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Vista SP1 in 2nd half 2007
Author: Brett ThomasPublished: 10th July 2007
The view could be getting a little clearer - Vista's Service Pack 1 is due out by the end of the year.
Many have been looking forward to the upcoming release, hoping that it could fix some of the numerous little niggles in Microsoft's latest flagship product. Vista is far from broken as a release (in fact, it's probably way more stable than XP was at the time), but there have been numerous 'quirks.'
Vista Service Pack 1 was originally supposed to be out right around the same time as Longhorn Server, but Microsoft then put a pin in that balloon. The company changed its stance to not knowing when it would issue a service pack, saying it had "no timetable." That may actually be pretty believable, since the SP3 for Windows XP isn't even due out until 2008.
Of course, the newest emails put everything back on track and looking at a second half of 2007 release date, probably back to around Longhorn. Microsoft has yet to publicly release the information, however, for whatever reason. It is unknown why the date has been so closely guarded - we can only assume there were some problems with being sure some part would be completed on time.
Do you have a thought on the Vista SP1 secrets? Why is Microsoft not coming out and announcing the release? Tell us your ideas in our forums.
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Comments (40)
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I don't know much, but this service pack will be quite different from the last one. Apart from bug fixes (hurrah), they're also replacing the kernel we're curerntly using under Vista, with the one that's in Server 2008. That will be absolutely brillo.
Agreed, Creative only recently released an official driver for Vista, until about 4 weeks ago it was still beta. I mean come on folks, get out of the lazy chair.
ATi and nVidia drivers have been less than stellar, though I am pretty happy with the latest nVidia, still some minor bugs.
I think this has more to do with the fact driver for vista are a bitch to get working and Microsoft are not pulling there weight to help out.
Because if folk think the sp is due they wont be spending money on the product till then. Coupled with IT depts are not going to go to the effort of rolling out Vista then rolling out SP1 a few weeks later, they won't say in case it damages sales however temporarily
When opening network neighboorhood. IT says that there are no shares found. You can refresh to the the end of time but no other shared pc's hds will be found. When you type in the computername in the searchbar (you where sure of that there are numerous folders shared) like \\pcdownstairs. It wil suddenly find all network shares. Close window, open network neighboorhood again and it wl say there are no shares at all.
When alt+tabbing from a game. Its almost impossible to get it back fullscreen again. Instead it floats on the desktop in a window in the resolution you have setup for the game (game: 1280x1024) desktop 1680x1050.
I wont say it is vista's fault. But i guess it probably is.
Well that would depend on what sound card your using tbh since Microsoft have nothing to do with when companies release drivers for Vista. IT was only recently that Realtek released full 64bit Vista drivers for my mobo.
But will be interesting to see what performace gains would come from the new Kernel though
Kimbie
I was thinking about getting a SoundBlaster XFI Pro sound card, but am unsure if it will get detected as a 2channel device in games and audio applications like Traktor DJ or if it will get detected as a full multi channel sound device.
Anyone know if it does, or any other sound cards that do get detected as multi channel in vista 64bit?
Almost certainlt isn't - more likely your gfx drivers.
You can't move forward by standing still - otherwise we'd all still be running Windows 3.11. They've changed the way some hardware interacts with the OS but if anything, it's supposed to make it better. But hardware manufacturers have been very slow to react, and ultimately it's more their fault than MS's - they have known about the changes for 18 mths.
MS can't publish roll-out dates until they are certain. They've been notorious for running late, so rather than be more realistic at the outset, or perhaps improve their performance, they've adopted the tactic (as have many others) of simply not announcing launch dates until they are 100% certain that they will be met.
If they are saying H2 2007, they are thinking October but will probably end up releasing it in December.
Correct me if im wrong but does this not only upmix a stereo signal to surround sound, ie the rear speakers doing exactly the same as the front efectively 2x stereo? Of which fortunately for me, my speaker amp has the ability to do already.
Instead of true surround sound, where each speaker has a dynamic sound.
[Edit..
Ok so i read... Speaker fill will synthesize additional channels and direct them to the appropriate speakers, such as adding small delays or applying a filter]
Do miss the ability of being able to hear peoples foot steps coming up behind me in lot of FSP games, and the ability to use traktor DJ as it requires multiple channels.
This is of cause the drivers issue and not vista, though hopefully with the roll out of SP1 for vista, more people may jump onto vista and the manufactures will hopefully get there drivers sorted out
Yes, it upmixes 2-channel sounds (i.e MP3s and other audio) so that all you left speakers play the left channel, all the right speakers play the right channel and your center speaker plays a mix of the two channels. However it leaves surround audio as it is, so it will not prevent you from hearing the footsteps behind you. Assuming that this actually works anyway.
It just acts as a fix for playing audio, which is not in a surround sound format (i.e. almost all of it, excluding DVDs etc).
You can if your on a bus, or a train, or on a conveyor belt :p
Seriously though... I don't have anything serious to say...
Pickles...
Waffles...
Damn! I've no idea how to respond to that. You've got me cornered.
vista
aero interface thing - been on Linux forever and there is another program u can get for windows if you really want it, in all a waste of resources, plus it means your gfx card is doing 3d 24/7 so it consumes more power and the fan runs faster
UAC - not even worth me holding shift and pressing 3 other keys
DX10 - technically could have been brought to XP
in fact, screw the list, the only big changes Ive written above, and none of them are worth forking out £100 (or whatever M$ charges) to get
95 brought a much improved GUI, and the start menu
98 brought a better driver system, and networking was improved
ME - well even M$ would deny they made it (also not worth the money it costed) although they did improve the driver database alot
2000 - more an enterprise version, more secure and better networking, moving closer to the home version as well
XP - good networking support (finally) improved start menu, NTFS, and many more features
Vista - Another ME, hardly any benefits over XP
Infact, looking at my own list, it almost makes me wonder why we ever needed to move from 3.1, i mean hell all its been since then are marginal improvements
But in the general list of things, Vista is just like ME, it doesn't add much to the table over the previous version except an extra layer of bloat
People don't like ME because it didn't bring much to the table, people don't like it because it is utter crap.
I'm calling your bluff - install Win3.11 and I'll take you seriously.
Remember: we had to go through ME to get to XP. Likewise, we have to go through Vista to get the next version. Each one is incrementally better than the last. But each of us sees different things of worth; you rated XP, I know a guy who has just jumped from Win2k to Vista (albeit with a new PC).
why isn't firefox in firefox's spelling dictionary, but Microsoft is?
oops... that was a brain fart 'n' a half!
If you're counting the start menu as a valid improvement, check Vista's new start menu. It's 100 times better than XP's.
And check the searching in Vista, it's absolutely ****in' A.
No more expanding menus. A scrollbar for scrolling through programs. A proper folder system that makes sense. recent Items actually works for me now.
They haven't just added a search function to the start menu. The Vista search functions searches more, searches faster and yet needs less muscle. It's completely different under the bonnet.
Yes you could probably add it to XP in a SP.
The will no doubt be other Vista features that you also like, We could add them in an SP too, perhaps.
But then your SP would become Frankenstein's monster, and XP would be slowly screwed. Isn't it better to clear the decks and start again?
Vista is just the latest in an evolutionary line. Some features are similar, but plenty are improved (and some regress perhaps?) - You are not going to like all of them, but on the whole they are a significant step forward.
Uh-huh, can you give me an example of hardly anything new? Massive sections of the OS have changed.
ME was awful because virtually nothing was changed and it was so buggy and unstable no-one wanted it. The idea of ME was pretty good though.
Recent items works fine for me, what didn't work for you ?
Vista is the same, they may have improved lots of things under the hood, but the visible changes are pretty slim
Vista has some nice extras, but if you line a vista system up next to an XP system, the changes are pretty hard to justify
Plus MS forced DX10 on vista, another way to muscle a new OS onto the consumer, and pretty soon they their support for XP will drop
I don't like the way MS do business, and vista is no exception, if they wanted to add new features and stuff to vista, fine, i don't mind
But forcing people like me, people who want to play games, to pay £100 (or whatever) to play the latest games, when my OS is perfectly fine, and i have already paid for it once, and i don't want vista, is wrong, and its just another example of M$'s bully boy tactics
Also, the new "features" annoy me - hiding or cutting up options, the fact that when I click anywhere near a folder or file it selects the entire line, ... Bah.
The only positive thing I find is the improved driver support (i.e. no need to search for the printer CD), but I really doubt that justifies the extra four to five GB. "It's not because you can, that you should". 8GB for just an OS.... Bah.
I personally keep UAC completely disabled but I find it handy for users who aren't very computer literate. I've spent years fixing computers because users feel the need to change something they shouldn't, which initiated the on-site callout for me in the first place. UAC has its advantages and disadvantages.
DX10 could be brought into XP and I won't disagree, but I can probably see why Microsoft didn't. They don't want to provide support for XP any further (see below).
Microsoft has forced no one to pick up Vista but those wanting access to the latest and greatest or want to run certain software that requires Vista will have to pay for it. It is a business tactic in the same way when Intel or AMD releases a new CPU that requires a different socket, you are forced to upgrade your motherboard. The same happened to IDE and SATA, ISA and PCI, AGP and PCI-E, etc...
For any business to survive, for the economy to thrive, you need to bring something onto the market to drive it forward. If you keep promoting the same thing, only improved slightly, the market will slowly wither away. It isn't just Microsoft but they just happen to be a nice, big corporate to bash on. Technology cannot advance without improvements over time and improvements can't be made if there is no demand for it nor if there is no competition. If humans lived with no improvements, we'll all still be in stone age :p
[EDIT] A lot of issues with Vista is down to drivers. Microsoft did a complete overhaul on how hardware functions on Vista. Before Vista was officially launched to the consumer market, Vista was already released to developers (known as RTM) about 4 months prior to the official release. This gave hardware manufacturers plenty of time to sort out their drivers but how many manufacturers actually did? nVidia have done virtually nothing to sort out laptop drivers and it took them 3 months to release something partially functional on the 7-series Go model. It also took them 7 months to get SLi working.
This doesn't even take into account the release candidate testing period (RC1 & RC2), manufacturers could have done something then but for many months, they did nothing.
On a side note, some users have mentioned problems alt+tabbing in and out of games, that is a driver issue, nothing to do with Vista.
I agree Vista has had me impressed but the driver support hasnt. I think the mess over the lack of proper sound drivers from Creative has been the general trend from all the developers. Still waiting for m-audio to release any kind of sound driver.
And 64bit lets not even go there.....