WHEN THE ALL HALLOWED update to Windows was released last year and dubbed Vista, thusly was it suffixed with a number of modifiers with which to denote variation in terms of cost and featureset.

Uppermost amongst the derivations counted was 'Ultimate', which Microsoft claimed offered all the features of all the other versions as well as 'Ultimate Extras', a series of applications that would be delivered both on release and on a continuing basis over the lifetime of the product.

Skip forward the best part of 18 months, and the Ultimate Extras on which the Vole was so keen to sell customers have been little short of an absolute joke. For the oodles of spondoodles required for the Ultimate Edition, users have so far received a Texas Hold-em card game and an application to animate their desktop background.

Today, Microsoft has released a further number of Extras upon a (seriously) unsuspecting world, but there's not much here to get excited about either. There are a few new backgrounds for DreamScene, the animated desktop. There are a number of new Sound Schemes, because everone loves the various bips and bops that regularly accompany Windows use. Finally, there are thirty-four - count 'em - new language packs, so that you can use Vista in Arabic, Bulgarian, Croation, Czech, Danish - the list goes on.

We're sure that those who paid hundreds of dollars for the privilege of these updates will be eager to grab them from Windows Update, now. A bargain, we think. µ