Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 released

After lots of hassles and buzz, finally Microsoft Corp released much hyped and awaited Microsoft Windows Vista SP1 for download.

All the major issues have been fixed according to Microsoft. And, the hardware incompatibilities were lessened to much extent which obviously means that automatic plugNplay devices would be of no problem anymore to run on Vista SP1 enabled system. Driver support for over 54,000 devices has been added that means, no more ‘drivers not found’ messages. Lots of security and drive encryption features were improved. It looks really alluring. Albeit, some big corporation are not yet ready for this update. For them, Microsoft has provided a tool called : Windows Service Pack Blocker

This tool modifies the windows registry so as to block the automatic updates through Windows Update but only for Service Pack. It may come handy in case, you don’t want to have this update running silently at background.

After giving a quick rundown to their white paper, the following nuggets of improvements look pretty enticing, at least for me.

Windows Vista SP1 includes many performance enhancements. For example, SP1:

Addresses an issue in the current version of Windows Vista that makes browsing network file shares consume significant bandwidth and not perform as quickly as expected.

Improves the performance of copying files. In internal tests, copying files from one folder to another on the same local disk was 25 percent faster. Copying files from a remote computer that was not running Windows Vista SP1 was 45 percent faster.

improvements in SP1, copying files from a remote computer that was also running Windows Vista SP1 was as much as 50 percent faster.3

Improves the progress estimation when copying files by using Windows Explorer so that the time estimate in the progress window appears within two seconds.

Improves the speed of adding files to and extracting files from compressed folders.

Improves the performance of power transitions (for example, resuming from hibernation and standby mode).

Improves the performance of domain-joined computers when operating off the domain. Before Windows Vista SP1, users would experience long delays when opening the File dialog box.

Improves battery life on some computers by reducing CPU use and redrawing the screen less frequently.

Improves the logon experience by removing the occasional 10-second delay between pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE and the password prompt appearing.

Reduces the time to return to a user’s session when using the Photo screensaver.

Improves overall media performance by reducing many glitches.

In internal testing, reduces by approximately 75 percent the time to start Event Viewer.

These above mentioned improvements are just a few chunks that I borrowed from their White paper. If you want to have a look at their white paper, click here.

Finally, download Vista SP1 from here. or you can simple use your Windows Update.

Tag:apple, linux, longhorn, microsoft, news, security, software, technology, vista servicepack, Vista SP1, windows, windows vista

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