Vista SP1- The Winds of Change are Blowing

Change. This one little word can throw immense fear into the bravest of individuals. Being a technology consultant, I am frequently the harbinger of change and as such am not always greeted with open arms. However, sometimes change can make lives better and is openly embraced. This is how Microsoft is hoping Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Microsoft Vista will be received.

Microsoft has recently released the Microsoft Vista SP1 Release Candidate to the general public. So, what exactly can we expect from Vista SP1 and will we want to greet it with open arms? Well, with Vista SP1 Microsoft is returning to their previous mentality by not releasing new functionality through service packs but trying to address performance and reliability issues without breaking existing functionality. Service Pack 1 is basically an accumulation of all previous security fixes and hot-fixes with a number of valuable changes. It has been described as a vehicle for delivering new improvements and enhancements, not new features, whatever that means!

Microsoft has tried to handle as many issues and requests as they could. There are improvements in hardware support, application compatibility, reliability, performance, security, desktop administration, setup and deployment, interoperability, and some general improvements that don’t fall under any specific categories. For a full list of the improvements, see the following Microsoft document: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/005f921e-f706-401e-abb5-eec42ea0a03e1033.mspx?mfr=true.

One of the biggest improvements is how Vista handles file management. Performance when accessing, copying, and deleting files has been significantly improved. Users were frustrated by having to stare at the file copy dialog. In some situations, SP1 can increase file copy speed by 50 percent.

There are also several minor little fixes. Printing through Terminal Services is easier and printer management in general has been improved. Search has been removed from the Start menu but is still available through other means. There is now the ability to choose which drive you wish to defrag in the Disk Defragmenter tool. BitLocker now supports the ability to encrypt non-system drives. In addition, there will be full support for the latest IEEE draft of 802.11n wireless networking. The list goes on and on.

Current reports are hinting that the official Service Pack release will be February 2008. Current reports are saying that what SP1 provides is an improved and more reliable computing experience and Vista users are strongly encouraged to incorporate SP1 into all existing implementations and future deployments. In this instance, maybe change does not have to be feared, and the folks at Microsoft are definitely hoping that it will be warmly embraced.