For the past several months I have been reading many a tale from alleged insiders of when Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 would be released. Today Microsoft has clarified everything and has posted exactly what Vista SP1 will be and has target a release date of the first quarter of 2008. Also Microsoft has confirmed that Windows SP3 will be released by the 1st half of 2008.

Some of what Microsoft stated in an email I received this morning included:

What improvements are there to reliability in SP1?

Windows Vista SP1 improves the reliability of Windows Vista in many areas.  Thanks to the rich instrumentation capability of Windows Vista, we are able to understand the type of problems that our customers are experiencing (while respecting their personal information and privacy preferences).  

Many of these crashes and blue screens stem from problems with 3^rd party applications and drivers, so we are working with our partners to solve these problems together.  Other problems occur entirely in Windows code so we are aggressively working to solve as many of these as possible too. 

Some of these improvements are made available before SP1 in the August updates available via Windows Update and the Download Center. 

What are some examples of additions to the service pack in the “Support for emerging technologies and standards” category? Throughout the lifetime of Windows, new hardware innovations occur and standards enter the marketplace.  SP1 includes support for some of these new innovations, which are expected to become increasingly important in the coming years.  For example:

·         With SP1, Windows Vista can boot via EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) on an x64 machine

·         SP1 supports ExFAT, a new file format that will be used in flash memory storage and consumer devices

·         Support for SD Advanced DMA Support to improve transfer performance and decrease CPU utilization is part of SP1

·         SP1 includes a series of new API’s and software features to enable 3D application and game developers to make more complete and efficient use of the upcoming generation of graphics Direct3D 10.1 hardware

·         Windows Vista SP1 includes SSTP (Secure Sockets Tunnel Protocol), a remote access VPN tunneling protocol that will be part of Microsoft’s RRAS (Routing and Remote Access Service) platform.  SSTP helps provide full-network VPN remote access connections without some of the challenges that other VPN tunnels face traversing NAT, web proxies, and firewalls

 

What are some examples of additions to the service pack in the “Improve management experience” category?

SP1 improves the administration experience.  For example:

·         With Windows Vista SP1, BitLocker Drive Encryption has been enhanced to not only fully encrypt the entire Windows Vista volume but also any or all additional locally created data volumes.  (Customers can now not only fully encrypt C: but also D: and E:)

·         SP1 Improves printer management by addressing problems associated with printing to a local printer from within a Terminal Server session

·         Network Diagnostics in Windows Vista SP1 will help users with the most common file sharing problems, in addition to basic problems already supported

·         SP1 includes an update to Disk Defragmenter so administrators can control which volumes the disk  defragmenter runs on

 

Additionally, the tools used to manage Group Policy for Windows Vista will change with the installation of Windows Vista Service Pack 1. GPMC will be uninstalled with Service Pack 1 and GPEdit will default to Local Group Policy editing. Following these changes, SP1 users can download an updated version of GPMC that contains much requested functionality including the ability to add comments to GPOs or individual settings, to search for specific GP settings, and to use Starter GPOs which encapsulate best practices.

What drivers are new in SP1?

Windows Vista SP1 does not include new drivers.  Rather, new drivers are delivered to users via Windows Update or directly from the driver vendor.  There are two benefits to doing it this way:

·         Drivers can be delivered when they are available, and not just with the service pack

·         Via WU, drivers are only delivered to PCs which need those drivers, which help keep the size of the service pack from growing.

 

When will Windows Vista SP1 be released?

·         We currently expect to deliver SP1 during the first quarter of 2008, but we will collect customer feedback from our upcoming beta process before setting a final date.  Quality is our most important factor when determining availability. 

The beta will be released to approximately 10-15K private testers that will not include TechNet subscribers, but MSDN and Technet subscribers will be able to participate in testing when the RC of Windows Vista SP1 is available. The timing of the RC will be based on feedback from the beta testers, and we’ll share more info as we have it.

How large will the Service Pack 1 be?

The Beta of Windows Vista SP1 will be approximately 50 MB when delivered over Windows Update (to 32-bit PCs). We expect that will be the experience for the majority of our users.  For IT Departments in large organizations, we also provide the “Standalone Package”.  It will be significantly larger in size (about 1 GB for 32-bit), as it includes more just the changed files between Windows Vista Gold and Windows Vista SP1 as well as all 36 languages.

The complete story of what Windows Vista SP1 will be is contained here.

Comments welcome.

[tags]microsoft, windows, vista, xp service packs, [/tags]