Old Background Vistas and New Wallpapers for Windows Vista

In order to take your mind off Windows 7, Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1, you could always distract yourself with some superb desktop eye candy. And refreshing the background of your operating system is bound to give it new life, concomitantly with the satisfaction feeling that comes with personalization. But in the end, it doesn't matter which operating system you use, whether you run XP SP3, Vista SP1 or Mac OS X 10.5 for that matter, you can still use the images as wallpapers. Windows Vista Ultimate users have access to the Ultimate Extras animated wallpapers via DreamScene. The backgrounds presented here are nowhere near as spectacular, or as much a source of frustration...

First off, in case you missed it, and many of you probably have, a blast from the past - the New Zealand Bliss: Desktop Wallpaper for Windows Vista. The images were made available as Vistas for the latest Windows client back in January 2007. But unlike the static content from the Ultimate Extras team, or the imagery provided by Hamad Darwish, the New Zealand Bliss has got less play. It is an impressive collection made available by Microsoft, with some of the wallpapers coming in both standard (1400x1050) and widescreen (1440x900) resolution. The complete package can be downloaded here.

At the same time, more recent work involves the wallpapers offered by Louie Mantia (via Long Zheng). Microsoft has recently launched Windows Vista Ultimate (RED) edition, featuring some exclusive content illustrative of the PRODUCT (RED) brand umbrella. The content offered by Mantia, a collection of 13 wallpapers also point to (RED), although they are not the same materials that ship with Vista Ultimate (RED).

As a part of the Dell partnership, Microsoft is "offering our best product - Windows Vista Ultimate - in our alliance with (RED). Customers running Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED will benefit from the most complete version of Windows Vista available. In addition, they'll enjoy these (RED)-themed elements, available only on PCs running Windows Vista Ultimate (PRODUCT) RED: 6 Wallpapers, 2 Sidebar Gadgets, 1 Screensaver and 1 DreamScene movie," Nick White, Windows Vista Product Manager.