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DreamScene, which was supposed to be released in January, allows users to select a video for their desktop background. Microsoft has bundled five looping videos with the download, though users can also use their own videos so long as they're in MPEG or WMV file formats.

Extras are the downloadable content available to customers running Windows Ultimate, and were cited by Microsoft as one of the big reasons to invest in the £320 version of the OS instead of the £185 Home Premium edition.

The frequently delayed software forced Barry Goffe, the director of Vista Ultimate, to issue <

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an apology on his blog on July 2 before promising a summer release - which also came and went.

DreamScene is the fourth Extra to be unveiled after Texas Hold 'Em Poker, the BitLocker preparation tool and an initial set of language packs. Among the other promised extras, the remaining 20 language packs have yet to make an appearance, while the Group Shot photo-editing utility announced by Bill Gates at CES 2007 has already been released to XP users.

Announcing DreamScene on his blog, Goffe also took the opportunity to clear up the confusion surrounding the changes made by SP1 to the Extras Welcome screen.

"Our intent in making this change was simply to broaden the definition in anticipation of a broader range of Ultimate Extras being available in the future. While I can understand how community sites and bloggers may have read the new definition and assumed that Microsoft is not shipping any more Extras, in reality the opposite is true.

"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!"