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Vista SP1 Coming In Q1 2008

Many readers sent in word of Microsoft's announcement of the schedule for Vista SP1. The Beskerming blog has a good summary. Up to 15,000 people will get access to a beta of SP1 by the end of September; general release is targeted (not promised in stone) for early 2008. The service pack is said to improve performance and stability, not to add features.

22 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Me'thinks by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's pretty clear now that Vista should not have even been released until Q1 of 2008.

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    1. Re:Me'thinks by rikitikitembo · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I'm actually glad it was released early, because now Microsoft KNOWS this fact and also has learned that they cannot force people to use their new software as readily as they deem necessary.

    2. Re:Me'thinks by bbernard · · Score: 5, Funny

      Now how am I going to hold people off? My excuse has always been "not until SP1 comes out." I'm screwed.

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    3. Re:Me'thinks by Frosty+Piss · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...because now Microsoft KNOWS this fact and also has learned...

      Historical data suggests this is probably not so.

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    4. Re:Me'thinks by MayorDefacto · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm actually glad it was released early...

      Vista was released early? Now that's rich!

  2. Windows XP SP3 by GenP · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dammit, screw Vista, where's my SP3 for Windows XP?

    1. Re:Windows XP SP3 by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Informative

      http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/service packs.mspx

      It's planned for 1JHCKY 2008...

      SP3 for Windows XP Professional is currently planned for 1H CY2008

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  3. I wish... by Jugalator · · Score: 4, Funny

    The service pack is said to improve performance and stability, not to add features. I hope it'll add a few bugs too. I don't want using this OS start feeling completely alien. :-/
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  4. performance and reliability fixes are already out by Arathon · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you look around the web, you'll find that the main two fixes to be included in SP1 are already out, and have been since the beginning of August.

    Ars Technica article about the packs

  5. 15,000 people will get the beta??? by dada21 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Isn't that more than are running Vista right now?

  6. Memory by El+Lobo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hmm... Here we go again.....Vista doesn't chew memory upp, for crying out loud! . Vista is USING the memory that is unused. What do you pay for your memory for? To have it unused? If nobody is using it, Vista will just use it damn it!. Don't worry, if some application will need it, Vista's memory manager will give it back.

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    1. Re:Memory by SpryGuy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Vista has some pretty serious issues with low-memory though... I run a development environment that has SQL Server 2005 and several copies of Visual Studio open, among other things. When memory gets tight, Visual studio, and other applications, just start misbehaving. Right-Click context menus refuse to pop up, or pop up in "incomplete" states (only a few of the selections on them that should be there), and other strange behavior occurs (windows not closing!, dialogs not opening).

      I never had this experience under XP. I'd either get out of memory errors, or some other clear notification that something was amiss. In Vista, if you didn't KNOW you were low on memory, you'd wonder what the hell was going on, as there is no indication that any errors are occuring.

      I hope this is one of the things they're fixing in Vista SP1.

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    2. Re:Memory by Jackie_Chan_Fan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      BULLSHIT!

      I'm running 8 gigs of ram and vista 64. I've rendered things in softimage XSI that required more than 4gigs of ram. The problem is.. VISTA has already decided to cache 4 gigs of ram (FOR GOD KNOWS WHAT THE FUCK)... and then XSI's renderer (mentalray) says "I need more ram" Then the whole system starts to swap like mad because i dont have any available ram.

      THANKS TO VISTA 64 !!! and its fucking ridiculous memory management. Why does it need to cache 4 gigs of ram? What the fuck is the point of having 8 gigs, if Vista is going to cache 4 fucking gigs of it!? Might as well run XP32bit.

      I dont think MS really has their memory management figured out at all. It may cache for intelligent reasons, but it doesnt work. It causes the system to use the swap file and come to a crawl because it gobbles up all of your memory.

      I've litterally been in photoshop, and have seen windows say 0 free for ram because Vista has cached 4gigs out of my total 8. I NEED those gigs... and Vista doesnt release them. It eats up ram like a mother fucker.

      I was just thinking of going to XP64.. but the driver support is non existant on that platform.

    3. Re:Memory by Smidge204 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I understand what you're trying to say, but from a purely performance-oriented view this seems a piss-poor way to do things. I installed extra RAM in my computer so I could run more applications and work with larger data sets more efficiently, not so the OS can sit on it "until I need it" - which takes time that could have been used by the application I actually want to be using. That, and given Window's historically bad memory management, means I don't want Windows occupying all my PC's resources.

      So are you also upset if your CPU usage isn't near 100%? After all, what's the point of paying for that fast processor if you aren't going to use it's full potential?
      =Smidge=

  7. Re:it seems that the standalone image is going to by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    If the intention is to fix everything that's wrong with Vista, I'm impressed they got it all into only 1 GB.

  8. Think it is SuperFetch you're describing? by Blahbooboo3 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Unless you are saying you need more ram (which may be true), this is why Vista always has all of the memory utilized

    http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsv ista/features/details/superfetch.mspx

    SuperFetch

    Windows SuperFetch enables programs and files to load much faster than they would on Windows XP-based PCs.

    When you're not actively using your computer, background tasks--including automatic backup programs and antivirus scans--run when they will least disturb you. These background tasks can take up system memory space that your programs had been using. On Windows XP-based PCs, this can slow progress to a crawl when you attempt to resume work.

    SuperFetch monitors which applications you use the most and preloads these into your system memory so they'll be ready when you need them. Windows Vista also runs background programs, like disk defragmenting and Windows Defender, at low priority so that they can do their job but your work always comes first.

  9. ehhh by thatskinnyguy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Service Pack 1 won't exactly make Vista more desirable as an OS; but it is a psychological landmark that says "we worked most of the bugs out and we're finally done with it". Businesses may bite; but I'm not 100% convinced that Vista is better than XP quite yet.

    This SP full of patches still probably won't prevent people from deleting their Recycle Bin, end the UAC nazi tyranny and let admins do admin things with computers. Once MS figures-out a way to make Vista useful without all those annoyances and brick walls, then I may give it another look.

    I know I'm going to -1 Flamebait hell for this; but if a Windows box has to be insecure in order to be useful, then so be it.

    --
    The game.
  10. Rule of three by PIPBoy3000 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Version 3 is the traditional version to buy with Microsoft products. The first release is a mess, the second one is a guess at improvements (as they typically haven't received good feedback from customers by then), but the third one is typically solid and well-received.

    That rule of thumb has worked well with Windows 3.0, Word 3.0, SQL 7 (which was actually the third version after Microsoft bought Sybase), and so on. Service packs are a little trickier. SP2 could be considered the third "release" of an OS. With XP, it wasn't really until SP2 that it seemed secure and stable enough.

    I think your excuse was just fine, but off by a digit.

  11. Re:yea.. thanks microsoft.. by Jugalator · · Score: 5, Informative

    vista really chews the memory up, I hope they fix that first off..

    Here's my unofficial mini-service pack for Vista. :-p

    1. Type services.msc in the start menu search box and go there.
    2. Open and set "Windows Search" to "Inactive" as its start mode and stop the service, unless you use Vista's search facilities and not a third party tool like Total Commander or Directory Opus, etc.
    3. Open and disable "Superfetch" in the same way, unless you trust it to actually make things run faster and predict your usage behavior. Keep in mind that it'll keep caching data to RAM in its "prediction" process. Even data files, not just executables and DLL's. This can be especially nasty when it starts caching 100 MB-sized files you have downloaded with P2P apps because it think you'll run them soon, or something.
    4. Try putting in a ReadyBoost-compatible (you probably won't know if it is until you've tried :-p) USB memory stick and have Vista manage it as extra RAM. It's not really RAM-fast or anything (but it doesn't seem to make things worse at least), but especially seeemed to cut a bit on hard drive access. I'm not sure, but it's possible it relocates some of its swap file to it as ReadyBoost kicks in.
    5. If you haven't got these installed (you'll notice if it tells you they can't be installed on your OS), download and install these Vista hotfixes performance and reliability and compatibility and reliability. Among other things included is fixes to the Vista memory manager and many users have reported both cut memory usage directly after boot up, and better 3D benchmark scores. It also fixes the infamous "slow file copy" bug of Vista.

    Now try use it for a day or so, and hopefully your hard drive access has been cut. As long as you don't use the Vista desktop search, no disabled services above really impact the ability of Vista to function as normal, and you can always enable them again if you notice no improvement. Something else that access your drive a lot at a few times is the System Restore feature that also runs as a service, but I don't recommend disabling that one since it'll also disable your ability to restore your OS state to an earlier date if, say, an application or driver install would go horribly wrong.

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  12. Skype goes into panic mode by mbadolato · · Score: 5, Funny

    Up to 15,000 people will get access to a beta of SP1 by the end of September


    To which the developers at Skype are yelling "HOPEFULLY NOT ALL AT THE EXACT SAME TIME, ASSHATS!" :)
  13. Yes Vista was Released too soon.... by Toreo+asesino · · Score: 5, Interesting

    An interesting nugget of info for you all, seeing as no-one has mentioned this yet....

    The update will bring the Vista kernel to version 6.1. Why is this significant? It's the same kernel version that Windows Server 2008 will be. That means folks, that Microsoft, in effect have used Vista pre-SP1 as a test-bed for their Windows server platform. Servers crashing cause more panic than workstations, and take a guess slashdotters....which market-share are Microsoft champing at the bit for most? I'll give you a clue.....they already own the desktop.

    The Vista strategy was "release and fix while in production" and in fairness, 6 months down the line, a lot has been fixed and Vista is shaping up to be a solid platform, but build numbers don't lie.

    There, I said it.

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  14. The sp should make things much better by Joe+the+Lesser · · Score: 4, Funny

    Because the Vista SP1 simply uninstalls Vista and installs XP.

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