If you’re using anything but Windows Vista Ultimate, you’ll probably read about a feature that you wish you had at some point. Frustrating, isn’t it? Well, it’ll cost you a few bucks, but if you’re not running Home Premium or Ultimate, you can follow these steps to upgrade:

1. Click the Start button, and then click Control Panel.
2. Click System and Maintenance.
3. Click Windows Anytime Upgrade.

The Windows Anytime Upgrade window appears. You can view your current edition of Windows in the upper-right corner. Click the Upgrade link, click Begin upgrade process, and then follow the prompts that appear. If you have your Vista setup DVD, you can upgrade immediately (every Vista setup DVD contains every edition of Vista). Otherwise, you’ll need to order a DVD and wait for that to appear.

If you are running Home Premium or Ultimate and you still can’t play a DVD, you probably have some DVD playback software installed that’s not compatible with Windows Vista (like, say, an older version of PowerDVD, WinDVD, VLC Media Player, etc). Try upgrading whichever you’re using to a Vista-compatible version. As an alternative to upgrading to Vista, you could also install one of these tools to watch DVDs–just google the names.