Windows Vista Team Blog posted today some good information on the next service pack, second in row, for Windows Vista.

We are committed to continually improving Windows, and we've been getting some questions about the timing of the next service pack for Windows Vista. Following the success of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 last spring, we have been working hard on Windows Vista Service Pack 2. As a part of the development and testing process, we're going to start by providing a small group of Technology Adoption Program customers with Windows Vista SP2 Beta for evaluation next Wednesday, October 29. The final release date for Windows Vista SP2 will be based on quality. So we'll track customer and partner feedback from the beta program before setting a final date for the release.

Windows Vista SP2 Beta will contain previously released fixes focused on addressing specific reliability, performance, and compatibility issues.

Microsoft has issued some fresh code for Windows Vista SP1 users in the form of a performance and reliability update. This specific release targets all Windows Vista editions, and promises to resolve various issues that have been submited by customers using the Error Reporting service or Microsoft Customer Support Services. It's also said to help improve the performance and reliability of Windows Vista. The update is available for both Windows Vista SP1 32-bit and 64-bit here.

Users of Windows Vista who also happen to use Automatic Update service can now receive the first service pack (SP1) for the operating system automatically.
Not all customers will receive SP1 immediately via Automatic Update, however. The company is distributing it in phases to "ensure a seamless download experience," Microsoft said. A timeline for when all customers would receive Vista SP1 via Automatic Update was not immediately available.

Microsoft today said that it would resume automatic distribution of the Servicing Stack Update (SSU) needed for installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). On February 12th, Microsoft first began pushing the Servicing Stack Update (SSU). While several million customers installed the updates successfully, many users reported endless restart problems with their PCs caused by the KB937287 SSU patch. This prevented them from successfully installing the Vista SP1. Microsoft then suspended automatic distribution of the SSU, until now. Starting from tomorrow, the fixed SSU patch will be available for automatic download via the Automatic Update feature on Windows Vista OS. The company also revealed more information today about the root cause of the endless reboots. "SSU has special code to check whether there are any pending reboots or other updates to install, ... If it sees either of these circumstances, it prevents the install from starting.", the Microsoft Update Product Team Blog posted. "During our investigation, we discovered that there were a few unknown and rare events during the middle of the installation of the update that could cause the update to think it needed a reboot to complete the installation. If this happened, the system entered a repeating reboot loop." Continue reading the full post here.

All Windows Vista users encountering problems when they upgrade to Service Pack 1 will be given free support, Microsoft informed today.

We are offering free-of-charge support to anyone who is having issues installing Windows Vista SP1,

Microsoft blogger Brandon Le Blanc said. There are three options available under the free support plan: e-mail support, which will be answered within one business day; online chat, which has a current waiting time of around 40 minutes; and call, available only for users who have a software-assurance agreement, professional contract, TechNet subscription, or MSDN subscription, or for those who come under the Microsoft Partner Program. The free support is available for all users till March 19, 2009. Please proceed here.

The final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is here! Microsoft Corp. posted the final SP1 package of updates today, and it's now available free for everyone.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1)
32-bit version (434.5 MB) | 64-bit version (726.5 MB)

According to information posted on Amazon.com and reports from TechARP.com that correctly called SP1's ship date last month, Microsoft will release Windows Vista Service Pack 1 next week to a wider audience. Amazon currently lists Vista SP1 retail copies as available next Wednesday, March 19, while TechARP.com, the Malaysian Web site that nailed the update's release to manufacturing (RTM) date several days early, said users would be able to download SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18. Vista SP1 shipped to duplication and OEMs on February 4th, but since then it has only been available to previous beta testers, volume licensing customers and subscribers to IT subscription services. Hopefully, next week the long awaited Vista update will become available once and for all.

Microsoft has published a list of programs that are currently incompatible with Windows Vista SP1 "Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is an important update for Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains many security, reliability, and feature updates for Windows Vista. A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1. However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you install Windows Vista SP1."

Windows Vista SP1 Incompatible Programs

Microsoft said on Thursday that it has released another updated test version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1. The company said that the new version, dubbed "Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2," has been released to about 15,000 beta testers. The code is not being made available publicly, Microsoft added. The final version is still on track to be finalized this quarter. Microsoft also released "Windows XP SP3 RC Refresh 2" to beta testers on Wednesday. Windows XP SP3 Final is aiming for a release sometime in the first half of this year, but Microsoft noted: "our timing will always be based on customer feedback as a first priority."

Just three days after releasing it to approximately 15,00 beta testers, Microsoft has made the Vista SP1 RC Refresh publicly available. It can be downloaded here, but any previous versions of the service pack must be removed before installing this one. For details of the changes included with Vista SP1, visit this site.

On January 9th Microsoft made availble the latest pre-release build of SP1 - 'Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh' - to approximately 15,000 beta testers. This group includes corporate customers, consumer enthusiasts, software and hardware vendors, and others. The code is not available for public download.

We are still on schedule to deliver SP1 RTM in Q1 CY08. 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.

A day after it released Windows XP SP3 RC1 to the public, Microsoft has done the same with the release candidate of Vista's first service pack. You can now download the standalone package from here, or alternatively you can download an applet which allows you to install the service pack via Windows Update from this site. As with XP SP3, this is not a final version, so it is recommended that you do not install this on your primary operating system.

With the company putting the finishing touches to no less than three major service packs at the moment, Microsoft has released a tool which will allow users to prevent them from being automatically downloaded. The Windows Service Pack Blocker Toolkit lets users block XP SP3 and Vista SP1 for up to one year, and Server 2003 SP2 until March next year. There are three versions - an executable, a script and a group policy template - so take your pick. This is recommended for any users worried about potential security and stability issues that may result from installing the service packs.

It seems work on Windows Vista's first service pack is almost complete, with Microsoft planning to make the Release Candidate (RC) version publicly available next week via Microsoft's Download Center. Microsoft commented that "the code has attained a significant level of performance and stability" and listed the following changes which have been made since the beta release:

• The size of the standalone installers have decreased significantly. For example, the standalone installer packages consisting of all 36 languages (x86 and x64 chip architectures) are smaller by over 50%. The standalone installer packages consisting of just the 5 languages (again, x86 and x64) slated for initial release are more than 30% smaller in size.
• The required amount of disc space for SP1 installation has also decreased significantly. Furthermore, with the RC, if more space is required to install SP1, an error message will now display exactly how much space is needed to complete the installation.
• Previous SP1 versions left behind a directory of files that wasn't needed after installation and occupied about 1GB of space; the RC includes automatic disk clean-up to remove this directory.
• Installation reliability has been improved based on bug reports and error codes reported from Windows Update (thanks, Beta testers!). Testing shows that these improvements have significantly increased the proportion of successful installations of the RC.
• We've improved the user experience of installing SP1 via Windows Update. During the Beta release, users installed without much guidance from Windows Update. The RC now contains a series of screens with detailed information on SP1.

The final version of Vista SP1 is on target to be released during the first quarter of 2008 - roughly a year after the operating system was publicly launched.

It's no secret that the Windows Genuine Advantage software, which is designed to protect legitimate users and stop piracy, does quite a lot of flagging and hindering legitimate users. While piracy of Windows Vista happens about half as often as piracy of Windows XP, you hear a lot more about Windows Vista WGA hacks that extend the grace period by several days/years. And so, Microsoft is going to change WGA so that there is less unjust flagging of legitimate users, and more pirate-catching. The new WGA will first fix the aforementioned grace period hack. Please click "Read full story" to see the exact methodology behind the fix. Another main thing that Microsoft aims to do is eliminate the Vista OEM hack, which tricks Windows into thinking it is being installed on a legitimate OEM system.

Windows Vista SP1 (Service Pack 1) has several nifty new features, and a few performance tweaks. Anyone hoping to get their hands on said features and performance tweaks will be able to do that in a week or two. Next week, select beta testers (most likely the same ones that got a copy of Vista SP1 Beta code) will be able to play with Vista SP1 RC1. In the second week of December, Microsoft is most likely going to start a public beta program, much like the public beta program that Vista originally had. The current build is 17051, and Microsoft hopes to have a final Vista SP1 build out by early 2008.

While the NVIDIA 8800GT may be getting a lot of press, AMD refuses to let itself be forgotten about. Leaked documents show that the RV670 (HD 3800 series) will be well worth the wait for it. While people hear that the RV670 will be PCI Express 2 and DX10.1 compatible, have Unified Video Decoder (UVD), and be 55nm, this doesn't really amount to much if people have no idea what the benefits are from any of that. And so, this leaked document shows one of the many goodies waiting for potential RV670 customers, via a "global illumination" demo. The image on the left is rendered with DX10.1, and the one on the right is rendered with DX10.0. Vista SP1 will be built on the DirectX10.1 architecture.

Nick White, a product manager for Microsoft, posted yesterday on the Windows Vista Team Blog that the first Vista SP1 beta will be released next month, while the final version is slated for the first quarter of 2008. The Vista SP1 will contain changes focused on addressing specific reliability and performance issues, support for new types of hardware, support for several emerging standards, lots of bug fixes, and final release of DirectX 10.1. Installation of Windows Vista SP1 will require a minimum of 7GB free disk space on x86 machines and 12GB free disk space on x64 machines. Most of this space will be reclaimed after installation. Microsoft has posted Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta White Paper, describing every detail on Microsoft's latest SP.

Microsoft today made an official announcement regarding the upcoming Windows Vista Sp1. Main reason was a typo mistake in a email send out by the Windows Driver Kit team who stated that their beta software version would be released the same time as the Windows Vista Sp1 Beta.

There will be a Windows Vista service pack and our current expectation is that a beta will be made available sometime this year. Service packs are part of the traditional software lifecycle - they're something we do for all Microsoft products as part of our commitment to continuous improvement, and providing early test builds is a standard practice that helps us incorporate customer feedback and improve the overall quality of the product. Service packs are just one example of the work we do to constantly improve the Windows experience. We also deliver improvements to Windows via Windows Update, which is an excellent channel for providing our customers with the most significant updates as they happen. And, since Windows Vista launched, we have continued working with partners to improve overall device coverage and application compatibility. There are now more than 2.1 million supported devices and more than 2,000 logoed applications for Windows Vista. We think customers will have a great experience using Windows Vista today.

Seems that some people who have signed up about the WDK ( Windows Driver Kit ) Beta received the following email stating that there will infact be a Windows Vista SP1 Beta really soon. Yes this was more or less expected but we didnt have confirmation up until now. Email :