Windows Vista Team Blog : Windows Vista, Ultimate Extras

New Windows Ultimate Extras Now Available

Chris Flores — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:22:00 GMT

Today we are excited to announce that 3 new Windows Ultimate Extras are now available for installation via Windows Update! This is the 6th wave of Ultimate Extras released by Microsoft exclusively for Windows Vista Ultimate users. Users will find the following Ultimate Extras waiting to be installed:

Microsoft ® Tinker (TM): Microsoft Tinker is a casual game that provides players with short puzzle game play sessions set in a warm, calming environment.

Ultimate Extras Sounds from Microsoft Tinker: Based on the positive feedback we received from the release of additional Windows Sound Schemes in April, we've integrated the unique audio sounds from Microsoft Tinker into a new sound scheme.

Windows ® DreamScene (TM) Content Pack #4 Windows DreamScene Content Pack #4 which adds three additional nature-setting Windows DreamScenes.

Microsoft Tinker was developed for Microsoft as an Ultimate Extra by our Partner Fuel Industries.

Windows Ultimate Extras are only for Windows Vista Ultimate users and designed to add to their Windows experience. We will be shipping new Windows Ultimate Extras in the near future and will post additional information here on the blog when that occurs.

Behind the Scenes of the Windows Vista Sound Schemes

Chris Flores — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 00:54:00 GMT

I'm posting this on behalf of my colleague Steve Ball.

Hi, my name is Steve Ball and I'm a Principal Program Manager Lead on the Windows Sound Team. I'd like to take a moment and give some background on sound schemes in Windows as well as the new sound schemes released as Ultimate Extras and their relationship with the default Windows Vista scheme.

Default Windows Vista Sound Scheme
The default Windows Vista sound scheme was designed with the same principles that were used in designing the Windows Vista visual elements and desktop experience. In contrast, the Windows XP sounds, while appropriate at the time and for that product design, were very ‘Western' and literal, using pianos and western orchestral instruments. The XP sounds were designed to complement the ‘photo-realistic' Bliss desktop (blue sky, green grass photo.) The Windows XP sounds can also be rather percussive and jarring in the context of day to day PC use, so it was an explicit goal to re-orchestrate the default Windows Vista sounds to complement the softer, cleaner theme and user interface elements in Windows Vista.

For Windows Vista, it was an intentional design goal to avoid ‘reinventing' the User Interface language for sound. For example, the "new mail" sound in Windows XP and in Windows Vista consist of the same pitches, interval, and timing.

New Mail (Notify)

The Windows Vista ‘new mail' sound has simply been re-orchestrated to match the softer, more -rounded Windows Vista Startup Sound whose ‘sonic palette' was derived from the gentle and flowing Robert Fripp Soundscapes sessions that were recorded at Microsoft Studios in 2005 and 2006.

Session 1: http://channel9.msdn.com/Showpost.aspx?postid=151853

Session 2: http://channel9.msdn.com/showpost.aspx?postid=287615

Fan Fact: The shutdown sounds for both of the new UE Sound Schemes are pulled directly from these Fripp sessions. There are in fact two shutdown sounds included with each of these UE schemes - for each scheme, there is also longer shutdown sound in the %windir%/media/%scheme_name% folder that is actually too long to use as a Windows Vista shutdown sound -- but we included it anyway so Fripp fans could get a greater sense of context about where this shorter sound came from - or map it manually to a different sound event if they wish.

Here is some additional background about each of the new schemes:

Ultimate Extras Glass Sound Scheme
The "Ultimate Extras Glass" sound scheme utilizes the same design language and principles as the default Windows Vista sound scheme, however, this set has an additional glassy ‘edge' that can be heard as a more percussive envelope applied to each of the sounds. From one point of view, the sounds in this set feel like they are made with ‘glass' instruments. The sounds in this set have a sort of clinking glass root with a polished or ‘frosted' haze effect applied to their outer surface - this is intended to be directly analogous to the transparent ‘glassy' window effects that are built-in to the Windows Vista chrome.

Ultimate Extras Pearl Sound Scheme
The Pearl sound scheme further extends the intentionally-subtle design attributes of both the Windows Vista default sound scheme and the Ultimate Extras Glass scheme, with less focus on reverberant, sometimes clinking ‘glassy' sounds in exchange for a richer, milky, more percussive sonic palate. The Pearl sounds are harder and less reflective and reverberant, more like the rich and rounded surface of a pearl in contrast to the fragile resonance of a wine glass. More concretely, the Pearl sounds are cleaner, clearer, and brighter than the ‘Glass' sound scheme.

Both of the new Ultimate Extras sound schemes embody more percussive elements in contrast to the soft edges of default Windows Vista sound scheme and they extend of the existing sound design language established by XP and Windows Vista. Functionally, the percussive elements of these sound schemes may also help users hear Windows events from a greater distance, if that is desired. They are intended to provide an extended personalization option for users who wish to differentiate their Windows Vista experience from the default experience.

Occasionally, people stop me in coffee shops and cafes and ask: did the Robert Fripp sounds make it into Windows Vista? There is a long answer and a short answer. Here is the short: the Windows Vista Startup Sound is the primary "Fripp" appearance in Windows Vista, although many of the new inbox sounds were orchestrated based upon the sound and feel of the hours of Fripp Soundscapes we recorded at our Windows Vista sessions.

For some additional background on the Windows Vista sounds, click here to check out our Windows Vista Sounds Q&A.

If there is interest, I can go deeper in future posts about any of these areas.

- Steve

Windows Ultimate Extras: Remaining Language Packs are live

Nick White — Tue, 23 Oct 2007 15:06:00 GMT

update: because of a miscommunication, I mistakenly stated that the release of the Serbian MUI pack was held up; this is not the case -- Serbian is indeed available as of today.

Barry Goffe, Director of Windows Ultimate, today disclosed on windowsultimate.com that the remaining 18 19 language packs have been made available via Windows Update.

The additional supported languages are:

Arabic
Bulgarian
Croatian
Czech
Estonian
Greek
Hebrew
Hungarian
Latvian
Lithuanian
Polish
Portuguese (Portugal)
Romanian
Serbian
Slovak
Slovenian
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian

Also, this release includes an update to the lpksetup.exe installation component, correcting issues that affected some customers at installation. We recommend you download and install this component before installing any language packs; the updated component can be found here.

A multi-language user interface (MUI) pack allows a user to run Windows Vista Ultimate in one of 35 36 available languages. You can quickly switch among languages on a single installation of Windows Vista by associating a system language with your login name.

Barry also mentions his team's plan to ship additional Extras soon, with details forthcoming.

An update from the Ultimate Extras team

Nick White — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:52:00 GMT

update 13:59 PDT: DreamScene is not available in the Windows Vista SP1 Beta; however, it will be made available with a later release of SP1.

Barry Goffe, Director of Marketing for Windows Vista Ultimate, has posted an update about Ultimate Extras over on windowsultimate.com. The upshot of Barry's note is that today we're releasing via Windows Update the final version of Windows DreamScene, as we'd committed to doing earlier this summer. We're doing this in conjunction with Stardock, with whom we're offering some really cool new 3D animated DreamScene desktops. Stardock has been a terrific community partner in helping us finalize the DreamScene release and further extending the capabilities of Windows Vista. In fact, Stardock has created DeskScapes, a tool that extends Windows DreamScene by enabling it to run animated wallpapers as .dream files. These files can be looped video or dynamically generated 3D content, and can even change based on a set of triggers. The Stardock Dream Gallery is the place for the community to create, upload and share custom DreamScenes with the Windows Vista Ultimate community.

Pop over to Stardock's Dream.WinCustomize.com website to upload and share the new DreamScenes.

Barry also notes that because delivering only high-quality Extras is our top priority, we're delaying delivery of the remaining MUI Language Packs for the moment. This is certainly disappointing news, but because we found an installation bug late in the release validation process, we are not comfortable with releasing the remaining Language Packs before that installation issue is resolved. It's far more important to provide Extras that give Ultimate customers a completely superlative experience than to meet a deadline by providing a compromised product.

As an aside, Ultimate customers will notice that in anticipation of SP1, the screen that welcomes you to Windows Ultimate Extras has been simplified and the explanation more focused on the breadth of features that future Extras will bring. Windows Ultimate Extras was conceived to extend Windows features and to make using your computer more fun, so this text better reflects our direction.

We expect to provide additional updates on the availability of the Language Packs -- along with news on the pipeline of future Extras -- in the very near future. I'll have more information here on the blog when that occurs.

Windows Ultimate team provides an update on Extras

Nick White — Mon, 02 Jul 2007 15:39:00 GMT

The Windows Ultimate Extras Team today posted a short notice on the Windows Vista Ultimate site updating the community on the status of Ultimate Extras; go here to read their post. To sum it up for you here, the team recognizes that they've been dark for some time on the topic of Ultimate Extras, but want to go on record that they plan to deliver pending DreamScene and Language Pack Extras by summer's end, and expect to disclose a schedule of further Extras releases after that milestone. The reason for the Extras' delay has been the team's staunch devotion to final quality; your feedback, on DreamScene in particular, has been key to ensuring their focus on meeting the community's exacting standards. They plan to add to the Extras line up from then on out to make Ultimate the only version of Windows Vista you'll want to use.

And before you ask: no, I don't have any additional details, as the team has priorities that supersede my questions (in other words, they're hard at work). But, know that I'll pass along any feedback you may have for them, be it regarding the current slate of Extras or what you'd like to see the program deliver in the future.

Windows DreamScene Content Pack Released

Nick White — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 19:24:00 GMT

Recognizing Windows Vista Ultimate users' interest in Windows DreamScene, the Ultimate Team has announced the release to Windows Update of the Windows DreamScene Content Pack. These 4 videos are available with the new Windows DreamScene Content Pack:

A field of thistle with a bee gathering pollen
Rushing water in a forest stream
A streetlamp reflected in a puddle, with softly falling rain
Orange wisps flowing in a computer-generated scene

All you need to do is click "Check for Updates" in Windows Update to download the Content Pack. The Content Pack will continue to be available and work with the final version of Windows DreamScene when it is released.

Currently, Windows DreamScene is available through Windows Update as a Technical Preview.