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.
