Windows Vista Ultimate Extras via WSUS

Windows Vista Ultimate users behind Windows Server Update Services have found that the ultimate Extras designed exclusively for their edition of the operating system are not available for download. More specific, computers that are administered via WSUS 2.5 will not have access to DreamScene and the other Ultimate Extras made available by Microsoft.

Windows Server Update Services is a technology designed to enable IT administrators to manage and deploy updates from Microsoft to multiple computers across an organization. "Extras are not available for WSUS admins to deploy, so computers in WSUS-managed domains cannot install any Extras. That's not a good situation for customers, so we plan to improve it. The Ultimate team is working with Windows Update to revise the Extras to be offered to WSUS," revealed Erik Neuenschwander, from the Ultimate Extras team.

Microsoft has considered the scenario of business deployments of Windows Vista Ultimate quite unlikely and that is why the delivery of Ultimate Extras was not integrated with WSUS. Microsoft revealed that the Ultimate Extras are designed for the consumer-focused editions of the operating system. "We cut support for WSUS at launch to reduce the test burden, and because we didn't think many WSUS environments would deploy Ultimate. We're hearing that we were wrong, so all the Wave Zero Extras will be offered to WSUS later this year," Neuenschwander added.

At this time, Microsoft has not delivered an official timetable for the availability of Ultimate Extras via WSUS outside of the ambiguous "later this year." End customers that have purchased a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate will be able to access all the Ultimate Extras via the updating capabilities of their operating system.