Vista SP1 delayed by drivers

Author: Gareth Halfacree
Published: 12th February 2008

If you're hoping that SP1 will iron out some of the kinks in Vista for you, better check your drivers.

If you're waiting for the official Vista Service Pack 1 RTM download, you may have to hold on a little while longer. Although Vista SP1 was officially released to manufacturing last week, Microsoft is not allowing a general release just yet.

In a post to the Vista Blog Microsoft Vice President Mike Nash said the reason for the delay was due to “an issue with a small set of hardware devices that may not function properly after the Windows Vista-based PC they are installed on is updated to SP1.”

Nash says the company is “working with the manufacturers of these devices to get the drivers and their install programs updated,” and that the problem can be worked around by “more technical customers” by “simply uninstalling and reinstalling the driver.”

Microsoft is well aware, however, that the vast majority of its customer base have difficulty finding the 'any' key, so is delaying the general release until the problem is resolved. SP1 is already available to participants in the beta test, and plans are afoot to start trickling the update out to Volume License holders starting at the end of this week. Subscribers to the Microsoft Developer Network and TechNet Plus, however, will have to wait until the end of the month. General release for end-users is scheduled for mid-March.

Nash is adamant that the RTM version of SP1 is final, stating that the company doesn't “plan to make any changes to the SP1 code prior to public availability.” Nevertheless, it's interesting that the company is unwilling to name names when it comes to the compatibility problem: it might be a 'small number' of manufacturers, but if those manufacturers are along the lines of Nvidia and Hewlett-Packard it's going to bite a massive number of customers if they don't get it sorted before general release.

Any beta-testers here run into this problem, or are we all waiting for the general release and letting others encounter such 'undocumented features'? Let us know over in the forums.