If you have Windows Vista Ultimate or Home Premium you have some great tools for recording various media.

You may already know that you can record movies from television with Windows Media Center. It’s probably one of the easiest things you can do with the program. But there are a couple of things to remember when you record a favorite movie from TV.

You need to set some general recording options to make sure you catch the entire movie. And second, there are two separate ways to record a movie: as it plays on live television or by setting up a request in the guide.

Microsoft has a web page which shows you how to do this, plus a load of other tips for getting more out of Windows Vista.

Take a look.

Microsoft’s website is announcing a launch press conference by CEO Steve Ballmer to ease Windows Vista into the world. It will be celebrated, they say, by Ballmer ringing the Nasdaq bell to open the exchange today — 20 minutes away as I write.

The website says :

NEW YORK CITY — Nov. 29, 2006 —

• What: Microsoft Corp. will host a news conference and live webcast to announce the availability of the Windows Vista™ operating system, the 2007 Microsoft® Office system and Exchange Server 2007 for business customers with volume license agreements. Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer will celebrate this historic product launch, which coincides with Microsoft’s 20th year as a publicly traded company, by ringing the bell to open the NASDAQ market.

• Who: Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, Chris Liddell, CFO of Microsoft, and executives from Microsoft customer and industry partner companies

• Where: NASDAQ MarketSite event at Times Square in New York, 43rd St. and Broadway; a live webcast of the news conference will be available.

• When: The news conference and webcast will begin at 10:35 a.m. EST (7:35 a.m. PST) on Thursday, Nov. 30.

Go Vista!

Here’s a nice collection of the Windows Vista Build 5744 Screenshot Gallery. Feast your eyes on some cool Aero graphics and unless they kick some good sense into the Vista core security functions, it will be 2 years before I actually feel like using it.

Windows Vista Build 5744 Gallery source

Ed Bott has a quick run down of Microsoft Vista support on Dual-core and 64-bit CPUs. Really useful. I just get too confused with all the versions of Vista around… Here’s a summary:

1. A PC with multiple physical CPUs - like a PC with 2 Intel CPUs onboad. Use Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate.

2. A PC with 1 CPU - Any version of Vista will do. Use Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate.

3. A PC with Dual Core CPUs - Any version of Vista will do. Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate.