First Windows Vista Upgrade Available to Public
Reversing its initial decision to keep the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 release candidate restricted to private testers, Microsoft has made the near-complete upgrade available for download to the general public.
Although still not a final version of Vista SP1, the latest release is said to be on track with the estimated first quarter release date for the first service pack update for Windows Vista.
This is the first significant enhancement to Microsoft’s latest desktop operating system, which was released in January of 2007, meaning that Vista’s early adopters have had to wait almost a year for a refresh. Those holding on for the final release of SP1 will have to wait even longer. ZDNet Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley says that her sources put the final release date sometime in February.
If you just can’t wait and have a spare machine, you can grab the update from Microsoft and take it for a spin. The release candidate reportedly consists mainly of bug fixes and performance and compatibility improvements — no huge app upgrades or functionality enhancements, though there are some unspecified minor new features. You can read more about the enhancements in our previous Compiler post about Vista SP1.
However, bear in mind that SP1 RC Refresh, as the update is known, requires previous versions of SP1 to be uninstalled first, and there are several updates you’ll need to apply to your existing Vista install which can’t be removed later should you want to downgrade to a stable version of Vista.
Unlike the last few beta releases of Vista SP1, Microsoft has not yet released a new beta version of Windows XP SP3, which is expected to be finalized later this year.
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