro, Server 2003/2008, and a select number of Office 2007 apps (i.e. OneNote, Project).

I'm sure it is MSDNAA. I can't speak about the specifics, quite simply I don't know. But as 'staff' I was given Windows Vista Ultimate and Office 2007 Professional (each in a small brown envelope - with original media and SN inside) free of charge. Just had to sign a paper that the products are used for 'educational' purposes. Which it is! ;)

That's awesome. :) I was under the impression the media codecs included with Home Premium/Ultimate forbade them from being distributed for academic users?

Anyways, ontopic. We wouldn't mind if Microsoft started scouring Windows communities and incorporated some of the useful tools floating around the 'Net as PowerToys, reborn for Vista. Some of XP's PowerToys weren't written by MS employees.

Yeah, same. We get Vista Business, XP Pro, Server 2003/2008, and a select number of Office 2007 apps (i.e. OneNote, Project).

That's awesome. :) I was under the impression the media codecs included with Home Premium/Ultimate forbade them from being distributed for academic users?

Anyways, ontopic. We wouldn't mind if Microsoft started scouring Windows communities and incorporated some of the useful tools floating around the 'Net as PowerToys, reborn for Vista. Some of XP's PowerToys weren't written by MS employees.

doubt that's the reason. generally "home" versions are never distributed over MSDNAA, always xp pro, vista business, etc

I'm sure lots of ultimate users would choose a non-Ultimate version, if they knew about this earlier

(and wonder why no one sueing yet lol)

Sorry to be harsh. But anybody who bought Vista Ultimate for the "Extras" is a complete idiot. I bought Vista Ultimate because it is the Business version with the Media Center. Just so you know, Extras are just that - Extras. As far as a I am concerned whenever a new Extra is released, its just a bonus.

You all can sit there and wait all you want. Microsoft is never going to release any Extras for Ultimate. They are too busy working on Windows 7 right now and if they wanted to release Extras for Ultimate, they would have done so already. Its been almost a year and a half since Vista was released and we haven't seen a single PowerToy for Vista.

Inbound RDC and IIS for testing purposes with the addition of the media features such as Media Centre..given that Ultimate has both Business and Home Premium's features...a lot of people do need it for its features. I do.

I think alot of people got boned into buying "ultimate" A ploy to make you feel "warm and fuzzy" that you got what others didn't. Ultimate seems to be just a glorified version of media center edition. pay big $$$ and bend over!

I think alot of people got boned into buying "ultimate" A ploy to make you feel "warm and fuzzy" that you got what others didn't. Ultimate seems to be just a glorified version of media center edition. pay big $$$ and bend over!

Uhm, no. More like pay 20$ more than I would have for the Business edition that I needed at minimum, to get Media Center. At that price point, it was worth it. Clearly you've convinced yourself that everyone who bought UE was an idiot however, which is just more evidence in favor of the old adage about assumptions. :rolleyes:

I doubt anyone of you folks really needs the Ultimate edition "for its features".

I completely agree.

Uhm, no. More like pay 20$ more than I would have for the Business edition that I needed at minimum, to get Media Center. At that price point, it was worth it. Clearly you've convinced yourself that everyone who bought UE was an idiot however, which is just more evidence in favor of the old adage about assumptions. :rolleyes:

Whilst I agree with you, I think he was making the same point as Tom Servo, which no doubt applies to some people on this forum. I'm sure there are some people here who have Ultimate, but only use the features that Home Premium, for example, could provide.

I don't think you have to say: "I don't want extras, I'm not using the current ones anyway"... If Microsoft would come up with some that would be worth it (instead of a moving wallpaper you never look at cause you maximize everything) or a Poker game to wait while your DreamScene is restoring after it crashed or a new sound scheme that you switch back after a week because you heard all sounds and didn't like them...

Make some usefull stuff! What about Media Player Plugins? Some extra features in some programs? Maybe a stripped version of Acrylic (isn't that Expression Whatever now?) Something someone would really use..

  • 4 weeks later...

Microsoft misrepresented what Ultimate Extras was. When it was first released it said to check back regularly for new additions - that message has since been removed, which goes to show that their plans changed or they accepted that it was misleading. I didn't think it was going to be a main feature but I certainly expected more than language packs (which should have been free), DreamScene (which took a long time and is virtually useless), BitLocker (which 99% of people can't use for lack of a TPM) and Texas Hold'Em (which is actually enjoyable). Microsoft is a huge company with a vast marketing team and yet they never made is clear that they were only going to release a handful of terrible additions - that is unacceptable. What would it take for them to throw together a few PowerToys or little apps? Nothing for a company their size. It's disgusting.

I have no interest in debating whether other people think they were misled by Microsoft or not, all I know is that I was. I will be a lot more hesitant with Windows 7 as I simply don't trust Microsoft.

how about the next ultimate extra we get is a full or upgrade version of windows 7 half off or even cheaper. Would be nice of them for ripping us. I bought ultimate because I thought dreamscene was so cool at the time and I believed it was only an indicator of the awesomeness to come. What a shame :(

I knew it wasn't worth the $$$ to just get a video-wallpaper feature... there are tons of FREE 3rd party would do that!

Only a fool would buy it just for the extras.

Ultimate = Business + Home Premium. This topic has been done to death on neowin.

MS really is a slick, greedy company aren't they?

I mean, Premium is MORE for the Entertainment folks. Ultimate, like Doli said is combination of Business and Premium.

Except Dreamscene is Anything but Business related (It's ALL Entertainment).

The bottomline is it's just Rip off what MS is Good at!

Like I said, just convert whatever you want (Porn, cool movies, etc) into WMV and you can use it with Dreamscene, not that complicated!

Skins, sure, I would love to see MS give us more, but really I like it to be 3rd party/user-created like TGTsoft, you know?

I MISS my Spider-man, LOTR XP skins.

Only a fool would buy it just for the extras.

And only a greedy company would misrepresent a feature to get more sales.

Done with the stupid statements?

NEway, it doesn't matter why people bought Vista Ultimate - all that matters is that Microsoft failed to deliver on one of the advertised features. It takes little effort to throw together a few extras, especially with the amount of projects that must be developed there. Even a couple of novelty sidebar gadgets and a collection of desktop wallpapers would be a start... HOW HARD IS THAT?! I can only assume they don't care, as any competent marketing team would try to remedy the situation.

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