When Microsoft pimped Vista Ultimate to the world, they promised the main benefits would come in the form or regular updates, or Windows Ultimate Extras. So far these WUE's are almost a no-show, with a measly 3 released since Ultimate debuted several months ago.

These extras, which are also allegedly developed to run on Vista only, are hardly anything to write home about. A poker game, Bitlocker app, language packs, and Dreamscene, which was hacked to run on other versions of Vista.

Well Microsoft are embarrassed about the whole thing and Barry Goffe, director of Windows Vista Ultimate has issued an apology.

"When we launched Windows Vista in January 2007, we identified Windows Ultimate Extras as a unique series of add-ons that would be available to Windows Vista Ultimate customers. To date, we have released four sets of Extras: Windows Hold'Em, 16 Language Packs for the Windows multi-language user interface, Secure Online Key Backup, and Windows BitLocker Drive Preparation Tool. We want to let our Windows Vista Ultimate customers know that we are actively working to deliver the remaining Extras that we identified in January. Our goal is to provide the highest-quality, most secure and reliable offerings, and as a result we are continuing our work on these offerings. We apologize for taking so long to provide a status update to customers."

The timing is curious, as a recent post on Windows Connected put the question out there: Ultimate Extras, where are you?

While it's good that Microsoft have acknowledged dropping the ball, it's still going to be a while before people start getting further benefit out of Vista Ultimate.