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Windows Ultimate wallpapers

March 8th, 2007 by Long Zheng
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Update: I did a little remix of these wallpapers to remove the branding and enhance the effects a little bit.

Thanks to a tip by Brandon LeBlanc, the cool-black Windows Ultimate wallpapers have finally been released by the Ultimate team in its full-fidelity glory. It was originally sighted in a CES promotional video displayed on a laptop screen. Several commenters linked to various imitations created by other enthusiasts in the past, credits to all those who tried, but none had the exact same look and feel as the original.

Windows Vista Ultimate wallpaper 1Windows Vista Ultimate wallpaper 2

These are available freely from the Windows Ultimate website, even available to those who do not own a copy of Windows Ultimate. There are two styles, ones with the aurora strands, and the other with a backlit Vista orb. Both versions comes in a delicious variety of resolutions up to 2560×1600 to fit a 30″ display.

backlitorbapple.jpg

To end on an interesting note, the backlit Vista orb wallpaper bears a striking resemblance to Apple’s “First 30 years” picture displayed earlier this year. But I’m confident the two were created without each other’s knowledge well in-advance and this is the result of an amusing coincidence. ;)

Comments for "Windows Ultimate wallpapers"

  1. Code.Red

    Mar 8th, 2007 at 2:32 pm

    The resemblance to Apple’s picture is uncanny, but it makes for a great wallpaper. Thanks!

  2. tom

    Mar 8th, 2007 at 6:18 pm

    I guess Redmond has already started their photocopiers…

  3. John Murphy

    Mar 8th, 2007 at 8:44 pm

    Msoft only copied Apple, the way Apple copied Harry Potter!

    http://www.moviecitynews.com/arrays/images/2005/poster_hp4_teaser.gif

  4. imran

    Mar 8th, 2007 at 8:44 pm

    Don’t you people get it, first Apples overshadowed the Sun or what ever that is behind the logo, and now Vista or MS is trying to or already in the process of over taking apple ;) A new dawn.

  5. rajo

    Mar 8th, 2007 at 10:49 pm

    I don’t give a damn about copying one another, but I absoutely adore the Strands one.

  6. sb.net

    Mar 9th, 2007 at 4:42 am

    I love the strands one, but I can’t use it because I share a family computer they won’t let me use any wallpapers. :(

  7. Zim

    Mar 9th, 2007 at 5:08 am

    @John Murphy: Come on, it’s a common effect… It’s not a stealing matter, it’s just the “fight” between companies… :)

    Thanks for the link, Long!
    They are obviously better than my “inspired” wallpapers, hehe

  8. Texnomic

    Mar 9th, 2007 at 8:34 am

    I guess Microsoft “meant” to do it, and it’s not a coincident. As you mentioned “Zim”, it’s a silly fight between companies.

    But if we want to find a meaning for it, we will gonna say it’s related to the “Ready for a new day” launch compain which was having the Sun rise effect.

  9. Jonathan

    Mar 9th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

    Wow… I really like the aurora strands.

  10. Henry

    Mar 9th, 2007 at 4:51 pm

    these wallpapers are AWESOME :)

  11. Adam

    Mar 9th, 2007 at 7:39 pm

    Coincidence? I think not.

    Is there a high resolution (wallpaper size) version of Apple’s ‘Welcome to 2007′ image?

  12. Mike Lee

    Mar 10th, 2007 at 5:25 am

    The strands wallpaper is great. I photoshopped out the word “Ultimate”, though… I only have Home Premium. :P

  13. MW

    Mar 10th, 2007 at 8:06 am

    Why did they add the Windows name + logo ahh its not easy to remove its not on a single color…

  14. JaXX

    Mar 11th, 2007 at 9:34 pm

    When does SP1 come out ?

  15. Chad

    Mar 12th, 2007 at 8:45 am

    I have 29 plus 7 widescreen wallpapers stock with my Ultimate, is that correct? Seems like not a lot.

  16. DaXtermGuy

    Mar 15th, 2007 at 2:10 am

    Both Apple and Microsoft copied that from NBC’s Heros!

  17. Klarem

    Jul 12th, 2007 at 12:57 pm

    Apple Leopard “copied Vista”

    http://uk.theinquirer.net/?article=40385

  18. Dreamscene

    Mar 18th, 2008 at 7:58 pm

    Hello, the wallpapers are wonderful.
    But when I placed on my desktop, I see that streching the image is not functioning as I desired to see on my laptop.

    If you can supply better resolutions for these images it will be perfect!

    Thanks

  19. Earl

    May 18th, 2008 at 6:56 am

    Id like to see an uber high res and high color bitrate on that black aurora that is LCD color banding friendly. i dont mind a 15mb wallpaper or so

  20. jordN

    May 21st, 2008 at 11:43 pm

    Vista is so fast, is a small install, it works with everything, is rock hard stable, runs on any computer, and now it comes with decent walls? What is this some sort of hype joke? I want to show you guys a video of very intelligent researcher that proves that vista beats linux for speed PERIOD.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j60-nsS8ZA
    just watch it lol…

Leave a Reply

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