Microsoft seems to be preparing to release an unusual "Vista Plus Pack" on February 15th. Based on the provided box art, the Plus Pack appears to be a collection of four casual games that are "Enhanced for Windows Vista". The listing for the software was found on Future Shop's online catalog by MadDoggyca in winbeta forums.
Details below:
Releases 15 Feb/08. User-friendly software combines the features of Vista Home Basic with even more impressive and user-friendly capabilities. Features Windows Aero, an efficient and visually stunning interface that makes it easier to accomplish multiple tasks at once by providing a three-dimensional, real-time, animated view of all of your open applications and documents.
FEATURES:
By integrating search throughout the operating system, helps you quickly find and organize large collections of documents, pictures, movies, videos, and music.
Includes Windows Tablet and Touch Technology that enables you to interact with your Tablet PC-compatible computer with a digital pen or your fingertip instead of having to use a keyboard.
Includes all of the Windows Media Center capabilities for turning your PC into an all-in-one home entertainment centre enjoy music, photos, and DVD movies.
Note that the price of $39.99 is in Canadian dollars since Future Shop is a Canadian home electronics store.
As some of our readers noted, whatever happened to the Ultimate Extras?
The advent of Windows Vista brought to center stage the issue of downgrades. In mid 2007, Lisa Michigan from the Microsoft U.K. licensing team revealed that Vista to XP downgrades were one of the hottest subjects on the company's top five list of licensing questions, occupying both the first and the second positions. But while, as far as Microsoft is concerned, downgrade rights are by no means anything new, for customers the information was indeed fresh, and the company continues to be hit with a range of inquiries from the public. In this context, there are of course some misconceptions floating around the concept of downgrades, including the fact that it is a new offering accompanying Vista, or that they are some sort of
reverse upgrades. Although the Redmond company introduced downgrade rights quite some time ago, concomitantly with Windows XP all the way back in 2001, Vista to XP downgrades have only come into play with the availability of the latest Windows client.
Windows Vista to Windows XP downgrades – Why?
"There are some misconceptions about downgrade rights and some have a perception that downgrade rights are something new or that we suddenly made a shift in policy to add them in lately. I am not sure where these misconceptions started at; however, I hope this helps set the record straight. Remember that when you purchase software, what you are purchasing is a license to use the software under the terms of the license you are purchasing. You are not actually buying the software itself. Downgrade rights are merely one of those rights that you choose to purchase or not based on the type of license you purchase", explained Eric Ligman, Microsoft US Senior Manager Small Business Community Engagement.
But are downgrades at the opposite spectrum of upgrades? The general user perception is that indeed Windows Vista to Windows XP downgrades situate themselves at the opposite pole of the upgrade process. This could not be further from the truth. Via software upgrades, Microsoft (I'll use the two latest Windows clients for examples) is allowing XP licensed users to acquire a Vista license at a discounted price. But after the upgrading is done, namely you have installed Vista in place of XP, you lose the right to run the software you have upgraded from
First Windows Vista SP1 Prerequisite Update for Ultimate/Enterprise Users Now Available
Two or three updates are required before you install Windows Vista Service Pack 1. The updates that are required depend on the edition of Windows Vista that you are upgrading. Prerequisite update 935509 is only applicable to Windows Vista Enterprise and to Windows Vista Ultimate. The other prerequisite updates that are discussed in this article apply to all editions of Windows Vista.
Before Windows Vista SP1 is released, these prerequisite updates will be delivered to most users through Windows Update as part of regularly scheduled monthly updates. These updates will be installed together with other updates that will require that you restart the computer. An additional restart will not be required. Therefore, this delivery method will simplify installation of these prerequisite updates.
Customers who decide to install Windows Vista SP1 by using the stand-alone installer, instead of by using Windows Update, will not have to install the prerequisite packages separately. The prerequisite packages will be installed by the stand-alone installer if they are necessary.
Microsoft seems to be preparing to release an unusual "Vista Plus Pack" on February 15th. Based on the provided 
But while, as far as Microsoft is concerned, downgrade rights are by no means anything new, for customers the information was indeed fresh, and the company continues to be hit with a range of inquiries from the public. In this context, there are of course some misconceptions floating around the concept of downgrades, including the fact that it is a new offering accompanying Vista, or that they are some sort of 
Update for Windows Vista 
muBlinder 3.54 (72714)
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