Microsoft releases DreamScene for Vista Ultimate users
By Darren Murph 
posted September 25th 2007 3:33PM
posted September 25th 2007 3:33PM
Hot on the heels of the SP1 limited release, Microsoft has now announced the availability of Windows DreamScene for Vista Ultimate users. If you'll recall, we caught a glimpse of what an in-motion desktop looked like earlier this year, and while we're sure some will get more fired up (ahem) over this than others, it makes for good eye candy if you've nothing better to do with system resources. Additionally, it was noted that users will have access to a number of animated desktops in conjunction with Stardock, and those itching for even more Ultimate Extras can apparently look for more details to come their way later this year.[Thanks, Daniel O.]
Wow another useless program that will eat up CPU power.
You know, you don't have to download it or use it if you feel it that way.
Some people just like to have fun on their computers. Some people have a lot CPU to waste.
The thing is, is that it's just a fun toy. Deal with it.
not everyone has 200mhz anymore, try to keep up with technology ^__^
Actually it doesn't use hardly any CPU cycles, it offloads the work to the GPU but you must already know that . . .
I'm sorry guys, forgive me for speaking my mind. It won't happen again.
I don't think anyone realized it was beta since the download was available via Windows Update; nowhere did it say beta. I did have it crash on me once or twice so maybe it's been revised.
I thought it stated what it was rather explicitly. First, it never installed until I actually went into the Windows Update feature and there it was listed as Windows Dreamscene (Preview). I mean "preview" isn't exactly the same word as beta, but it gets the point across. But that was only my scenario, perhaps it was different for others.
how much CPU usage does this actually take?
I'm so excited that I just soiled myself.
Well...i have had the beta for like 5 months now...and i dont see anything new in this one!
So, is like Active Desktop, but for Vista?
Vista ultimate has been the biggest scam they ever pulled on me. I've paid $150 more for some stupid animated backgrounds and "bitlocker".
Um, you didn't have to buy that if you didn't want to.
If you don't want BitLocker or stupid animated backgrounds, then why'd you buy Ultimate? I just don't see why you're dumbing down on yourself.
@michael; It's pretty simple. I had a license for Vista Business and wanted media center for my Xbox 360. My only upgrade option was Ultimate using Anytime Upgrade (it wouldn't let me do Home Premium).
When I purchased it I could have gone out and purchased a boxed version of home, but since Ultimate promised all these "extras" I thought it was worth it. Turns out I was wrong.
Buy some tuner cards and use media center.
er... this gimmicky crap (that you could do in OS X 10.1) is news? weak. (on MS's part, there's nothing wrong with Engadget publishing whatever marketing crap MS feeds 'em.)
^^ blah blah blah blah blah APPLE fanboi blah blah blahblah blah
^^ how insightful - and timely!
seriously, i wonder if there is a name for someone who's only "point" is calling people names without anything to bring to the conversation at all. ...(and usually "fanboy" is all they can come up with)...
oh wait, there is a name for that; an unoriginal troll.
would've been nice if it said you had to have an aero compliant machine to run this. I just wasted 30 minutes of my day installing this, restarting, etc. At no point did this site, the MS site, the install, or the application actually tell me this. My laptop doesn't have the hp for aero, so it's disabled. Dreamscene doesn't say anything until it tries to change the desktop, then it errors. lame.
Thanks for the heads up. My laptop won't run Aero, either.
...if your machine can't run Aero, it MIGHT be time for an upgrade...and why would you have a copy of Ultimate, without a machine to run it on? Oh, pirated, gotcha.
Tom,
My machine is fine, it's a 1.7 Ghz with 1.5 Gb of ram. But it's a laptop, an employer provided laptop, perhaps you missed that part of the comment. I'll be sure to pass along your claims to my friends at the BSA, I'm sure they'll get a laugh out of it.
actually, this is news. for you english speaking folks, it might be normal to see dreamscene in your update schedule for months. The german (and most likely any other non english) users were unaible to install it, prior to download and install the english language pack (but why install a language, that you don't use afterwards). I for myself have been thinking about downloading the language pack tomorrow, to try dreamscene (at last ^^), so i'm quite happy, that I didn't have to cluster my system with unneeded languages.
I don't get it. Hasn't this been available through Stardock since early this year? It's been in my Stardock Central for ages. I don't run Vista though, so I never bothered with it.
Bitch Bitch Bitch!!!!!!!! That's all anyone does around here, How LAME, you like it or you don't it's still tech news, so quit your bitch you bunch of pansy, candy-ass crybabies!!!!
Faslane, oh and FUCK OFF Too!!! Lamers
best comment award goes to you, sir!
I'm surprised no one's mentioned or has known about this but when MS first announced it, they said that Dreamscene is entirely powered by the GPU NOT the CPU so therefore would have little to no performance hit on the CPU as a whole.
only if you got resource to burn.
Get me a break - I have Vista and XP on my computers and with Vista I now read about Linux and think soon real soon. Bill can take his polished turd and put back up his *******
This totally makes up for not incorporating WinFS into Vista.
I downloaded the beta version of DreamScene quite a while ago, and it worked decently well on my machine. Then I downloaded the final version to test the software, which used 100% CPU and then froze my computer for about five minutes before the graphics driver recovered. I really want to know what they were doing while finalizing the software.
Man, I wish my wimpy Vista Basic could run an oversized .gif file in the background. Gosh.
Am I the only one who gets motion sickness when this is on?
I think DreamScene is awesome. If you have a robust machine it really doesn't hog resources. Every time I show it to a friend or colleague it gets the "oh wow, that is really cool!" response. Now, all you Linux and Apple fanboys pipe down, this is a cool feature. If Apple would have done it, they would have been praised. MSFT could reinvent the wheel, bring Jesus and Moses back for an interstellar reunion, and solve world hunger, and you fanboys would still find some way to discount it. Get over it.
Yes that is absolutely true! Specifically because it has been possible to do this on OSX for a very long time.
This isn't really groundbreaking on windows either, 3rd party apps allow you to do the same.
And yes, MSFT could indeed reinvent the wheel etc. they would probably do a good job too, show it to the public and amaze everybody. However it would take them ages to actually finish the product, the product would not be anything like the concept introduced years before, etc. Get the picture, MSFT-fanboy?
And for the love of g*d, don't call it a freakin "feature".
How the hell do I install this? All that was on windows updates with dreamscene preview. I installed it and now I can't find it.
nevermind. I had to tell it to check for updates again.
O.M.F.G.! What a useless waste of resources. Might as well do some Folding instead and help fight disease.
Every time I try to load one of the backgrounds, my screen flashes and I get an error message. This is on a brand new fully loaded T61 as well. Great job Microsoft.
hasnt this been out now for some time? i got my ultimate laptop (lol) in june and it had that...
Sergei
bah, people complain when there's only apple news, and now when there's finally some news for windows, they still complain.
btw, microsoft were a bit late to the party again. there's been ways to do this in windows, and any other operating system out there, for quite some time now.
for mac users you could very easily make this (or maybe something more useful, like an rss display, or a live webcam / your desktop as a miror) using quartz composer and then QCDesktop that lets you put them on your desktop. There are already lots of prebuilt apple ones that may be usefull, and there are a huge number on the web
hope this is helpful
james churchman