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Microsoft backpedals on release delay, says it will release SP1 this month to select developers

Despite announcing that SP1 for Windows Vista was completed and released to manufacturing, Microsoft angered many IT professionals when it said that it would not be releasing the product until March.  Microsoft said that it would instead only be releasing the SP1 RTM to testers.  As the service pack fixes a number of key performance, security, and compatibility issues, many developers were eager to get their hands on it, and became disgruntled with the delay.

Now Microsoft is looking to soothe the discontent by announcing that late this month it will be releasing SP1, ahead of schedule, to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers.  As many developers are MSDN subscribers, this will likely quell much of the ill will towards Microsoft.

Better yet, Microsoft announced that English-language volume-licensing customers will be receiving an even faster deployment, and will be receiving the SP1 release by the end of the week.  Some foreign language developers may be disappointed, however that Microsoft gave no indication of when the foreign language versions would be released, or if their release would be bumped up at all.

The first customers to received the SP1 RTM were the testers who participated in the SP1 Beta.  These testers received the final bits of SP1 on Friday.

Windows SP1 introduces support for a number of key hardware and software standards, including the exFAT file system, 802.11n wireless networking, IPv6 over VPN connections, and the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol.  For gaming fans Direct X 10 is updated to Direct X 10.1, which includes minor iterative improvements in rendering and a handful of new rendering tools.

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so will this be like XPSP2?
By CvP on 2/12/2008 12:13:28 PM , Rating: 2
i hope MS ships this one like XP SP2 disk...just post your home address and they ships one disk for free...really convenient!




RE: so will this be like XPSP2?
By HaZaRd2K6 on 2/12/2008 12:17:50 PM , Rating: 5
Yeah I doubt it.

What I'd really like to see is them offer free Vista discs with SP1 already loaded. Not licenses, for obvious reasons, but a pre-slipstreamed disc would be nice. Hell, I'd even settle for a slipstreaming utility.


RE: so will this be like XPSP2?
By Solema on 2/12/2008 12:26:25 PM , Rating: 2
It's impossible to slipstream SP1 into Vista RTM. Google it and you'll see why. It has to do with a servicing layer that SP1 adds that will reduce the number of reboots needed to apply updates post-SP1.


RE: so will this be like XPSP2?
By Souka on 2/12/2008 12:54:59 PM , Rating: 2
Well, I'd imagine in a few weeks/months I'll be getting a MSDN DVD with Vista & Sp1 integrated...

Same things happended with XP and SP2...my $.02 of experience


RE: so will this be like XPSP2?
By TomZ on 2/12/2008 1:14:05 PM , Rating: 2
Just because it is difficult/impossible for end users to create a slipstream doesn't mean that Microsoft cannot.

In fact, there is no doubt in my mind that Microsoft has already released Vista+SP1 images to all its OEM customers.


RE: so will this be like XPSP2?
By imperator3733 on 2/12/2008 2:30:44 PM , Rating: 2
There is no way that Microsoft would not release discs with SP1 already integrated into them. It happened with XP, so it will happen with Vista.

The idea of sending out free discs is good. How much does it cost to make a disc? They can easily handle the cost -- the shipping charges would probably be more than the cost of the disc!


RE: so will this be like XPSP2?
By MrWho on 2/12/2008 4:33:28 PM , Rating: 2
Heck, if you can get Ubuntu CDs for free, why can't Micro$oft do it?


By encryptkeeper on 2/12/2008 5:23:03 PM , Rating: 2
Ubuntu is a whole different breed of cat. First of all the Ubuntu OS is developed to be free, all the time. Also, remember that MS is so huge that the company seems to have a problem figuring out what one section is doing in regards to the rest of the company. But overall, they're still a company out to make money. Unless they perceive a potential backlash from their customers (usually manifesting in some sort of antitrust lawsuit) they won't volunteer to do something that costs them money, especially if they perceive no actual gain.


By imperator3733 on 2/14/2008 11:32:56 AM , Rating: 2
My point is that they could send out the discs with SP1 integrated on it. This would be just the disc, not a license. They would never give out free licenses, but the discs would be fine.


RE: so will this be like XPSP2?
By HaZaRd2K6 on 2/12/2008 5:35:29 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
It's impossible to slipstream SP1 into Vista RTM.

I know. That's why I'm hoping the release some sort of utility that can do it for you. Or offer free discs with SP1 already loaded.


I don't understand
By bupkus on 2/12/2008 1:55:47 PM , Rating: 2
Why the constrained release? If MS has confidence in this SP to release it to manufacturing shouldn't they just make it available to the public through their servers? Or are they simply preparing their support network for the perhaps inevitable barrage of phone calls?
They release it to their priority customers but I guess they already have support set up for them and they are after all very valued customers.
For people like me who never have contacted MS for support what difference would it make? I would simply look for solutions on the web or try to figure out a work around.
"Do you feel like I do?" Hollar!

Effects of caffeine.




RE: I don't understand
By Staples on 2/12/2008 2:02:26 PM , Rating: 2
I just installed it a few days ago on Vista Home. The OS worked well before so I probably would not notice any stability fixes but now I do notice that I have have some network issues with sharing media. Hopefully it is an isolated incident.


RE: I don't understand
By imperator3733 on 2/12/2008 2:33:18 PM , Rating: 2
I heard on the Windows Weekly podcast (episode 48, came out yesterday) that there are some problems with networking drivers. When they put this on Windows Update, it will only show up if you don't have the affected hardware in your system. Once they fix the drivers, then SP1 will be available to everyone.


RE: I don't understand
By TomZ on 2/12/2008 2:57:13 PM , Rating: 2
The Vista driver problems are actually problems with third-party drivers. Microsoft said they wanted a little more time to roll out SP1 to a wide customer base in order to allow the hardware vendors responsible for those drivers a little more time to get them fixed.

Obviously if Microsoft were still making changes, Vista SP1 wouldn't be RTM'd.


RE: I don't understand
By bupkus on 2/12/2008 11:09:55 PM , Rating: 2
Ok, I understand what you're saying but I would expect that anyone who already has Vista either already has working drivers or doesn't. SP1 shouldn't affect that.

If you are saying that MS is holding back Vista SP1 because of the new Vista disks incorporating SP1... well, that just doesn't make sense.

What do the drivers have to do with SP1? How long have the vendors already had to get their drivers rewritten? Oh, now the hw vendors suddenly want more time?

They should release sp1. If MS is saying that sp1 will break some of these machines because of their drivers, well, I just don't buy that. SP1 shouldn't be making so much a change as to break drivers.
Am I wrong on this?


RE: I don't understand
By JCheng on 2/13/2008 12:49:00 AM , Rating: 2
There are drivers that work fine on Vista RTM, work fine on Vista SP1, but break when RTM is upgraded to SP1. The solution is to reinstall the drivers, then they work fine again. Obviously this is not something Microsoft wants to do to unsuspecting users though.

http://windowsvistablog.com/blogs/windowsvista/arc...
(do a Find for "Our beta testing identified")

(Disclosure: I'm a Microsoft employee, although I don't work on anything related to Windows.)


By daftrok on 2/12/2008 11:56:16 AM , Rating: 4
Otherwise I'm sticking with XP until the bitter end.




By TomZ on 2/12/2008 2:32:20 PM , Rating: 2
Funny, I haven't yet run into an app that won't run properly on Vista. I've got well over 100 apps loaded on my machine at the moment, almost all of which were written during the XP era. My kids also run all their nasty old Win95-era games on a Vista machine. I hardly think there is a serious problem like you state.

In reality, there are some apps that are ill-behaved with respect to the newer security requirements in Vista. Those need a little "help" to run, e.g., run in XP compatiblity mode or run as administrator. These apps fail in Vista's native mode because they do things like writing data to the Program Files directory, for example. Many of these are bad programming practices anyway, and the apps just need to be updated to 21st century programming standards.

Actually, if you studied up on the problem, instead of spewing FUD, you would probably be surprised at the level of compatiblity support Microsoft put into Vista. Considering some of the design changes that they put into Vista, they went above and beyond to make sure apps would run properly as well as safely. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that you're not aware of.


By KenGoding on 2/12/2008 3:59:53 PM , Rating: 2
You've had better luck than many. One of my customers had a Vista laptop given to her by a family member. All she does is e-mail and simple games - all from the XP era. Not a single one of them worked.

Course she can't see very well and they gave her a 12.1" laptop, talk about a gift that isn't really smart.


By Aloonatic on 2/13/2008 5:07:06 AM , Rating: 2
I think for the general home user and office worker there probably are very few computability problems.

Sadly for me the software we use at my work is for production scanners and some other not too often used software which is having problems working with vista.

Rather than blaming MS though, I personally think that the suppliers of drivers and software should be a little more ahead