Microsoft has made Vista’s Service Pack 1 near-final ‘release candidate’ available for download to the general public, after initially choosing to restrict it to 15000 beta testers when it debuted last week. According to a blog by ZDNet.com’s Mary Jo Foley, a Microsoft representative said the build contained a “number of bugs that testers encountered in previous prerelease versions of SP1”. The update is largely a collection of bug fixes and performance and compatibility improvements, but includes some minor new features.
I have not really noticed any differences on the machine I am testing it on, but at least I have not encountered any big bugs. The beta of SP3 for XP however, has a lot of problems with it. Which is kind of funny since XP SP3 is supposed to be just mainly all of the updates, and not too many new features.
Do not install this Service Pack; it is a disaster. I had the RC on my computer for 2 hours. First of all, it removes the ‘Search’ feature from the right-click menu. I do not understand the logic behind that, since not all users will know how to deal with it. And it’s a pain even for those who do. Microsoft is (again) breaking the cardinal rule of OSs: Don’t throw the users any unpleasant surprises, or make things more difficult to work with. But SP1 is just a continuation of the Vista policy, which is built around breaking that rule.
Second, in two hours I had two BSODs – the only two I’ve ever had in a year of using Vista. And I haven’t had one since I uninstalled it, right after the 2nd one.
Edited 2008-01-14 20:21 UTC
What did your log files reveal?
you know,, its funny how many people I see all over forums bitching about sp1 that didnt even bother to check thier logs. only to find out some cool tweak toy they used buggered up thier install, or that *great* piece of Norton malware they have installed fouled everything. and sp1 ended revealing it. I followed the instructions and have experienced no issues with it, for every beta and rc tried.
As fun is it is to complain about Microsoft, you can actually thank Google for that one. As dumb as it sounds, Google actually complained that the search feature in Vista was anticompetitive. Somehow.
see:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/microsoft/?p=524
The search has been removed because of Google suing microsoft for including search in Vista.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070621-google-says-vista-sea…
Well I loaded up the RC1 , USB Flash drives , no longer recognized … I need drivers for my Flash Drives … Time to revert back
SD cards still work and Ready Boost
The rest of us are sick of waiting for SP1 to be released and video card manufacturers to offer UEFI cards other than the puny options they give to Apple.
I question all the spitting and cursing over this; someone said earlier about a BSOD – how can he be assured that the issue isn’t with incompatible drivers or anything he has added onto the stanard installation?
Yes, I know its ‘cool’ to bash Microsoft but lets start acting like adults – this is an RC, bugs will still remain, and if they still remain afterwards, maybe you should ask whether or not something you have done has resulted in the problems you experience.
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Well, first of all get a “working” Vista environment
No BSOD
Then install SP1, if there are BSOD then you can point it to SP1 !!
What are you trying to say? That you can’t get Vista to run without bluescreens?
You know one of the things I really like is Vista is the logs and the monitoring tools. Looking at the reliability graph is rather interesting.
Actually no, not necessarily. Over 90% (or was it 95%) of all BSOD are not MS fault, but rather third part applications (mainly device drivers).
Wasn’t the Vista’s mantra that drivers have been removed from kernel and that they will not cause any more BSOD’s? If that is true then what is causing it?
Edited 2008-01-15 08:36 UTC
Pixies?
Yogurth, removing drivers from the kernel isn’t the correct term. But if you are talking about userspace, maybe someone with more knowledge can explain this better to us.
Edited 2008-01-15 12:40 UTC
Actually the most important factor that determine Vista or VistaSP1 is not MS code but mostly device drivers.
When I installed vista with no drivers of graphics, network, sound and couple of other devices, I have found vista to be like xp in copy performance, applications startup and speed of turn off and startup.
Once you install vista certified drivers(and I am talking here certified, not just compatible drivers) the vista performance will suck alot.
Once you beat the iceburg of device drivers and get some mature good ones; then you will be greated with Windows inhereted issues that will make you wish you never bought a your PC that’s if you are an advanced user. If you are not an advanced user then nothing will matter.
Anyway good luck for Microsoft with their SP1 and I advice them to include Live One Care with Vista Ultimate because the price is rediculously high and need to be justified.
Don’t install this service pack 1 if your Vista is the Vista Ultimate Ultimate with the BIOS crack. It will deactivate you windows and put it on a down featured mode.
This is part of the WGD (Windows Genuine Disadvantage) experience ! 🙂