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.

Over at istartedsomething.com, Long Zheng questions the value of the Windows Vista Ultimate Extras package : “Besides BitLocker encryption, a few pro-user tools (RDP, CompletePC backups, shadow copy etc..) and the Family Discount program, the only other reason to even consider purchasing Windows Vista Ultimate was for the Ultimate Extras”.

This has failed to meet expectations. “…what’s coming up next? The next Ultimate Extras is most likely to be Digital Publications, in other words, free e-books with tips and tricks to using Windows Vista. I fail to see how that is cool or even helpful …”

This is what was promised :

Judge for yourself if it’s worth paying for anything more than the Premium product.