Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is here
Hi all,
While writing the editorial for TechNet Flash, a new product was making its long-awaited appearance. Windows Vista SP1 is something we've awaited with anticipation - and it's now here.
Although it hasn't been broadly released yet, this product represents a rollup of all current hotfixes and updates plus some under-the-cover changes to improve overall system responsiveness and performance. In fact, Australian Personal Computers' James Bannan recently completed some performance testing, which showed in some scenarios - particularly Vista to Windows XP (and by extension Windows Server 2003) - file copy performance increases of a whopping 86%! Check out James' article that shows all the data.
Why has it taken time to become publicly availability? As Windows Vista SP1 has some fundamental under-the-cover changes that can affect compatibility both with drivers and applications, we decided to make time for hardware and software vendors to test and release updates for their applications and drivers. The end user experience would then be much better following its release to Windows Update and Microsoft Update. For a current list of known issues, please see the TechNet support article.
Why was it only released to certain channels? While Windows Vista SP1 is now available to Windows Update for all customers, we initially released Windows Vista SP1 to TechNet subscribers, volume license customers (via the portal), and Windows Vista SP1 beta participants. We knew that IT Professionals would access each of these release mechanisms, and are more aware of issues affecting compatibility. So should something unfortunate occur, they'd have the necessary skills to recover. This approach helped us avoid issues with your customers downloading SP1 and running into problems without updating their applications first. Mike Nash's blog article has more details on this.
How can you get the best performance, stability and guidance on deployment from Vista and SP1, and Windows XP with Service Pack 3 coming soon?
1. Drivers - these play a crucial role in not only stability, but performance. I have a friend who managed to get an additional 0.2 out of his Vista performance rating just by updating to the latest drivers.
2. Application updates - as previously mentioned, there are some known issues with some applications. Make sure you update your applications before applying the service pack.
3. BIOS updates - I have a laptop that BitLocker just wouldn't work with until I updated the BIOS. And with some other hardware, Vista had issues until I updated the BIOS.
4. Vista TechCenter- for more information on Windows Vista SP1 deployment please reference the TechCenter.
5. Free support - for any installation and compatibility issues you find with Windows Vista SP1.
In all instances, please check with your hardware and software vendors for updated applications and drivers for Windows Vista SP1 before installing.
Until next time,
Michael Kleef
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See a selection of new Knowledge Base articles on the TechNet Web site. KB articles feature an Article Translations box in the right column. You can select a language from the drop-down list and read the article in the selected language. Also available via RSS
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.....SOURCE: My Inbox
id say microsoft still play quite a major role in the corporate arena.