Several months ago the highly-respected AV-Test.org ran a test to rank various antivirus applications. In that test they had 30 rootkits that were tested on both Windows XP and Vista. On Windows XP none of the seven antivirus suites could detect all of the rootkits, and only four of the 14 anti-rootkit tools proved to be 100% successful. Those aren't very good odds.

Microsoft is obviously very anxious to get people to adopt Vista Service Pack 1 because for the next year they will be offering free technical support to help users get it up and running. This is not anything abnormal for those of you who have purchased retail copies of the operating system, but if Vista came with the computer you would be deferred to the manufacturer for any support.

Microsoft has done it! After a month and a half of being completed Vista SP1 has been posted to the servers for anyone and everyone to download. There are all kinds of performance improvements included in this Service Pack that will make the operating system more appealing to users who have been holding out on an upgrade.

Every time I write about the Vista Ultimate Extras it feels like I'm beating a dead horse, but for one reason or another there seems to be a lot of news surrounding the nearly non-existent add-ons. There is even more news regarding the Ultimate Extras today, but I don't think you're going to like what I have to tell you.

Microsoft must be extremely unhappy with the "quality" of the cracks available for Vista right now. Earlier this month we showed that the Vista OEM BIOS crack is still alive and kicking in Vista SP1 despite claims by Microsoft that those types of cracks had been patched. I would mark that up as an "oops" by Microsoft.

Microsoft has posted a support article regarding some applications that have been found not to work when a Vista computer is upgraded to Vista SP1. The list is pretty small at this point, but an update like this isn't expected to break as many apps like XP SP2 did.

Now that Vista SP1 has been released there's no surprise that performance tests and benchmarks are going to start flooding the Internet, and not surprisingly XP takes the crown in most of the cases. ZDNet has gotten the ball rolling (here and here) with their test results:

I would say that Microsoft once again threw down the gauntlet when they announced that Vista SP1 will deactivate machines using OEM BIOS cracks and other methods used to circumvent activation. After over a dozen emails about the topic I decided that I would check out for myself whether Vista SP1 RTM really causes piraters as much trouble as they say it will.

When Microsoft announced that Vista SP1 had completed earlier this week I was a little bit excited. The disappointment came when I read that it wouldn't be ready for public consumption until the middle of March due to issues select users have with drivers.

There has been a lot of buzz around Microsoft's announcement that Vista SP1 has been sent to manufacturing, but it won't actually be available to the public until March 2008. The reason for the delay is that there are some driver compatibility problems for some users, and Microsoft is trying to figure out the best way to isolate the people who will have troubles with the Service Pack.

Microsoft just made a big announcement today stating that Vista SP1 has been completed and was released to manufacturing. Unfortunately Microsoft is holding off on making the Vista SP1 download generally available until the middle of March because of some driver issues reported by some testers.

There's some speculation floating around that Windows Vista SP1 will be released on February 15th, which is three weeks away from this coming Friday. Vista users could look at it as a belated Valentines Day present from our buddies over at Microsoft.

One user over at the Futuremark forum decided to do an unofficial speed comparison of Vista SP1 vs. XP SP2, and in the end he was pleasantly surprised by Vista's performance. Here's a rundown on some of the results:

Microsoft gave a pleasant surprise over the weekend for all of the Vista SP1 testers out there. Earlier last week they provided a "refreshed" version of Vista SP1 to a group of 15,000 Beta testers who've been part of the SP1 program for quite awhile. A few days later Microsoft decided that they wanted more feedback, and therefore made the Vista Service Pack 1 RC Refresh available to the public.

Earlier today I posted instructions on how to download and install Vista SP1 RC, and now that I've kicked it around a bit I thought I had enough thoughts to constitute an article. The reason why I didn't include this information in the earlier post was that my installation had not completed, and in the end it took about 45 minutes to finish installing.

It almost seemed as though a public pre-release version of Vista SP1 was never going to come, but Microsoft has finally decided to let the entire world join in on the joy of improved stability and performance! Today they officially posted the first, and probably last, Release Candidate of Vista SP1.

Microsoft must be prepping for the release of Vista SP1 RC1 this week because they have posted several documents that outline some of the features found in the upcoming Service Pack. One particular document covers the notable changes that have been implemented in Vista SP1 thusfar, and it has over 10 pages worth of bulleted lists covering some of the great additions.

Microsoft has officially confirmed that a Release Candidate of Vista SP1 (build 6001.17052.071129-2315) will be made available to the public next week, but there was no word on exactly what day it's going to drop. Presumably it will be on Tuesday, December 11th which coincides with Microsoft's Patch Tuesday.

When it comes to Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) Microsoft is doing two things that almost counteract each other. First off Microsoft is easing up on the "Reduced Functionality Mode" for those users who don't pass the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) test. As of right now if you don't pass WGA Vista will disable premium features such as Aero Glass, ReadyBoost, games, and BitLocker.

Mary Jo Foley has tapped some of her sources to try and get information regarding Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), and it appears that she didn't come up empty handed this time around. Her sources said that Vista SP1 RC will be in the hands of testers as early as next week, and that the public will be able to get a taste of it the following week. I'm definitely down with that if it works out that way.