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| Microsoft inches closer to Vista SP1 RTM Microsoft continues to put the finishing touches on Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and the steady stream of updates reinforces its actions. Microsoft late Wednesday night released a SP1 Release Candidate (RC) refresh to 15,000 beta testers. Testers have two ways of downloading the update: they can download a single SP1 installation package from the Microsoft Connect website or they can download a redirection script which will allow them to download the update via Windows Update. Unfortunately for current SP1 beta testers that simply want to jump in and upgrade to the latest build of SP1 right away, the existing SP1 installation must be uninstalled first before proceeding. "We are still on schedule to deliver SP1 RTM in Q1 CY08," said Microsoft in a statement. "The final release date is based on quality, so we will continue to track customer and partner feedback from the beta program before setting a final date." For testers that choose to download Windows SP1 from the Microsoft Connect website, the download will ring in at 725MB for the x64 version and 436MB for the x86 version. Microsoft last issued a build of Vista SP1 back in early December 2007. Fortunately for non-beta testers, that version was available to the general public. |
**UPDATE** 13 January 2008
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| After saying it planned to make its latest test build of Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1 available to a private group of testers only, Microsoft has done an about-face and made the code available to the public. Late in the day on January 11, Microsoft posted the new Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC) code – which it rolled out a couple of days ago on its password-protected Web site — to the Microsoft Downloads site. Microsoft released the newest update of its Vista SP1 RC build on January 9. At that time, Microsoft made sure to note that the build was not available for public download. According to a company spokeswoman, the build includes “a number of bugs that testers encountered in previous pre-release versions of SP1.” She declined to be more specific. On the Microsoft Downloads site, the company notes that “systems running on Windows Vista RTM typically require two or three updates before SP1 can be installed. These updates are permanent on your Windows Vista systems.” Two of the updates “service specific Windows components prior to the installation of the service pack and a third update which services the installation software built into Windows Vista.” The three prerequisites, according to Microsoft:
Microsoft confirmed this week that Vista SP1 is still tracking toward first quarter 2008 availability. (February is the target month, my sources say.) Windows XP SP3 is due in the first half of 2008, according to the company. |
