SP1 Info Installing and Upgrading Vista Discuss SP1 Info in the Windows Vista forums; Here is a link to some SP1 info: http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...ista%20SP1.pdf . I am not sure about the currency of the info contained in this document. ...

[Znod]

Here is a link to some SP1 info: http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...ista%20SP1.pdf. I am not sure about the currency of the info contained in this document. Still, I am interested in exploring the relationship between the prior updates and SP1. I remain skeptical about installing SP1--i.e., about fixing things that may not be broken. Happy reading and thinking.

[airman]

I am going to wait and see what the results are from the final release to Windows update and some people get it in there systems. i have reads that this SP1 updates the kernel of Vista to the one that is in Server 2008. Plus there are a lot of improvement in this service pack hope all goes well. I believe March will be the official release to the public. Link for some more info
http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/wi...vista-sp1.aspx

[Buster]

here is a link to more news of when the release will be
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/30329

its seems we are not going to get it until at least march there are problems with some of the drivers on installation

http://www.istartedsomething.com/200...drivers-issue/

[Buster]

found this this morning shame I am using 64bit

[Edited by Znod] Buster indicated that a recent news story says that SP1 RTM is available for download without MS authorization.

[crabby]

I do wonder what the difference will be between using this or being part of the SP1 beta program. Do I have to think to myself now that I may not have the newest version of Vista available? Have they detailed any differences between the actual release and the beta's yet?

crabby

[Buster]

[Edited by Znod] hopefully I will be able to try SP1 this afternoon going to restore an earlier version first that does not have beta in it. [Edited by Znod] the files left behind by beta interfered with installation this is where acronis pays of made a copy before installing beta version let you all know later what i think

[Buster]

I [edited by Znod] am using SP1 and it appears to be working fine much smoother than before and a noticeable speed difference still have some programs to re-install yet but very happy so far

[Znod]

Hi Buster:

I think that your original post concerning the download of SP1 is inappropriate for this site as it provides a link to the unauthorized download of MS software. So, I must remove the link. And, without going into detail, I think that the above two posts are inappropriate because of their subject matter. So, I must edit them.

[Znod]

Here is some additional information about SP1 RTM:

"On Monday (February 4th), we announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). Overall, people are excited to hear that we have reached this milestone, but some are disappointed they are not able to immediately download it.

In my blog post on the subject, I noted that we were going to make SP1 available to customers in stages to make sure we delivered a great experience. As I explained, one reason for this is that we are working through an issue with a small set of hardware devices that may not function properly after the Windows Vista-based PC they are installed on is updated to SP1. This is an issue with the way the device drivers were re-installed during the SP1 update process, not with the drivers themselves -- these drivers worked on Windows Vista RTM and they work on Windows Vista SP1. For new PCs with Windows Vista SP1 pre-installed, this is not an issue.

We are working with the manufacturers of these devices to get the drivers and their install programs updated, and also working on other solutions we can use to ensure a smooth customer experience when updating to SP1 over Windows Update."
Mike Nash: Windows Vista SP1 availability for technical customers.

“Now at this point it’s still to early to draw any conclusions about Vista SP1 and the problems I faced may be unique to my particular setup or hardware. It certainly doesn’t make a good first impression for me and you need to be careful anytime you install a major upgrade like this. Please check back here for updates and status reports on these problems.” George Ou: First experiences with Vista SP1 RTM.

“’RC Refresh 2 code is the same as RTM. In final stages of a product Microsoft likes to get as much validation as possible before releasing. The release candidate ended up being a high enough quality to be approved to release to manufacturing.’” Mary Jo Foley quoting MS: Some won’t have to wait until March for Vista SP1, after all Some won’t have to wait until March for Vista SP1, after all.

“I’m not ready to publish any benchmark test results yet, but on first blush SP1 feels snappier than Vista RTM. Manipulating files certainly feels a lot better and many of those awful (and workflow disrupting) lags are gone.” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Vista SP1 - Day 1.

“People are very anxious to know whether Windows Vista SP1 brings with it any noticeable performance gains when carrying out day to day tasks. My preliminary results seem to indicate that SP1 offers measurable benefits when carrying out a variety of tasks.” Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Vista SP1 - The promised performance gains are there

“Meanwhile, over the past 24 hours I’ve been busy installing the RTM bits of SP1 on three different machines here, alongside three other machines that had already been upgraded via Windows Update with a release candidate that turned out to be the final build after all. And guess what? It all just worked.” Ed Bott: Vista SP1 hands-on: six trouble-free upgrades.

"Microsoft is taking a lot of heat by announcing that Vista SP1 is ready, but then not making it available for the general public until some time in March. But Microsoft made the right move by delaying launch -- if SP1 were out today, plenty of people would be having very serious driver problems." Preston Gralla: Microsoft was right to delay SP1 release

"Based on my informal tests conducted in the first hours of having Vista Service Pack 1 in hand, it's hard to draw any hard and fast conclusions. However, these mixed results do show some promise--and also show that your experience with SP1 may vary depending upon the system configuration." Melissa J. Perenson: Performance Results Mixed with Vista Service Pack 1

"Microsoft has been promoting Vista's SP1 as a big performance booster compared to pre-SP1 Vista, particularly when copying files. But my preliminary tests show that Vista SP1 can be as much as 20% slower than pre-SP1 when it comes to copying files. And XP's copying speed leaves both in the dust." Preston Gralla: Slowing down Vista with SP1

"No wonder the Wow had so much trouble getting started. By Microsoft’s own count, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 rolls up 551 separate hotfixes, in addition to 23 security updates rated Important and already delivered via Windows Update. A handful of those hotfixes were previously released via Windows Update, but most were available only to corporate customers and OEMs." Ed Bott: Vista SP1 rolls up 551 bug fixes

"I’ve been working with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 for several months now, in beta releases and, for the last two weeks, in the final released code. I’ve put together this post to answer some questions I’m frequently asked about this long-awaited update. If you have a question that isn’t in this list, ask in the Talkback section." Ed Bott: A Vista SP1 FAQ

"While it’s good Microsoft is listening to customers, I have to say the company’s disclosure policy on SP1 — from start to finish — has been rather convoluted. But at least customers are finally getting the SP1 bits that many have been awaiting." Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft relents: Vista SP1 available to technical users now

"Microsoft has had a year to implement some basic security mechanisms to mitigate this vulnerability in Vista Service Pack 1 but they haven’t bothered with it. In my opinion, this is very disappointing and a lost opportunity for Microsoft on the security front. For now, the only thing users can do is disable Vista speech recognition and only use a headset if they need to use voice dictation and not the more convenient desktop microphone plus speakers. Larry Dignon and George Ou: Vista SP1 still vulnerable to speech recognition ‘analog’ hole

"My post on the Vista SP1 activation hack has generated a lot of feedback (especially in the form of questions) from both individuals and other media outlets. I’ve put together this post in order to answer some of these questions."

"Vista SP1 makes it harder for people to forget their passwords by prompting the user to type in a password hint at the same time they create the account. Not much use to people who user a meaningless string as a password, but great for those that use birthdays, anniversaries, pet names and so on."

"It does seem that Microsoft hasn’t been successful in closing off all the hacks that allow non-genuine copies of Vista SP1 to pass off as genuine ones. After a few minutes of searching the darker corners of the Internet and a few seconds in the Command Prompt I was able to fool Windows into thinking that it was genuine ...."

"Personally, as someone who tinkers with the hardware settings on a regular basis, these nag screens offer a welcome relief from being forced to activate when in the middle of something (this happens to me all the time when using virtual machines)."

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Four SP1 Items Excerpted Above Here

"I completed the first two installations of Vista SP1 RTM upgrade last night on to my primary desktop computer and my first Vista laptop meant to be my new work computer. The result is a near death experience with my desktop computer, and then a real death experience with the laptop (caused by hardware and not Vista SP1). I guess I should count myself lucky that it wasn’t my main computer that died since I haven’t migrated to the laptop for work yet. I will try to get some help from Microsoft to see if we can resolve this issue." George Ou: First experiences with Vista SP1 RTM

"I carried out a number of tests, moving, compressing and extracting these files. All these tasks were performed three times and the results averaged. In all but one of the tests Vista SP1 showed gains over Vista RTM, and in some tests these improvements were so significant that I reloaded the system and carried out both tests again and go almost identical results." Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Some systems showing incredible SP1 performance boost - Day 6

ZDNet Photo Galleries: Windows Vista SP1 - Full initial setup

"Microsoft is continuing to accelerate its timetable for Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 availability. ,..., Microsoft officials said on Monday that subscribers to its Microsoft Developer Network subscription service would be able to get Vista SP 1 by the end of February — a number of weeks earlier than the company originally promised." Mary Jo Foley: MSDN subscribers: Vista SP1 to hit by the end of this week

"So, onto conclusions. Looking at the data there’s only one conclusion that can be drawn - Windows XP SP2 is faster than Windows Vista SP1. End of story. Out of the fifteen tests carried out, XP SP2 beat Vista SP1 in eleven, Vista SP1 beat XP SP2 in two of the tests, and two of the tests resulted in a draw. ,..., The best result for Vista SP1 was in the single file drive-to-drive copy, while the best result for XP SP2 was extracting multiple files from a compressed folder. Given these results and taking into account the improvments that SP1 bought to Vista, if I was to go back and compare XP SP2 with Vista RTM, XP would have hammered Vista even harder." Adrian Kingsley-Hughes: Vista SP1 vs. XP SP2 - Benchmarked

"Based on these results from the synthetic benchmark, XP SP2 gets a PassMark rating that’s 8.4% greater than Vista SP1." Adrian Kingsley-Hughes : Vista SP1 vs. XP SP2 - Part Deux

"Microsoft officials are not discussing publicly how many users are affected by the “endless reboot loop” problem that users are reporting on Microsoft’s TechNet Forums. Microsoft officials also are not saying when or if they will issue new fixes that alleviate the problems. ,..., Some users also are reporting problems following the installation of new Vista-related updates that Microsoft distributed via Windows Update last week. The updates included some patches labeled as “Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 prerequisites,” along with a cumulative Update for Media Center for Windows Vista. Users are reporting on the Vista Team Blog various system problems following the installation of both sets of Vista updates." Mary Jo Foley: No update from Microsoft on Vista SP1, Media Center problems

"SP1 doesn't fix all of Vista's problems and, more egregiously, it even introduces a few problems of its own. Bowing to competitors like Symantec, McAfee, and Google, Microsoft has actually harmed Vista in some ways in SP1, by allowing developers to access the previously impervious kernel in x64 versions of the OS and gouging out the innovative Instant Search UI that was so ahead of its time that competitors like Apple, Google, and others spent the past several years duplicating it in their own products and then claiming they invented it. Also, Microsoft's deployment plan for Vista SP1 is absurd, but that won't matter as 2008 progresses. That's a short-term bit of silliness. ,..., Overall, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is an excellent upgrade and an important milestone. It should erase any serious complaints about the OS and eliminate most deployment blockers. If you're running Vista, install it as soon as you can. If you're not, you've run out of excuses. Highly recommended." Paul Thurrott: Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Review

"As you can see, several file operations were essentially identical between Vista SP1 and XP SP2 (other scenarios I tested but didn’t chart, such as a copy from a local hard disk to an external USB drive, showed the same identical results). My numbers matched up with Adrian’s only on the Zip test, which measured how long it took to stuff 1 GB of files into a compressed archive. Vista is slower at this task than XP." Ed Bott: Another take on Vista vs. XP benchmarks

"Following reports by users of problems resulting from new Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 installation prerequisite update – which Microsoft pushed out via Windows Update last week — Microsoft has halted availability of those prerequisites." Mary Jo Foley: Microsoft suspends distribution of Vista SP1 prerequisite update

[Znod]

New link added to post #9.