News
Vista SP1 Goes Live
Microsoft announced the availability of Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. The company has also posted the upgrade to its download site.
Microsoft today announced the availability of Windows Vista SP1 via Windows
Update. The company has also posted the upgrade to its download site
here.
"Today, you can now download Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update,"
Microsoft Product Manager Nick White wrote
on the company's Vista blog Tuesday morning. "For those of you eager to
receive the benefits of Windows Vista SP1 -- you can now do so!"
The release was not unexpected; text on Amazon.com discovered this weekend
implied
the download would be available March 18, with the retail product being released
March 19, although the mention of the download has since been removed from the
shopping site.
Microsoft has released Vista SP1 for five languages: English, Spanish, German,
French and Japanese. Updates for other languages are expected to start rolling
out in April.
SP1 releases are typical milestones for Microsoft products as many IT shops
wait until the first update before deploying. Vista's update comes a little
more than a year after its initial
release.
According to Microsoft, the SP1 update is designed to improve Vista's reliability
and application compatibility, among other
changes.
In his post, White also commented on the driver issue that initially
delayed the early release of SP1 to IT professionals. "We've completed
our analysis and are happy to report that many of these issues were fixed between
the release candidate (RC) and the final version," he wrote. "We identified
a small number of device drivers that may be problematic after an update from
Windows Vista to Windows Vista SP1."
A list of drivers that may still cause problems with the upgrade is available
here
(scroll down). White also recommends reading Knowledge
Base article 948187 before installing the upgrade.
For now, Vista SP1 is an optional download; it will become a forced upgrade
starting in "mid-April" on any computers that have Windows Update
set to automatic download.
About the Author
Becky Nagel is vice president of AI for 1105 Media, where she specializes in training internal and external customers on maximizing their business potential via a wide variety of generative AI technologies as well as developing cutting-edge AI content and events. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Uses," regularly leads research studies on generative AI business usage, and serves as the director of AI Boardroom, a new resource for C-level executives looking to excel in the AI era. Prior to her current position she was a technical leader for 1105 Media's Web, advertising and production teams as well as editorial director for a suite of enterprise technology publications, including serving as founding editor of PureAI.com. She has 20 years of enterprise technology journalism experience, and regularly speaks and writes about generative AI, AI, edge computing and other cutting-edge technologies. She can be reached at [email protected].