Slashdot Mirror


Vista Service Pack 1 Is Out

superglaze writes "What's to say? After much prevaricating and slipping out then pulling back, the first service pack for Windows Vista has actually been released. It's available for download now via Microsoft's sites, with an auto-update rollout scheduled for next month, and it should hit Amazon's virtual shelves on Wednesday."

28 of 383 comments (clear)

  1. "Clippy" is back . . . by StefanJ · · Score: 5, Funny

    . . . and now he's mad.

    Um. Seriously. I'm glad there's a service pack out. But I'm going to wait a few weeks and see if it causes USB drives to melt, or sends your life history to the Ministry of Total Information Awareness.

    1. Re:"Clippy" is back . . . by GeckoAddict · · Score: 5, Funny

      Ok that's funny.... somehow I just pictured the clippy busting down the door holding a rocket launcher as the move voice over guy says something about 'Back for revenge'

    2. Re:"Clippy" is back . . . by Oktober+Sunset · · Score: 5, Funny

      You writing a letter? Okay. You want me to help? Okay. Say hello to my little friend!

  2. hmm... by drik00 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have a very bad feeling about this.

    OR

    I feel a great disturbance in the Force. As if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror, and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened. ...its a toss up.

    --
    Beer, now there's a temporary solution -- Homer Jay S.
  3. Poor Vista. by Missing_dc · · Score: 5, Funny

    "After much prevaricating and slipping out then pulling back, the first service pack for Windows Vista....."

    sounds like an awful lover.

    --
    How amazed would you be to suddenly find that you just forgot what I wrote and you needed to reread my post.... again.
  4. adoption rate by AdamReyher · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm more interested to see how this affects the adoption rate ... or doesn't. It's been said businesses have been waiting for SP1 to make the move. The question is: was that all just talk or is it going to actually happen?

    --
    The Computations of AdamR
    http://www.adamreyher.com
  5. List of issues with Vista SP1 by atari2600 · · Score: 5, Informative
  6. Service Pack 1... Not impressed so far. by og_sh0x · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I use Vista at work because I'm going to need to know it eventually. Microsoft probably won't offer XP forever. Among many other problems that I eventually fixed before the service pack, I had a problem with my sound not working so I installed Service Pack 1. It fixed the sound problem, then broke my network adapter. After removing the service pack, the network came back but the sound broke again. And it's over an hour to install and another hour to uninstall.

    1. Re:Service Pack 1... Not impressed so far. by joshuaes · · Score: 5, Informative

      "Microsoft probably won't offer XP forever."

      Windows XP Professional 'Direct OEM and Retail License Availability' ends June 30, 2008. And 'System Builder License Availability' ends January 31, 2009.

      http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx

      So, Microsoft isn't going to offer Windows XP in a few months. As far as an OEM license goes.

      --
      "While you're watching the quiet ones, a noisy one will fucking kill you!" - George Carlin
    2. Re:Service Pack 1... Not impressed so far. by Bragador · · Score: 5, Funny
      The Pirate Bay will continue to offer Windows XP for a long time to come.


      I wouldn't panic if I were you...

  7. Re:Auto upbreak. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    I work in the IT field, use Vista 100% on my laptop and have several clients.

    I snagged SP1, the latest pre release build and it has been fine.

    Things seem 'faster', copying files, something that use to take weeks now takes as long as it should.

    I still get the random spoolsv crashing for no reason but that was there before SP1.

    None of my applications break although I don't use anything custom or home grown or vertical.

    The install took a while - three stages with I believe a few stages each. I made a backup of my data prior just in case it went blue. No problems with the install/patch.

    captch: robbed

  8. I've been using it for a few weeks by Coopjust · · Score: 5, Informative

    I grabbed the X64 update from Microsoft's OEM website a few weeks ago.

    First off, SP1 is a massive improvement. It installs a lot of bugfixes (including ones not released publicly before)... and it improves other stuff quite a bit. Disk performance is much better- you could argue that copy and paste tasks should not be slowed down by the speed of the OS, but it's improvement.

    Overall, my Vista install rarely runs into errors- maybe one or two non-system apps are hanging a week. UAC got less annoying (it wasn't that bad to begin with).

    It took an hour to install on my PC, and I didn't run into any issues. I think it helps Vista a lot. Honestly, I prefer Vista on newer machines; it's RAM heavy requiring 2GB+ to run well but RAM is very cheap nowadays and the x64 version works quite well; I had no driver issues personally.

    (I still recommend backing up though. I always back up before a major update, whether it's XP, Vista, OS X or Ubuntu).

    1. Re:I've been using it for a few weeks by ddrichardson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      requiring 2GB+ to run well

      No matter how many times I see this it blows me away. This isn't an anti Microsoft bash - this is a serious efficiency issue - we have gone from a suggested 8Mb for WFWG 3.11 (1992/93 UK) to 2Gb in a generation. That's a massive jump considering that most users are still muddling about with a web browser and a word processor. I know that processor speeds etc have also increased exponentially but I can't help this nagging feeling that it's down to lazy coding.

      --
      A thistle is a fat salad for an ass's mouth...
  9. Slow install by doodzed · · Score: 5, Informative

    Do not start the update procedure unless you do not need your machine for a while. On stage 2 of 3 on a fairly beefy box(5.1 vista experience) and it has been chugging for about 15 min and shows 2% done.

    At least my mac is up.

    --
    It's not the size of your stack that matters, it's how you push and pop
    1. Re:Slow install by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Because the SP1 install has to run on Vista.

  10. Re:So how long do I wait? by gQuigs · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait until DNF is released.

  11. Re:So how long do I wait? by eln · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait until it shows up in auto-update in a month would be my advice. That should give plenty of time for the tech rags to post glowing reviews of how it revolutionizes computing, solves world hunger, and cures male pattern baldness. Likewise, it will give Slashdot plenty of time to report that it makes computers crash, steals peoples' wallets, has sex with their dogs, and sets their house on fire.

    You know, the usual Microsoft software update cycle.

  12. Re:Auto upbreak. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    SP1 RTM has been available for quite some time from the technet site. We've been using it for quite awhile now. BTW, the spoolsv issue is with an HP Print driver, generally from a print server. You need to get an updated hpbmini.dll - minor rev 16 and greater will work. Older versions don't understand an OS that starts with version "6" and just crash the spooler. You can delete the driver using printmanagement.msc.

  13. Re:Auto upbreak. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Funny

    something that use to take weeks now takes as long as it should.

    I still get the random spoolsv crashing for no reason but that was there before SP1.
    Man, you make Vista sound really great. I'm gonna run out and buy a copy!
    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  14. Re:Possible Tags by Bryansix · · Score: 5, Funny

    Don't forget the slew of jokes that Vista SP1 will just reinstall XP...
    Too bad it doesn't...
  15. Re:Auto upbreak. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Stellar performance, and totally against what everyone else says."

    You mean the 9 out of 10 people that don't actually use Vista but happily parrot every sensationalist headline they run across?

  16. Re:Auto upbreak. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Agreed!!!
    Wow... You registered just to post that?
  17. Not only is SP1 out, it's also open source by sokoban · · Score: 5, Funny

    Here's the source code: /*
    TOP SECRET Microsoft(c) Project:Longhorn(TM) SP1
    Estimated release date:2008
    */
    #include "win95.h"
    #include "win98.h"
    #include "leopard.h"

    char chew_up_some_ram[10000000];

    void main () {
    while (!CRASHED) {

    if (first_time_install) {
    make_10_gigabyte_swapfile();
    do_nothing_loop();
    search_and_destroy(FIREFOX | OPENOFFICEORG | ANYTHING_GOOGLE);
    hang_system();
    }

    if (still_not_crashed) {
    basically_run_windows_xp();
    do_nothing_loop();
    }
    }

    if (!DX10GPU()) {
    set_graphics(aero, very_slow);
    set_mouse(reaction, sometimes);
    } // printf("Welcome to Windows 2000); // printf("Welcome to Windows XP");
    printf("Welcome to Windows Vista");

    while (something) {
    sleep(10);
    get_user_input();
    sleep(10);
    act_on_user_input();
    sleep(10);
    flicker_led_promisingly(hard_disk);
    }

    creat_general_protection_fault();
    }

    --
    09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
  18. DNF by Per+Abrahamsen · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait until DNF is released. My first mental "expansion" of DNF was the term used in result listings in athletics when a runner abandon the race: "Did Not Finish".

    On second thought, from context it seems that you meant Duke-Nuke'em Forever.

    Then again, maybe the two meanings of DNF aren't that different.

  19. Huh? by Per+Abrahamsen · · Score: 5, Funny

    or sends your life history to the Ministry of Total Information Awareness. Why would Microsoft send your life history to Google?

  20. Re:is vista that bad? by ChaoticCoyote · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, it is not "that bad."

    Could it be better? Yes.

    Should it have been tested longer before release? Yes.

    Is it as bad as people say on boards like this one? No.

    I just bought a brand-new HP dv6768se laptop from Best Buy, upgraded the Vista Home to Vista Ultimate, and am sincerely happy with the system. My HP 8020n has been running flawlessly for many months. Both systems were built for Vista, came with Vista, and have run nothing else.

    Oh, Vista has its problems -- the annoying slowness of file copies and deletes being chief among them. But I can sit down and make a bitch-list for my Gentoo and Ubuntu systems as well; my friends with Macs have their own pet peeves with OS X. I love my Linux systems; I love my Vista machines. As with everything in life, nothing is perfect, and whether or not you like something or someone is largely based on your desire to be annoyed.

  21. Re:Auto upbreak. by chubs730 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Perhaps digg was down?

  22. Re:Auto upbreak. by MufasaZX · · Score: 5, Informative

    Luckily today was a slow day at work so I did various benchmark tests both before and after installing SP1. This was all done on my Dell Inspiron E1705 laptop, Core 2 Duo 2Ghz CPU, 2GB RAM, and a freshly defragmented 200GB 7200RPM Seagate HD. Not a mobile Lan Party screamer, but it gets the job done well enough.

    Boot times dropped, both with and without ReadyBoost enabled (using a 4GB 150x SD card) by about 10 seconds, ending up with 1:56 clean and 1:45 with ReadyBoost.

    ATTO Disk Benchmark showed a .

    Copying 1GB of JPG files from one partition to another dropped from 1:31 to 1:09, and to the network from 1:35 to 1:06.

    3DMark06 scores very slightly increased, PCBench05 scores slightly decreased.

    The graphics test in CoH OF went from 59.7/28.8/7.9 up to 59.7/28.9/9.2

    So no huge improvements, but overall things are just a bit more snappy.