Print - Microsoft Releases Windows Vista SP1 to the Public

On Tuesday morning, Microsoft quietly released the first major update to Windows Vista to the public, via both its Windows Update service and its Web-based Download Center. Windows Vista Service Pack (SP1) offers numerous improvements to the compatibility, reliability, and performance of Vista, and will be the version of Vista that Microsoft sells to customers going forward.

Microsoft finalized Vista SP1 in early February but announced at the time that it would not be making the upgrade available to customers until at least mid-March. The reason for the availability delay was that Microsoft had identified some hardware device drivers that might behave erratically after the upgrade to SP1, but at the time the company was vague about these issues. This week, Microsoft revealed that the number of affected drivers and severity of the issues are, in fact, quite low. But in keeping with its desire to impact customers as minimally as possible, Microsoft has worked with hardware makers to ensure that the issues are fixed before delivering SP1 to users.

To facilitate this process, Microsoft has altered its Windows Update service to ensure that customer machines utilizing affected devices will automatically receive updated drivers before being offered SP1. This offering started yesterday, so customers running the English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese should start seeing SP1 as an optional update on Windows Update immediately. (SP1 will ship in 31 other languages in mid-April, Microsoft says.) Those that don't see SP1 will likely need to download driver updates first. These driver updates are also optionally, but will be changed to "important" updates over the next few weeks, ensuring that millions of PCs silently download and install them automatically. Once that happens, SP1 will be offered to those PCs automatically.

Unlike the driver downloads, however, SP1 will not be installed automatically. Instead, the update will be downloaded automatically, after which time the user will be prompted for the install. Only after explicitly agreeing to the install will SP1 be applied to the system.

I've written a lot about SP1 on the SuperSite for Windows. If you're interested in more information, you should consider reading my review of this important update and an article I posted yesterday that includes more information about the driver issues and schedule.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Review
http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_sp1.asp

It's Here! Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Arrives
http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/winvista_sp1_ga.asp

I downloaded and completed SP1 updating on both my desktop and notebook. File copy speed problem has been eliminated. System speed and performance problem has been eliminated. SPP is gone! Overall, Vista is now running well on both machines and all the negatives on Vista are quite literallty yesterday's news. While its not perfect, I think now mass adoption of Vista will proceed because SP 1 fixed the big issues. Many IT news outlets that have tested SP 1 have even shown improvements with games on Vista. Vista SP1 is getting positive praise from Apple who notes that Vista SP1 machines now work iTunes with much improved performance. Congratuations, Microsoft. You knocked this Service Pack out of the park for a grand slam. Keep up the good work.

Microsoft Windows Version 6.0 Build 6000 *Windows Update* There are no critical or optional updates available for your computer. Hmm?

Yeah, I didn't see the update either. I had to go to the download site and get it. Installed just fine. Took about 30 minutes or so.

I see that it is available via Windows Update on my home PC...I will probably install it tonight. From all of the things that I have read, it is a very solid update!!! --tayme

"From all of the things that I have read, it is a very solid update!!!" not a big deal here. most of the issues were already corrected with the previous compatibility and performance updates issued months ago. i do like that they integrated the WMI update in SP1 though - if you use SBS and the "/ConnectComputer" wizard (that slash is meant to be there - if you use SBS, you know what mean by it) for joining systems to a domain, you are no longer prompted with a reminder to install a WMI update in order to preserve locally-created user profiles (and the user data) when migrating them to the domain. XP

The presence of some drivers will block the automatic installation of SP1. See here: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=948343#method5

"The presence of some drivers will block the automatic installation of SP1" most of those driver updates are posted on WU/MU as "Optional" already. users of WSUS should check WU/MU manually in the event their WSUS server doesn't download driver updates. if you see optional driver updates on WU/MU, you should probably do them now if you want SP1 right away. advanced users that like to update drivers themselves and use Sigmatel audio drivers should've already got updated versions made by IDT (IDT bought out Sigmatel awhile back). Intel's website is a good source of IDT/Sigmatel HD Audio drivers - just choose any 965 or 3-series motherboard, and you'll be able to get fairly recent IDT HD Audio drivers. IDT/Sigmatel never did post drivers themselves. Realtek users should've got the updated drivers from Realtek's website long ago, as the audio control panel is vastly improved, and the extra features integrate nicely into the Vista audio properties. XP

I thought SP1 was supposed to speed up unzipping? I had to extract some audio drivers after installing SP1 and I used the windows explorer right click menu's "Extract All..." command and it took over 2 minuites; tried extracting the same zip with 7-zip (open source alternative) and it took a couple of seconds!

Another thing that MS has not made abundantly clear is that immediately after installing SP1 your computer will probably be a little slower. The SuperFetch and indexing caches get reset during the install. I'd let Vista rebuild those caches before making any kind of performance assessments.

my install worked...after I disabled the ULi SATA ports on my socket 939 motherboard.

"I had to extract some audio drivers after installing SP1 and I used the windows explorer right click menu's "Extract All..." command and it took over 2 minuites; tried extracting the same zip with 7-zip (open source alternative) and it took a couple of seconds!" i don't remember reading anything about unzip functionality being updated, but the likelihood of file access being faster in another program is likely because once you ran the original file extraction wizard, the disk cache would've cached the contents of the file, leading to faster subsequent access to the file. "my install worked...after I disabled the ULi SATA ports on my socket 939 motherboard." i would almost bet that you'd need an updated driver for support. didn't NVIDIA take over ULi a few years back? XP

"my install worked...after I disabled the ULi SATA ports on my socket 939 motherboard." I'm sure that's the first thing the average user would think of doing.

"I'm sure that's the first thing the average user would think of doing." actually, the average user wouldn't try to manually install the update, and ULi drivers weren't posted on Windows Update, so the only way Service Pack 1 would be installed is if you forced it in. silly losta, but your tried-to-be-smarmy remark is moot (and once again, completely uncalled for). XP

"i don't remember reading anything about unzip functionality being updated, but the likelihood of file access being faster in another program is likely because once you ran the original file extraction wizard, the disk cache would've cached the contents of the file, leading to faster subsequent access to the file." There was something about compression, and when it's extracting it also uses the standard Copying dialog so I thought it might have improved. I just tested extracting the opposite way around and it's definitely explorer being slow.