What You Need to Know About Windows Vista SP1

Microsoft has come clean on what exactly it intends to ship in Windows Vista SP1. Although some of the details are surprising, the most interesting aspect of this release is that Microsoft was right all along: Customers really don’t need to wait for SP1 to deploy Vista. That’s because, with Vista SP1, the company is returning to a more traditional view of what a service pack is. Here’s what you need to know about Vista SP1, which should be available around the time you read this.

Back to Basics
Although Microsoft halted the development of Vista to create Windows XP SP2 and imbued that release with a host of new features and functionality, most of which were security related, the software giant is using Vista’s first service pack to return to its original plan for Windows service packs. That is, Vista SP1 doesn’t include any major new features. Instead, it’s an aggregation of previously released fixes, though it does include some SP1-specific fixes and a few minor new features.

The reasons for this change in service-pack philosophy are legion, but the important point is that Microsoft is responding to both the needs of customers and to a changing world. Today, most of the company’s customers are connected to the Internet, so Microsoft can deliver fixes and functional updates via its Microsoft Update and Automatic Update services, as well as related online services such as Windows Live. This pervasive connectivity gives consumers a way to get the most recent updates on a regular basis, and even the smallest corporate environments can use Microsoft and third-party deployment tools to control what gets pushed down to user desktops.

Microsoft also uses its online updating technologies to deploy hardware and software compatibility updates to customers. This means that, over time, Vista’s compatibility is improving at a steady clip, so devices and applications that might have had problems in late 2006 are likely working fine today. The company continues to maintain that Vista is the most compatible OS it’s ever shipped and that Vista is getting better each month.

In this new world, service packs are less crucial because customers don’t have to wait for one to get important fixes and functional changes. But corporations that prefer to install updates in larger, single installations can still wait for service packs to obtain updates en masse.

What’s Included in Vista SP1
In “What You Need to Know About Instant Search Changes to Windows Vista SP1,” September 2007, InstantDoc ID 96602, I discussed the instant search changes that Microsoft has implemented in Vista SP1 in response to antitrust complaints from online giant Google. In addition to those changes, Microsoft will include the following in Vista SP1:

Hotfix rollup. As in previous service packs, Vista SP1 will include a rollup of previously released hotfixes, security fixes, and other updates.

Performance, compatibility, and reliability fixes. Vista SP1 will include many updates that improve the performance, compatibility, and reliability of the underlying system. Although some of these fixes were deployed via Microsoft Update to customers in August and October 2007, SP1 will also include some fixes that are unique to this service pack.

Support for emerging hardware and standards. With previous Windows versions, Microsoft would typically wait for a new Windows version before introducing new compatibility with emerging hardware and standards. But because of the lead time on the next Windows version, the company is addressing this need in SP1, which will add support for Wireless- N networking hardware, the exFAT file system, Secure Digital (SD) advanced direct memory access (DMA), network boot for EFI-based x64 systems, the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), and DirectX 10.1.

Functional improvements. Microsoft is also making several small, functional changes. The Bit- Locker full-disk encryption feature is being updated so that it can automatically protect non-system disks, as per the version in Windows Server 2008. Disk Defragmenter now includes a UI for choosing which volumes are automatically defragmented. Local printing from Terminal Services has been improved, as has the Network Diagnostics tool.

“Service Pack 1 doesn’t change the Vista value proposition,” Windows Client product manager Dave Zipkin told me in a recent briefing.

“There’s plumbing stuff, behind the walls … reliability stuff, based on Watson and online crash analysis data. We discovered where crashes were occurring in Vista. It turns out most of it was not in Microsoft code usually. We work with our ecosystem partners to address these areas. We look at the top hitters—it’s a huge tail—and move the dial. Sometimes this happens in standalone updates, while some [improvements] will wait for SP1.”

Realigning Client with Server
One of the more interesting aspects of SP1 is that the development of Vista and Server 2008 is now being realigned. You might recall that these two products were developed in tandem through the release to manufacturing (RTM) version of Vista in November 2006. Since then, however, Microsoft has internally coordinated Vista SP1 with Server 2008, so much so that these products will be finalized and released concurrently. Going forward, future Windows client and server service packs will also be aligned. So SP2 will apply to both Vista and Windows 2008 and will be the first Server 2008 service pack.

This realignment isn’t done for marketing reasons. Internally, both Vista SP1 and Server 2008 utilize the same kernel and other core substructures. So it makes sense to develop the products together. That way, each can benefit from the unique improvements that are made to the other.

What’s Missing in Vista SP1?
One major feature that Microsoft previously promised for Vista SP1 won’t be making it into the update: offline updating, or the ability to drag and drop the SP1 executable into an UPDATE folder in a Vista installation share and thus automatically slipstream or add that code to any future Vista installations. The good news, however, is that Microsoft is planning to make this capability available post-SP1. So any post-SP1 hot-fixes and service packs should support offline updating.