Hey Microsoft's gotta do something to keep selling units...what better way than to nail everyone who bought a "bargain" Vista Basic PC thinking they got a good deal?

Wow, that's just slimy. "Hey, I've got your back-ups right here! Oh, wait, you want them? Pay up."

It's not quite extortion, but it's damn near as close as you can get.

that can't be true, this is microsoft, they have money, why would they need more...
sorry, not very good at typing sarcasm.
if this is true...JERKS!
honestly...wtf?
one more reason i'm happy i switched to linux.

It's only a matter of time before someone writes an app to extract those...

Hi!, I'm a MAC. Wanna see my time machine?

Hi!, I'm a PC. Want to pay for more functionality?

you know, you could also insert your disc and not enter a product key and install the Ultimate version and you get your 30 day trial or whatever but you could recover your stuff then

or at least with the not so express "Express upgrade" discs you could.

just look at that "install the upgrade on a clean drive" article for a partial step by step to get there.

just install it on another box and copy backups over and restore.

Once again, it looks like I'll be hanging on to XP till 2011. Of course Samba will always be my friend.

You guys act like its wrong for a company to make money.

Who wants to bet money that some jerk in their marketing dept. took some kind of data failure/corruption statistic, figured out about how many Vista Basic units were projected to sell, deduced how many Vista Basic "upgrades" would sell to desperate users, and multiplied that # by the $200+ cost to upgrade (sorry I have no idea how much the upgrade costs), got a nice fat figure, and said "brilliant!"

Make no mistake about it, companies this big do not arbitrarily decide to lock or unlock features for no good reason. It's like Goodyear deciding NOT to recall a defective tire because settling accidental death lawsuits resulting from the defect would be cheaper. I'm not saying this feature is going to kill people who don't have it but man is that messed up.

I was on the fence about my next computer but I think this just made up my mind.

@ schrosa
that is funny...i can see that actually being a mac commercial.

C'mon guys this is more than fair. It's not like M$ is making much of a profit from their 20M business/volum lisences.

/Sarcasm Off

Well to be fair it's nearly impossible to find FREE back up software that creates bootable images/back up drives for the windows box. Micro$oft doesn't see any reason they should offer any sort of decent back up software for free.

Just look at it as… They are just showing you how much they care about you as a consumer. $.$

I'll tell you what though, I look forward to purchasing my next OS for around 129.99 and having all of it's available features right there and not having to pay any stupid premiums.

screw Vista, XP and Linux rule !!!

Previous Versions isn't even meant to be in Home Basic and Home Premium (read the feature lists!). If it's backing up non-system files, that's a bug.

The "Wow" starts now! I mean right after you finish paying us for the second time!

I did not even know the "Previous Versions" feature existed in any version of Vista. And I have used Ultimate and Home Premium. I'm using Home Premium right now.

Seems like a useless feature to me. Honestly who gives a crap. I disable System Restore as it is.

"Seems like a useless feature to me. Honestly who gives a crap. I disable System Restore as it is."

It's existed since Windows Server 2003. Server '03 can run this on a network share, so you can recover previous versions remotely.

It's a very useful tool.

Seems like a useless feature to me. Honestly who gives a crap. I disable System Restore as it is.

It's much more useful than system restore. It automagically saves previous versions of stuff like Word documents, so all won't be lost when you accidentally erase a paragraph and save out of habit.

@jrubzer: "WoW starts now" means Whip Out Wallet.

Again, Microsoft figures how to screw the average Windows user...

I have checked the features lists, and the Home versions do not claim to include full backup capability.

I don't see the issue.

And by doing this they are trying to entice me over to Vista???

I think they need to try harder.

Microsoft never said the Home versions had this feature.

orrrrr you can install it, don't put a CD key in, install Vista Ultimate 64bit, and then once installed, enter 'certain commands' via Start>Run hehe.

Vista's a hog, ANYways, 500mb idle? No thanks. :)

stop bitching about not being able to use a feature that was never advertised to be offered with your OS version and buy real third-party backup software like you've always had to. Acronis True Image Home 10 is $37 @ amazon.com...

jesus, these vista quirks are like coming out with new reasons why shooting yourself in the face isn't a good idea.

once again, all the mac haters have been microshafted.

i really don't know why people put up with this crap. "you could install premium and use the 30 day trial" and stand on your head with 2 fingers up your ass, and that'll probably make it work, so whats the big deal? everyone just knows M$ is the best out there

M$ doesn't have a monopoly in the traditional sense, but they sure do have a psychosomatic one. somehow, no matter how much people bitch about windows, they refuse to seek alternatives, as if they'd be blaspheming an entire sacred ideology, no matter how retarded it is... reminds me of devout cathlics defending or ignoring child-molesting priests.

what needs to happen for people to finally say, this is fucked, im leaving?

it also reminds me of abusive boyfriend syndrom, oh, well, he only hit me because i was yelling at him, honest, it doesn't happen very often, if im good...

Anyone even attempting to defend this really isn't grasping the issue. If the feature isn't meant to be available in certain versions of Vista, then the tab in the file properties should sure as hell not be visible. At best Microsot is teasing people who don't want to cough up the dough for Ultimate but would like to Get Their Damned File Back, at worst it's pure sadism.

@netDiZZY, @Blargh and @Waterdrop said it pretty much on the ball...

If you ever wanted to upgrade to Vista you would naturally choose the many flavors to suit yout need and do it.
Some people can do with Vista Basic, some with Premium and everything in between... each version HAS more features. You want them... pay.
How hard can be that to understand?

Many systems come pre-loaded... FINE !, if you need more features upgrade to the next level.

In the same way you had XP Home, XP MCE and XP Pro you have now a few more options depending on your needs.

XP Pro has always been nearly double the price of XP Home...
It has always been said that "if you don't know WHY you need XP Professional, you probably don't need it"... becasue there is stuff in the OS the average Joe will never use!.

Now, fanboys, (and don't start blasting me right away...)
Imagine for a second that someone wants to buy a Mac just for e-mail, Internet browsing and the cool looks.
If you could buy a Mac with OSX with the basics for... say $200 less than the "full" OS version. (After all you are never going to use Garage Band and all the Video, Audio applications hoopla...)
- Would you buy it?
- Why buy more than you would ever need or use?

After all, those additional applications cost money, time and manpower to develop, right?

Good Backup software has never been free. Does the Mac come with a true backup utility and a shadow copy system? I don't know.

You want fries with that burger, OK... Curly seasoned fries?... no,sir, that's an upgrade.
Yet nobody seems to complain about that...

At least I pay the high price for a Mac up front. Microsoft seems to want to employ a pay-as-you-go model. Can someone please explain why we are tolerating this from Microsoft? Maybe I'll buy a Linux distro when I upgrade from XP. Oh, wait...that's right. I don't have to pay a dime. Good job, Microsoft! Keep up the good work!

Just a minor note: Upgrading from Home Premium to Business is not $400. Not by a long shot.

@aec007

"Imagine for a second that someone wants to buy a Mac just for e-mail, Internet browsing and the cool looks"

Im imagining someone buying an original iMac with OS 9... for like $200 out the door. No fancy schmancy, fine for browsing word processing etc.

and yes the mac does come with the finest backup util i've ever had the pleasure of not being able to afford (the mac, the SW is bundled of course)

i mean, why buy a race car if you're going to drive like a nun? who the hell is so vain to buy a brand new mac for the looks and never explore the damn thing... who also is strapped for cash? only rich fools do that shit, and they dont care what it costs.

Bill Gates dick must be really chafing, after, you know, raping all those wallets out there.

If they say the feature's not in the home versions, fine. But don't waste my CPU cycles and disk space making file backups I can't access.

C'mon, I'm sure that there are several alternative programs for backing up files that are less expensive than a Vista upgrade and are probably more useful and effective. Even so, I'm still not buying any version of Vista.

LOL@ this coming out the day before my department was planning of upgrading the office computers and notebooks. Looks like the noobs in the office better start learning those nifty OS X shortcuts.

Open Apple-Tab for the kids who like to multi-function.

You know, a lot of people have beef with microsoft for ripping off apple all the time. I don't. I have beef with microsoft for doing such a shitty job of ripping off apple all the time.

if your dad was steve jobs, would being an apple fanboy be hereditary?

"and yes the mac does come with the finest backup util i've ever had the pleasure of not being able to afford (the mac, the SW is bundled of course)"

No. That's not the same as Volume Shadow Copy. This is more like Time Machine, which obviously hasn't been released yet.

I think what the problem is that people are miss led to believe that they can restore a backup, that is that all flavors of Vista have backup and restore. For companies this is a big deal.

That all said, why people aren't just doing a secondary backup of their mission critical data is beyond me. For most people, that's a disk key for documents, and a USB drive for pictures and music. I have two separate backups. An automated clone of my system and a progressive backup of key data.

I'm trying to remember the number of times I've needed a feature like this...

hmmmm zero times.

If you don't want to delete a file, don't press delete. If you do accidentally press delete, don't go to the recycle bin, right-click, and select'empty recycle bin'. If you do accidentally right-click and select 'empty recycle bin' when prompted 'Do you really want to delete the files?' don't press 'yes'.

Seriously, Microsoft gives you 3 'outs' before a file is deleted. And if you really mess that up, you can get undelete software to get it back (assuming you do it quickly enough).

And to the person that said "Acronis True Image Home 10 is $37 @ amazon.com..." yes... completley agree.. fantastic tool. I swap between various install conditions of vista and xp on my laptop with that all the time.. very useful

If you could buy a Mac with OSX with the basics for... say $200 less than the "full" OS version. (After all you are never going to use Garage Band and all the Video, Audio applications hoopla...)

Considering there's only one Mac OS X price, and for that matter, one OS X (not a home/premium/incredible/super-incredible/ultimate-universe version). Nope. Just one. And it could always be had for $99. So yeah, I have a hard time imagining that.

It's time to launch that pesky nerd into space. You all know who I mean.

r u cereal?

....WTF?

I love how people still seem to think Bill Gates is the CEO and supreme commander of a corporation with about 100,000 employees spread all over the globe.
Don't sound like an ignorant ass and actually do some research you lame-o's. Bill Gates stop being CEO a long, long time ago and now plays a tiny role in all the decisions and operations of the company.
Bill Gates is rich. Har har. WOW. Where'd you learn that???
Ignorant dicks.

"orrrrr you can install it, don't put a CD key in, install Vista Ultimate 64bit, and then once installed, enter 'certain commands' via Start>Run hehe.

Vista's a hog, ANYways, 500mb idle? No thanks. :)"

Um... first off, those 'certain commands' are not exclusive to the 64-bit edition. Second, Vista uses 500MB at idle because of SuperFetch technology. The OS itself isn't taking up that much RAM -- if you'd look at the "Processes" tab instead of the "Performance" tab, you'd realize that -- what it's doing is pre-loading your programs into RAM before you run them. That's one reason why, on a decently spec'd system, Vista is faster than XP.

@Everyone & Gizmodo
Vista Home editions never claim to feature Shadow Copying!

@Gizmodo
The feature is called the "Volume Shadow Copy Service", not "Previous Versions" -- that's just the name of the tab. Why do you care if it backs them up but you can't access it? If it didn't back them up, you still couldn't access it. Shadow copies get automatically overwritten and don't show up as used disk space, so what difference does it make?

This isn't news, this is displayed when you install Vista. It shows you all the versions during install and what features they have (or don't have). If you missed this fact... well, it's displayed in several places so it's hard to imagine just how you missed it.

That being said it annoys me that Vista Home Premium is missing the ability to be remoted into via Remote Desktop.

@SimianJones,

"displayed when you install Vista..."

Doesn't it kind of defeat the purpose to show the OS features AFTER you've cracked open the software and begun an installation? Wouldn't it just be a better business model to have ONE version of an operating system, you, know, with all of the features already included and enabled? For, like, I don't know... $129, give or take a few dollars?

It really does take a masochist to support, defend, or even use a MS product.

With news like this, it does become increasingly difficult to support such a rapacious and bastardized marketing model vista has turned out to be. It's absolute bullshit. There is NO excuse. Look at your competition. Look at the status quo. Everyone offers as much or MORE for far less than MS.

Who could POSSIBLY defend this deliberate marketing of crippleware? Other than MS corporate stockholders?

This, by the way from a life-long pc owner and enthusiast. I'm bailing. I don't like being made to pay ridiculous prices for being raped.

@bitfactory

Couldnt agree more. You can even get the OS on its opening day usually for $70. And ontop of it all, the single user disc works on as many computers as you want. I cant remember the last time I heard of Apple sueing over single use infringement.

Or just go out and download Ubuntu for free, use great apps on a solid OS and stop running into shafting.

Another thing Microsoft didn't tell the Home Basic users is that their CPU is being used for a distributed computing technology that is always running in the background to calculate the interest on Bill's bank accounts.

Okay -- if they (MS) are going to waste my disk space (we're talking about gigabytes, so this in not a trivial thing) backing up files in a way which cannot be accessed (without buying an OS upgrade), then they are using my property without my permission.

The Home Basic users should file a class action suit to recover their property which MS stole from them (and seek monetary damages also).

@aec007

If you could buy a Mac with OSX with the basics for... say $200 less than the "full" OS version. (After all you are never going to use Garage Band and all the Video, Audio applications hoopla...)
- Would you buy it?

So Apple is going to pay me $71 to buy this version of OS X? Hell yes, I will buy one million copies please!