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Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Released
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has finally released the final build of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. 'There are a few significant additions that are included in SP2: Windows Search 4.0, Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack, the ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Vista, Windows Connect Now (WCN) is now in the Wi-Fi Configuration, and exFAT file system supports UTC timestamps. The service pack contains about 800 hotfixes.' A list of other notable changes is available on TechNet. SP2 isn't included in Automatic Update yet, but it will be 'during the coming months.'"
I can't believe MS finally (almost) admitted they made a mistake. It may have taken almost as long, in technological terms, as it took the Catholic Church to admit it's mistakes with Galileo, but at least it's a step in the right direction.
No one's using Vista anyway.
What are you talking about?? Plenty of people are using Vista. My Website's stats show (For the month of May until today): Windows XP 57.5 % Windows Vista 22.5 %
The thing is, you don't actually notice any real difference in how the indexing works with WS4, it's all back-end. It's suppose to be more efficient that the search/indexing code that came with Vista. I know it can be annoying when installed in XP, but since its predecessor was already integrated into Vista it should be an improvement.
If you still hate it, disable the Indexing service.
SP2 isn't included in Automatic Update yet
Well, maybe it isn't, but my Vista Home Premium at work "complained" this morning it had a new update, which was SP2, I let it download and play with it, now it's installed and it seems to work ok up to now.
I am putting myself to the fullest possible use, which is all I can think that any conscious entity can ever hope to do.
UTC is a time format, and specifies GMT.
With UTC timestamps, two files written simultaneously in Germany and Canada would have the same timestamp. In Windows, without UTC timestamps, they would have two completely different timestamps, because they would (most likely) use local time.
If you want a more informed source, try Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time
Er... except that UTC timestamp only specifies the timezone, not how it's actually stored.
It's up to libc to know how it's stored and convert it to unixtime as appropriate.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
So uhh, what was the 300MB+ item in Windows Updates this morning that I installed? I'm sure it said service pack 2.
The thing is, you don't actually notice any real difference in how the indexing works with WS4, it's all back-end.
I can't speak to what it's like on Vista, but on XP two things are true:
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
"New names"? The entire world has been using UTC as an international standard for timekeeping since before you were born and were calling it UT or GMT for a hundred years before that. Can we please try to learn about something instead of just whinging about it?
i just booted vista on my dual boot laptop, and instantly i got prompted to install sp2 from auto-update...
dont care about vista, or any windows, i just never bothered to remove it completley... sigh... damn vendors with preinstalled win$shit
Things in a rear mirror might be behind you
I have Vista SP1 installed for playing games the hard drive was thrashing so much it was actually causing stutter in my fps games sometimes until I turned the indexer and the superfetch services off (I actually had to turn off superfetch twice as it ignored me the first time). I don't seem to remember ever having to deal with that sort of issue on XP, so my guess is vista is probably worse for this sort of thing. It would be nice if SP2 alleviated this, but I'm not holding my breath. Incidentally, I find it sort of funny and sort of annoying that there are so many Vista defenders out there, when my own experience is that, yeah it runs well enough, but only after turn off all the crap like this and the graphical effects, and even then it's a little slow for a brand new OS on a brand new computer. On the other hand, with any fresh linux install I also go around removing a lot of the default desktop packages that I don't want, only it seems a lot easier and more transparent in linux, but maybe I'm just used to the linux way and not the windows way.
The funny thing is that Vista is slow on a fresh install, but the hard drive thrashing stops after you've used it for a day and it's populated superfetch and the index. It's fine to turn it off if you don't want to do indexed searches and don't want instant load on a few programs at the expense of a day of slowness, but it's also fine to leave them on, because they absolutely stop slowing anything down after that time.
"I zero-index my hamsters" - Willtor (147206)
The Indexing Service and Windows Search are not the same thing. I never used Windows Search under XP because I had gone out of my way to learn how to configure the Indexing Service (which is a huge pain in the ass) so that Start > Search would give me indexed results. I never experienced the Indexing Service pwning my machine as you say, though, and I indexed 3+ TB worth of stuff with it.
:P
You have to do heavy configuration in Vista with Windows Search to have it search outside your profile, but once you do, the searches are much faster than XP was, compared to Indexing Service or WDS based searches.
Also, on XP, if you did configure the built-in Indexer to index your stuff, Start > Search would give you results from both in and out of the index, from what I recall. It might be folder-based as to whether or not something not in the index that was supposed to be was included (but was newly created for example, and hadn't been indexed yet), but I can't really remember anymore... been using Vista for too long now
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
It's not quite the same as GMT. There can be a few seconds difference between the two. GMT is based on the position of the sun at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. UTC uses an atomic clock to count the seconds and has leap seconds added to the end of the year from time to time to bring it back into alignment with GMT.
My Windows 7 RC installation is reported as IE 7 on Windows XP SP2, because half of the video streaming sites I use (legitimate, obviously) break with "AMAGAD UR OS IZ NOT ZUPPRORTREAD." messages, which are absolute rubbish as I am able to watch them in Firefox on Windows 7 as long as I alter the user agent string.
Finally had enough. Come see us over at https://soylentnews.org/
I totally agree, I have been using Vista 64bit for over a year now, it has crashed on me twice in that time. My XP machine is far less stable.
Now, I'm not going to argue about Vista's stability, it's the speed and general bloat I have problems with, but seriously, what the fuck are all you people doing to your XP installations?!
I barely maintain my system at all, much to my disdain, but I haven't had it freeze/crash/BSOD/whatever in the past 3 years (well, a few times, but they don't count because it was faulty hardware, not software) and I torture the hell out of this computer!
Ezekiel 23:20
I am sure Vista is fine with the latest software, and for personal use. However, have you tried deploying Vista in an enterprise environment (or use older software for that matter)? Here is a small list of issues that have caused us to stop looking at Vista for a rollout:
1. Group Policy management (the move to admx files has caused numerous backwards compatibility issues)
2. The ever-growing winsxs folder. There is no way to shrink or compress it.
3. Try creating images with default software for imaging workstations due to #2.
4. In-house applications need to be recoded.
5. Minimum requirements for Vista would require a major purchase of machines to be able to run it.
6. Activation process fails ~1/3 of the time, even when trying to use an in-house key server.
7. Random core dumps on Dell Latitude laptop line (have had 8 of them do this), even with the latest drivers and firmware.
You do realize that most software developers work for companies designing custom solutions right? Most software developers do not work on for profit apps, but rather build apps, or tools, to enhance a companies business processes and generate money or sales. The point here is that the software is not, by itself, earning most companies revenue. Even if you are buying commercial software, more often than not you are paying for updates and support. If all software was open source, then everyone could use the tools however they see fit. Some would require support, and some would not. The major positive side effect though is that some, a very small percentage to be sure, but some users would themselves be developers and be able to contribute code as well. Then everyone has a better tool in the end.
Secondly, I have given 20-40 dollars to some open source projects that have saved me hundreds of hours of time (filezilla and vnc come to mind). Sure that may not put food on the table for more than a few days, but i would submit that you are missing the point of open source software if you are focusing on "but how do i get mine!" instead of "how do i build better tools". Thats what software development, imho as an end user (arent we all?), should be about.
As a potential lottery winner, I totally support tax cuts for the wealthy
Look before you FUD. I know WMC-fu, have contributed to DVRMSToolbox, and follow WMC stuff pretty closely.
The content protection thing actually IS an improvement. It's not more DRM, it's less, or rather, it fixes what's there. While it doesn't remove DRM completely, it does fix where WMC would copy protect when CGMS-A flags (Macrovision analog output protection, like for cable PPV) are accidentally encoded into DTV signals. That buggy behavior, on the part of Microsoft and the broadcasters, was why American Gladiators got flagged as protected months ago. There was a big stink about it, although I can't really understand why anyone would care about "pituitary retards banging their F#@$ing skulls together and congratulating YOU on living in the land of freedom!"
I believe legacy code for the broadcast flag was also removed, so ATSC/ClearQAM can't possibly be set as protected now.
Unrelated, but a DRM relaxation is coming for CableCARD, in that non-premium digital cable will no longer be protected. HOWEVER:
- This is a Windows 7 thing, and requires a firmware update to the tuner, an installed copy of Duke Nukem Forever, and who knows what else?
- It's totally up to the cableco to decide what is and isn't "premium", so chances are stuff like Discovery HD/SciFi HD/ESPN HD will stay locked down. Only the stuff that is already on ClearQAM will be opened up.
Not that CableCARD was ever worthwhile. For what you can and can't do with it, you might as well rent a DVR from the cableco if you really need that much TV.
Which, of course, are all thanks to Microsoft's monopoly, which you're supporting by still using Windows. Not trying to cause trouble, but there's no point complaining about a problem if you're still part of the problem.
Yahoo's spider/bot. Presumably Googlebot was higher, but was manually removed.
Microsoft decided to have unified service packs for OSes using the same core.
That is to say, for Vista and Server 2008. This also means that, yes, Windows Server 2008 was SP1 at launch.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
How seriously are you actually using Vista x64? I was forced to upgrade from XP because I actually needed a 64-bit OS. (I do scientific computation, but some of my apps are windows-only, like SolidWorks.) When stressed like that, Vista has proven to be slower and less stable for the things that could actually be done within the confines of 32-bit XP. I used to be able to run simulations for at least a week without crashes. On vista, I'm lucky if my computer is still on in the morning when I let things run overnight. And to top it off, it's power management on my laptop is worse than most linux distros (although this is more of a driver situation than a windows problem).
I've no doubt that Vista x64 can be better as a casual desktop system due to the increased headroom of a 64-bit platform, the re-written drivers, and better security, but I've yet to figure out how to tune it for heavy-duty work.