Windows Vista Forum / Members / Vista News / Service pack 1 now available / Latest Posts

RE: Service pack 1 now available

golddigger — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:36:17 GMT

Ok then so im not very savvy when it comes to computers, but i know the very basics. Hello all by the way - first posts.:hehe:

So ive read this post and am i write in saying -

1- turn off auto install updates as this can cause problems(didnt know this and mayby this is why i have lots of little annoying problems and errors appearing on my computer)

2 - set it to alert me when there are updates? (now! should i just then say yes to every update it alerts me too) (whats the difference between this way and the auto way) (or are there certain updates i should never do)???

3 - I live in UK, with regards to this SP1 is the best option to go to MS website and download it?

4 - As regards to the audio update that is mentioned above, will the MS website know that i need this update when i apply for the SP1 update.?

5 - When i download SP1 do i definately have to delete the old files.?? (sorry - what and where are the old files and why should i delete them)?

6 - I know this question is similar to how long is a piece of string but im a bit concerned of the negatives the above posters have experienced with downloading SP1. Why have there been some problems with peeps comps afterwards and - will or could it happen to me.

Ok thanks for reading and for any answers to my questions.:)

GD

RE: Service pack 1 now available

WAW8 — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:33:38 GMT

King ...

Sorry to hear that. Keep an eye on your notification area icons -- mine started disappearing! Had to hack the registry to get them back.

I added some comments about SP 1 to the Admin Lounge. My experiences weren't as bad as yours, but overall, have not been positive with SP 1.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

kingofnexus — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:47:40 GMT

OK I manually downloaded and installed sp1. Biggest mistake of my life.

Only 1 gadget now works and thats the cpu / memory meter. Instant search no longer works (start menu says 'search function failed to initialize'). 'Catalyst Control Center Host Stopped Working' error each boot and everytime I try to start it. IE7 favourite links fail 50% of the time (While checking a few more links to see if this was an exaguration now no links work even the ones which worked before). Random pages in IE7 fail to load with 'Internet Explorer Cant Display the webpage'. Windows live messenger fails with 'Service not available' when I try to sign in, and wont keep log in information either. 'Problems reports and solutions' window fails to load up with no error. Nightmare.

These are only errors which I have noticed so far. Ive spent an hour trying to get instant search feature back with no success. Done everything that I could find on google. Moved onto trying to get catalyst control center working, uninstalled, reinstalled, to no avail. Don't know where to start on all the IE7 problems. Vista Beta 1 worked alot better than this.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

lolsonjr — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 12:19:49 GMT

Glad you finally got it. In just about every way except a couple maybe, it certainly helps Vista in general. I wonder if another one will show up this year?

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Deebees — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:25:39 GMT

Having tried various things to show the Vista SP1 update on Windows Update, I decided to download from Microst Updates although it warned that one computer owners should wait until it shows in Windows Update. It downloaded and installed quickly and I have had no problems with it.

For anyone who is happy with SP1 and does not want to return to the older version you can get rid of the old files and save some considerable disk space. If you use this you must note that you cannot return to the older version. This information has been obtained from Allan at TweakXP and can seen at this web site: http://www.winvistaclub.com/t49.html

RE: Service pack 1 now available

bob2701 — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 23:05:14 GMT

Partial reprint of an article by Susan Bradley

"Back in February, Microsoft product manager Mike Nash announced on the Windows Vista blog that Vista Service Pack 1 would be available via Windows Update around mid March. Sure enough, SP1 was released to Windows Update users on Mar. 18, as described by Nicholas White in a blog post. In April, SP1 will begin downloading to everyone who has Automatic Updates enabled.

The service pack takes anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes to download, depending on your connection speed and hardware performance. You may not actually see this service pack, however, when you manually run Windows Update (it's identified as patch 936330). If not, the reason is probably that your system isn't ready to install SP1 just yet.

As the posts mentioned above describe, many device drivers need to be updated before Service Pack 1 will install in a seamless manner. Most of these drivers are listed in Knowledge Base article 948343.

I was surprised to discover in my testing that Windows Update was not offering SP1 to one Vista workstation. It turns out that this three-month-old HP workstation had an offending Realtek audio driver. After I installed an updated audio driver, the machine was then offered Vista Service Pack 1.

As you know from reading my previous columns, I normally say "no" to installing modified device drivers using Windows Update. It's usually much more reliable to get the latest version from the manufacturer's site. But in this case, I said "yes" to installing the audio driver via Windows Update. Without the updated drive in place, the service pack wasn't even appearing in Windows Update's list, much less installing properly.

If you don't see Vista Service Pack 1 in the list of available updates when you run Windows Update manually, and you aren't offered any audio drivers, there may be other hardware issues.

Using Microsoft Update, rather than Windows Update, is actually the safest way to get this service pack. If MU senses you need audio drivers, for example, it will offer them to you. On the other hand, MU may find that you need a special patch called the CheckSUR update. This fix is described in KB article 947821."

Maybe this will help those who do not see the update..

RE: Service pack 1 now available

kingofnexus — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 14:23:17 GMT

Yeah that makes sense as I don't have sp1 update available to me. Like Deebees I live in the UK. Solution: Download SP1 directly from the MS website.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Tinman — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 05:27:11 GMT

Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) went onto Microsoft's Download Center website on Monday, fulfilling Microsoft's claim that it would be made available by mid March. According to Microsoft, the service pack will be pushed out via automatic updates to all Vista users next month.

Standalone installers for both versions of Vista, 32-bit and 64-bit, have been made available.

According to web retailer Amazon, boxed copies of Windows Vista with SP1 will be available on Wednesday in the US, and Amazon UK has the updated operating system listed for retail release on 4 April. However, Vista SP1 is available now from Microsoft's Download Center.

Vista SP1 is a roll-up of previous updates that have been pushed out to users of Microsoft's latest operating system since its release. The updates supposedly improve Vista's performance, but a prerequisite piece of software, labelled KB937287, had to be pulled by Microsoft in February as it caused problems with some third-party programs.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Deebees — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:25:17 GMT

Thanks for your help.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

WAW8 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 14:42:50 GMT

Best setting (IMHO) is to notify only -- that lets you choose which ones to download and apply.

General rule of thumb, in addition to that, is to NOT install driver updates through Windows Update -- unless you do a full image backup first. There have been lots of reports of machines being trashed through bad driver "updates". Although Vista does have the rollback driver feature, that does not always fix the problems.

Don't know why you're not seeing the KB in Ireland. My only guess, as I have seen this in other MS products, is that they are differentiating between English (as in American) vs. English (as in Britain and other countries). I've seen the latter referred to in MS products as English(UK). That particular "language" was not listed as one of the five in the first wave of updates. The second wave is due out early April.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Deebees — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:42:01 GMT

Thanks for the info re auto updates I will remedy that now. I have been using the check for updates button and tried it five or six times today but am getting the reply there are no new updates. What is the best way should I set the updates to download and not install or should I just keep checking manually for any new updates? Thanks once again for your help I have had computers for some time but Vista is new to me having Premium installed on the machine that I have just purchased.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

WAW8 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 12:26:17 GMT

First off, turn off Automatic Downloads -- that is a guarantee for disaster. Improper auto-installation of erroneous driver updates has caused more Vista failures and crashes than I care to count.

Second, Vista is not continuously checking for updates; sometimes, you have to force it. So, are you clicking Check for Updates and still getting nothing?

It might take a day or two more for you to see the update.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Deebees — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:26:50 GMT

I have just seen the new posts which arrived as I was doing a reply. I live in Southern Ireland and the main language spoken here is English, I also came from the UK and my native tongue is English so if what you say is correct I can't understand why I am not getting the download.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Deebees — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:21:03 GMT

Have been doing what you suggested and clicked on check for updates and there is nothing yet. Just did it a few seconds ago it just reads that my computer is up to date and that there are no add ons. I also checked System and it does not show SP1. I wonder if there is something amiss with my updates programme which incidentally is set to automatic downloads.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

WAW8 — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:12:11 GMT

SP 1 is being released in "waves". The first of these just went out and was only in five languages. From what I remember, the languages were English, French, German, Spanish, and Japanese.

The next wave, due I believe in early April, is to have 36 languages. So, it's not being released in different countries; it's being released in different languages -- at different times.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

lolsonjr — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:03:37 GMT

I should add a bit here. I do not believe I saw anything about it will not be available in other countries at this time. But, maybe I missed that one. Also I can not remember exactly where I saw the article that let me know when Service Pack 1 would be available. But, a fair bet as to where to find out might be Microsoft's Technet.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Tinman — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:01:05 GMT

i seem to be booting faster, no problems with anything else and no errs. i did turn off superfetch which has really stopped the thrashing of my hd. keeping my fingers crossed:cool:

RE: Service pack 1 now available

lolsonjr — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 09:00:07 GMT

This should be no problem here. Launch Windows Update and click on check for updates. If you by chance do not have all of the current updates and there are a lot of them, it will take quite some time to get them all. If you have them all, clicking check for updates in Windows Updates should produce Service Pack 1. You can always go to system in control panel will let you know at the top of the screen what version of Vista you have.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Deebees — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 03:47:39 GMT

Well I keep checking Windows Update and it is not available to me yet, do Microsoft stagger the release depending on where you live? I live in Ireland.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

lolsonjr — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:00:31 GMT

WAW8,

excellent reply and very true. I found XP Home not a real joy until it gots it's last service pack. What do think though, are they headed to all 64 bit OS at some point??????? I think would make sense but, I don't know that it does.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

WAW8 — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:44:39 GMT

lolsonjr:

What folks today forget is that XP was much like this. Until SP 1, it was barely useable. It was SP 2 that gave it the great reputation that is has today. Perhaps the same will be true of Vista. The only question is whether or not SP 2 will be out before Windows Seven.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

lolsonjr — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 14:13:28 GMT

WAW8,

I have definitely seen at least good bit of performance enhancing in the Service Pack 1. Response times are much quicker when loading programs, writing data to disk, and graphics also seem much better in response times. But, I still see quite a few active x errors so; at least for me anyway there are still some rough spots. I guess I would say this Service Pack is a great step forward, though I hope they will issue another one eventually.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

WAW8 — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:31:20 GMT

Tinman:

I read that SP 1 does some improved optimizing for performance, and after a few days of using it and reboots, there should be marked improvement. Please let us know what you experience. (Looks like you get to be the guinea pig)

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Tinman — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 05:21:55 GMT

took me about 45 minutes to install sp1......i was current on my updates.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

lolsonjr — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 22:30:47 GMT

Thanks Jason, it was almost by accident I read an article this morning that it would be out today, so kept looking for it till showed up. I am glad I was up to date as the other choice must be a little more painful. I really do not want imagine downloading all of that and then installling it, I guess would not be thrilling either.

RE: Service pack 1 now available

Jason — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 21:23:34 GMT

[quote][b]lolsonjr (3/18/2008)[/b][hr]Through Windows Update Service. Pretty painless at 66 plus meg's, though install takes a while. The 66 meg's is only if you are totally update current. If not the grand appeared to be something over 440 eg's or thereabouts. [/quote]

Good Call, I almost forgot it came out on the 18th. Ya if you don't have the pre-reqs you have some updating to do before the actualy SP1 update will download.

Service pack 1 now available

lolsonjr — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 14:56:28 GMT

Through Windows Update Service. Pretty painless at 66 plus meg's, though install takes a while. The 66 meg's is only if you are totally update current. If not the grand appeared to be something over 440 eg's or thereabouts.