Face it, Windows Ultimate Extras are history
One thing that you can say about Long Zheng is that he's tenacious. He just won't let the issue of the missing Windows Ultimate Extras drop. But I'm now pretty convinced that the chances of seeing any decent Windows Ultimate Extras have died.
There was a time when I was enthusiastic about Windows Ultimate Extras because the program seemed like a good way for Microsoft to drip-feed Ultimate users with useful utilities and fun apps, but as time went on I started to get the feeling that Microsoft really didn't have much of a plan as to what extras and that maybe they wouldn't be as cool as I'd hoped. Now I'm certain that what we've seen so far will be the best of the Extras.
I've even dropped my standards over what I consider to as Extras - the other day someone asked me what the current line-up of Extras was and I mentioned the language packs even though I knew they'd be of no use to the guy. And the others, well DreamScene is fine if you like killing your system's performance (it causes my quad-core system to idle at about 30% CPU) and Texas Hold-Em is fine if you like that sort of thing.
Long Zheng has some ideas for the Windows Ultimate Extras team:
- Premium high-resolution wallpapers pack
- Premium DreamScene videos
- Arcade or puzzle games (ex. Peggle)
- Windows Media Player 11 skins or visualizations
- Windows DVD Maker menu themes
- Windows Photo Gallery slideshow themes
- Extended free trials of Windows Live OneCare
- Premium Internet Explorer 7 add-ons
All good ideas, but I have another suggestion - a T-shirt with the slogan "I bought Windows Vista Ultimate and all I got was this lousy T-shirt!"
Accept it folks, there isn't going to be any cool stuff.
Thoughts?