Service pack 1 now available

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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)

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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 thereare 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.

 

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 amnot getting the download.

 

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.

 

Thanks for the info reauto 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.

 

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.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

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 UKhas 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.