Windows Vista Service Pack 1 released

Posted at: 11:15am 19th March 2008 by Ben Hardwidge

First service pack for Windows Vista now available from Windows Update

After over a year in service, Windows Vista has now officially received its first service pack from Microsoft, which promises to speed up the OS and iron out a few stability issues.

If you’re running Vista, then you should be able to download the new service pack by selecting Windows Update from All Programs in the Start menu. However, many people are apparently having trouble getting Windows Update to come up with the goods, which Microsoft claims can be for one or more of eight possible reasons, including incompatible drivers and installations of BETA builds of the service pack.

Thankfully, Microsoft has also provided a standalone installer for those who can’t persuade Windows Update to find the service pack, which is probably the better way of going about it anyway, as you can then back up the installer on to a CD.

According to Microsoft, Vista Service Pack 1 is more of a general maintenance update than a big jump. On his blog, corporate vice president of Windows Management, Mike Nash, said that it mainly 'improves the reliability and performance' of the OS. Nash also mentioned that Service Pack 1 should speed up the process of moving files around your network by up to 50 per cent, and that it will also resume a PC from sleep mode more quickly.

According to Microsoft's Vista Service Pack 1 whitepaper, the new add-on 'improves the performance of the desktop shell, but it does not provide a new search user interface or a new version of Windows Media Center.'