Windows Vista SP1 confirmed again by loud-mouth Microsoft Downloads

Windows Vista SP1 second comingMicrosoft Downloads can never keep a good secret, always spilling the beans no matter how many times you point at it (keep it up team!). After all the lies Microsoft had to endure to keep Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (otherwise known as the Second Coming) a forbidden secret, it has been officially confirmed (again) by no other than Microsoft itself. Take that Sinofsky.

A download published only a few hours ago, “Windows Automated Installation Kit Documentation (Windows Server code named “Longhorn” & Windows Vista SP1 Beta 3)“, clearly describes the existence of SP1 not only once, but twice. Here’s proof, just in case it is taken down just as fast as it was published.

Microsoft Downloads confirms Windows Vista SP1
Word document confirms Windows Vista SP1

However don’t let the “Beta 3” fool you, SP1 is not in Beta 3. The correct name for the download should be, “Windows Automated Installation Kit Documentation (… Windows Vista SP1) Beta 3” to indicate this is the third beta for the WAIK documentation.

Interestingly enough the Word document has a publish date of February 2007. It could be mislabeled, or it indicates SP1 has been in long in development hiding under our radars – although to no surprise.

Looking through the documentation itself presents no new information which might suggest what features SP1 will bring if any. At least for unattended installs, SP1 seems to be much like if not exactly the same as the current version.

Update: I don’t read WinBeta, but they deserve some credit for finding this first.

55 insightful thoughts

  1. All those “I’m waiting for the first service pack” idiots will soon have their dream realised, and they’ll finally be able to join the rest of us in the future.

  2. So join you now to the “I’m waiting for the second service pack” idiots and the life continues for a longer time….. 🙂

  3. All those “I’m waiting for the first service pack” idiots will soon have their dream realised, and they’ll finally be able to join the rest of us in Vista hell (I still haven’t managed to figure out why certain apps that install for other people won’t install on my Vista machine .. oh .. and why it bluescreens more than my XP build on the same hardware)

  4. @Owen: Run the memory test on the Vista advanced boot options or download memtest86. I’ve found 3 machines that had defective memory that affected Vista more than XP on the same machine.

  5. Why is this a big thing? Like.. we were not sure if there would be Service Pack 1 for Vista?

  6. Bugs are a common feature of Windows and every operating system… It was only a matter of time till they released some big fixes and enhancements 🙂

  7. ““I’m waiting for the first service pack” idiots”
    I would hardly call them Idiots. While I have been beta testing Vista from the start, and installed Ultimate edition even before the retail release, I have to say I have had nothing but problems. I have very high end hardware, and the lack of driver and feature support has been terrible!

    Hell i even had to wait 5 months for Logitech to release drivers for my G15 gaming keyboard.

    And DONT get me started about gaming performance on Vista.
    Nvidia’s drivers to date, are still terrible.

    I have a fairly large Vista bug list as well. Which are actual bugs in the OS not due to 3rd party programs or drivers.

  8. No surprise. XP got its first SP after 11 (?) months and Vista will get one in the next.

  9. What’s all the fuss? Why can’t you people just stop making speculations and just wait? SP will be released sometime..just be patient.

  10. It’s cool to see this; so far I haven’t experienced any problems at all with Vista, however I would still love to see it made a reality, a service pack might bring some minor features and definitely more stability, I’m sure Vista SP1 is still months away though.

  11. I agree, this really isn’t a big deal. It also doesn’t guarantee your hardware will perform better or improve application compatibility. In fact, it just might be the opposite, since SP1 for Vista will be based upon the Server 2008 kernel pushing Vista’s build number to 6001 and sync the code bases between client and server. SP1 could cause some existing applications to become incompatible or it might not, just look at what XP SP2 did.

    WinFuture.de also provided actual screenshots of Vista SP1 machines running at WinHEC ’07:

    http://winfuture.de/news,31801.html
    http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=447

  12. As someone who bought, and then returned, a laptop running Vista, I can only hope this patch will improve performance. Even after turning off most of the eye candy, the laptop barely limped along, right out of the box.

    Hopefully, computer hardware will continue to improve at a rate that makes Vista usable at some point next year.

  13. @Ray: It boiled down to a dodgy webcam driver (cheapo off eBay). Bought myself another one and haven’t had a blue screen since. Okay .. that’s in the last two days anyway.

    You’d think they would have come up with a way to isolate the core OS from hardware drivers by now, wouldn’t you …

  14. I agree that those who say “I am looking forward to the sp1” don’t even know what a service pack is and that there willbe still small problems. I state this, because they don’t even try dual-booting xp-Vista. Despite the fact that Vista may be quite unstable the updates have fixed them a lot and besides using them and sending error information will make them to be less buggy and more user friendly without those Errors and BSOD probs.

    Mike, Greece, 14

  15. For all you people who think Vista is “crap”…a “joke”…or inferior to XP in any way, shape, or form…You guys smoke crack and I think you are idiots. Enough said…

  16. Interesting…a SP1 for Vista. Seems like just yesterday I was testing Beta 2 of the Pre-Release 😀
    Well for all you people saying that we are “idiots” for waiting for SP1, you are wrong. Even if it *is* total crap, creating new problems, it still might fix a bunch of stuff. It is fun to see what it has in store for us. I love Beta software. While it might not be for business purposes (or doing sensitive work), it is a lot of fun experimenting with betas.
    I am gonna try to get my hands on SP1 ASAP!

  17. I really hope the 1st service pack will begin stabilizing some of the issues with Vista. I’m running a high end laptop (7000 series duo core processor with 4gb of memory) and it’s been a hellish adventure. You could plant corn around it while it boots up and shuts down. Other than the fact that it’s overall performance reminds me of my first 386, it’s been great. Oh yeah, I forgot the 386 cost me $300, this adventure is over $2,500.

    Too bad microsoft doesn’t release a stripped down OS that would be a good workhorse without trying to paint the house and take out the garbage when you start it.

    Silly me, I was naieve thinking I would be able to use it. I prbably should have purchased a MAC!!!

  18. To all the windows haters, who say windows had to release a sp1 wah wah wah… apple released leopard, and then 2 months later released a 10.5.2 since they had a lot of fatal errors, look into it! Vista is the only os in the last 5 years that had minimum errors and updates on their end

  19. I’m just waiting for it to come out so I can install Vista in the first place. Vista doesn’t play nice with Raptor drives on the ICHR9 South Bridge. Let me slipstream it…….

  20. Same here. Been a habit fr the ‘Corporate Financial User’ experience, using/installing ‘second-hand’ stuffs while hotshots are rolling (and mostly dying) with brand new releases…

    Have yet to open my Vista Business 64-bit CD, been rolling with XP Pro SP2 on the new rig ever since.

    I may now be brave (or sane) enuf to finally open up my ‘Pandora CD’ and slipstream it to install. Umm, perhaps throw in another 4GB of RAM in the process… Shd now run like a toad, no?

  21. haha, who cares enough to write an artice on something superficial like this! SP1 is comming out soon!

  22. I have been running Vista ultimate since October 2007 and apart from the initial problems making some games connect to the internet which was soon fixed when Bitdefender Internet Security 2008 was installed. I have had ZERO problems since.

    Whats My point?

    Simple from the 1st install of Vista to being happy with my OS took somewhat 2 weeks.

    Yet with XP it took nearly 2 years. My 1st install of XP eventually crashed my HDs to a point where aot of data was lost. Then XP SP1 came out and I tried again thinking it was going to cure it. BUT NO IT DIDN’T it wasn’t until the release of XP SP2 that I could say I was happy with XP, and as such stook to using Windows 2000 till that point.

    I’ve seen it for many years where lots of people moan about new operating systems but the problems are usually down to user problems not having the patience nor knowledge to try and fix any issues. Unfortunately until the world decides on a uniform PC system (which will never happen) there will always be issues.

    For your information I do use the latest technology in hardware which I agree might be the reason I don’t have any issues. I have built others systems since and continue to install Vista on them as there is no significant reason be it performance or reliability that would make me do otherwise.

    The few FPS drop in games is not enough to make me go back to xp but the difference in visuals between dx10 and dx9 did make me want to go to Vista, and before people start to argue about the difference I’ll state one thing if its not that much why do so many people bother switching their tv sets from old analogue to new HD ones?

  23. Yeah…have fun with Linux there buddy. If you’re too cheap to pony up the money for Vista, just bootleg it like the rest of us.

  24. Данный пост на самом деле помог мне принять очень важное для меня решение. За что автору отдельное спасибо! С нетерпением жду от Вас новых постов!

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