Microsoft today officially released Dream Scene to all Windows Vista Ultimate customers (such as myself). Nice to see some Ultimate content coming out, and as noted further down below it appears we'll get to see more in the near future.

I was already using the DreamScene preview release and enjoying it (although it was not always stable). Today my Windows Update let me know there's a new "Ultimate Extras" update available:

Needless to say, I updated. There's also a nearly-60MB package of "DreamScene content pack favorites" that showed up later in the day on Windows Update, which contains a set of videos that work with DreamScene.

From the Windows Vista Ultimate blog, here is a portion of the announcement made by Ultimate Director (cool title) Barry Goffe:

"As most of you already know, Windows DreamScene transforms your desktop from a static wallpaper image into a full-motion video. In conjunction with Stardock, we’re pleased to also offer a number of cool, new animated DreamScene desktops, including “Aurora”. Additionally, you can use your own videos as DreamScene desktops or visit Stardock’s Dream.WinCustomize.com website to download Stardock’s DeskScapes (an add-on to DreamScene) as well as a collection of fabulous content created by Stardock and members of the Ultimate community."

It's worth calling out the reference to the Stardock web site, dream.wincustomize.com, which you'll want to visit in order to download dreams for your new Ultimate capability. Also, Stardock's blog entry provides some additional detail.

Also in today's announcement is word that more Ultimate Extras are coming (something many of us have really wondered about for some time, to be honest):

"In addition to the remaining Language Packs, we plan to ship a collection of additional Windows Ultimate Extras that we are confident will delight our passionate Windows Vista Ultimate customers. We will shed more light on these plans once the Language Packs are finally dislodged from our delivery pipeline!"

Great news, and something to look forward to for sure.