If you like to stay on the bleeding edge of technology (and you’re running Vista) you may want to consider modifying two registry keys on your system so that you can participate in the Vista SP2 Beta program. To join the program all you have to do is download this batch file, and run it on your Vista machine as an administrator. Then just check for available Windows Updates (it may take 30 minutes or so for it to show up in the Windows Updates).
Think carefully whether you want to do this or not. There will likely be some bugs that could cause problems with your system, but at the very least it will cause Vista to expire on 4/2/2010 (or around then). Plus it will place the “Evaluation copy” message on your desktop wallpaper. You can always uninstall Vista SP2 to remove the evaluation message and expiration date, but it’s important to know what you’re getting into before you try to install it.
So what’s new in Vista SP2? Here’s a brief rundown that the Vista blog provided last week:
- Windows Vista SP2 adds Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.
- Windows Vista SP2 contains the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.
- Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.
- Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.
- Windows Vista SP2 enables the exFAT file system to support UTC timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.
Windows Vista SP2 is expected to be released in final form sometime in the first half of 2009. Judging by the expiration date of Vista SP2 Beta I’d say that sounds about right.
[via WinFuture - English Translation]
I’m interested to see what the added WCN will be like. And, they are also supposed to include an improvement in how Vista reconnects to Wi-Fi connections.
I’ve heard that there are supposed to be quite a few networking and wireless improvements in SP2. Personally I’ve never had problems with it reconnecting to a wireless network though.
tried this twice to get it to install and its a no go.
Anyone else have luck with this?
doesn’t work for me either. i made sure to run as administrator.
Great, thank you. I’ve been looking for a way to have it on my Vista.
What it does is allows Windows Update to bring the update to you–it doesn’t do it automatically. Personally, after installing it, I’ll just wait until the real thing comes out. I installed it–completely ruined my theme and now I don’t quite know how to stop Windows Update from trying to download the program, so if anyone has a suggestion as to how to delete the batch file–it would be most appreciated.
You have to give it some time for Windows Update to recognize the change. For most people this should happen after about 30 minutes or an hour.
You can always uninstall service packs through the “Programs and Features” dialog just like if this was an actually application you were trying to remove.
Won’t give it a try in its present beta phase. I’ve seen a friend almost ruining all of its settings. He uninstalled this beta SP, and had to reorganize all of its previous preferences and so on. What took him some hours i think.
I’ll wait for the stable release to come out, as i did for sp1.
Another improvement in this new pack should concern DWM. Unneed to say it will not be like DWM behaviour you spoke of in W.7, but it should be somewhat more fluid, regarding W.Sidebar.
Another important thing to say is the fact that it will be really efficient on machines with a minimum requirement of 2Go phys. mem.
I’ve seen that happen to people as well, and if you only have one primary machine it’s often a good idea to stay away from these pre-release versions. I happen to have a computer that is used primarily for testing out things like this though.
The download link for the batch file doesn’t work for me.
I only get an error
broken download link