Windows Vista SP1 is available for download

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 19th March 2008

Microsoft has released a one click fix that it hopes will fix Vista's many problems.

After a lot of talking about the deployment of the first Service Pack for Windows Vista, the company has finally released it to the general public.

The update is available through Windows Update in the traditional fashion, but it's also available as a standalone download at Microsoft's Download Centre for those that don't want to have to download it every time they reinstall Vista.

The standalone download for 32-bit systems weighs in at 434.5MB, while the 64-bit version is much bigger at 726.5MB.

For now, the update is only available to users of English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish – other languages are expected to follow shortly. However, Microsoft hasn't detailed the rollout for language support in other localities yet.

For those wondering what has changed in Windows Vista Service Pack 1, there is a 17-page change log, which outlines the fine details of the new build.

The improvements include support for the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) on 64-bit versions of the OS, DirectX 10.1, and exFAT – a new file system supporting larger overall capacity and larger files, which will be used in Flash memory storage and consumer devices. There are many more improvements and fixes, but I'll save you from a massive list and let you go and read them if you're especially interested.

We'll be rolling the update out across our test systems over the coming days and weeks – we'll bring you a comparative performance article while we're at it too. In the meantime though, you can discuss your experiences with the update in the forums.