Vista SP1 Release Candidate Available Next Week

Don't think this has been posted but SP1 RC will be available next week sometime. Can't wait so I can do some testing of my own.

http://www.download.com/8301-2007_4-9829506-12.html?tag=dlblog-post

 

Woooh, nice Will it be a public release?

 

Microsoft on Tuesday said that it has reached the "release candidate" with the first service pack for Windows Vista, with plans to make the test software available publicly next week.

 

Yeah I know, I can read, but is it still just available for official beta testers, or will they release it as public release?

 

Nope its for everyone.

 

That's what I wanted to hear, thanks

 

Its online right now for anyone with an MSDN subscription! It was just made available today!

I just downloaded it. I'll ghost my current partition and install it tonight.

Gary

 

I'm gonna wait until I can do a full backup, but I will certainly try the release candidate when its out.

 

Nice and thanks for the info!

 

It's about time.

 

does this do away with the watermarks etc.. i mean is it a full version ... like what would go out to retail.. ??

 

Not sure if I'm interpreting your question correctly. This is basically the final build. They won't add any new features. Its for testing for bugs and glitches on the hardware.

 

Meh, ever since i heard they'll be disabling the disabling of wga i've been rather disappointed with sp1.

 

Why wga drives you nuts?

 

You don't seem to have a legal version of windows you pirate, i'll just go ahead and disable everything now.

 

Yeah but in SP1 it won't disable your system. You'll have full use of your system onyl it will constaly remind you that your using a counterfeit version. Lesser of two evils I suppose.

 

They say that now but because they are MS you know that when the time comes they'll have it lock your system, steal your data, and give you HIV.

 

^ Speak for yourself, Bill would never betray me!!!

Here you go : http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=1012
Its safe to say wga was a failure and I don't think they would go back, but your right you never know.

 

i mean the watermarks on it are they gone??

 

Won't be sure till it comes out. Of course you can always remove it manually.

 

There is no way that I am installing this until I get some feedback from users here .

Yes I know you can manually remove it but I'd rather not have to go through that trouble if I can avoid it.

 

I received a tech flash email about server SP1 or something but not vista. I'm already on beta so I'll wait until january (next format XD, and also bandwith limit question).

From what I've seen, it's a big patch including any patches released since launch, shutting down times were ameliorated and it will (the beta does not) DX10.1/Xaudio

 

Takes me all of 20 minutes to create a Ghost image so it won't take me a lot of time to roll back, no "uninstall" for me.

Gary

 

I downloaded SP1 RC1 this afternoon from MSDN. It was about 425meg, only took about 18 minutes. I'll be installing it in a little while.

Gary

 

I assume you have to pay to be a subscriber to MSDN? I think I just have a subscription to the emails they send out periodically.

Is there a link where the public can download Vista SP1 RC for free?

I remember reading in the Windows Vista Blog that those near Microsoft's Silicon Valley Campus in Mountain View, CA could come to have SP1 installed on their already running Vista computers. I believe that installation is free of charge although surveys would probably be provided...assuming that this is the same SP1 RC...it is set for December 8, 9 after all.

 

I'm running Vista SP1 right now and have had no problems. Sleep recovery seems slightly faster, and bootup slightly slower. Otherwise everything seems identical - I haven't really dug around trying to find differences, though. Battery life does seem slightly improved if you're running a laptop (which, given the name of this site, you probably are).

I have heard of it messing up network drivers, however for me this has not been a problem. Doing a system backup probably is prudent just in case something does mess up.

 

Does SP1 contain the update KB941833? It's an update for MSXML 4.0 (which is strange because Vista has MSXML 6.0 by default). I'm just asking b/c that update completely broke my AOE3 install.

 

i read the whole thread, but i am still confused as to what is the diff b/w this version and the version that they will finally release via windows update to the general public?

 

Final version will contain bug fixes found in this Release Candidate... so it's actually still like a beta

 

Wow. So soon. What about the final version?

 

Boot up was MUCH slower until I defraged and reordered the bootfiles. Then I see it is about 5 seconds slower than without SP1. Shutdown is significantly faster, but I have no benchmark numbers pre SP1. Everything else seems smooth. Network file transfers are MUCH better. Ed Bott is reporting a 200% increase in throughput! Again I have no benchmarks but it is FASTER.

Gary

 

Since it is a release candidate, there may be no difference. This is actually one step AFTER being a beta and one step prior to a RTM (release to manufacturing) version. If there are no major bugs found it will become the RTM version.

Gary

 

Final version is in January I believe. RC is effectively just like a beta, all of the features won't change but just needs testing for bugs and such.

 

Even though this is a RC version that could go straight to RTM if all is good, I've always noticed RTM versions are different from Retail/Final...mainly only from Uncle M$ though.

 

thanks..have you guys noticed a more stable sleep/resume cycle after sp1? Thanks

 

I never had any issues with sleep, hibernate cycles so I can't say.

Gary

 

I don't know the specifcs of the song play and network issue as I don't have a 1G network. All I can say is or a 100mb network, file transfers are much, much faster!

Gary

 

oh ok, a lot of people have random sleep resume issues like the computer staying on after making it go to sleep, the monitor turns off or waking it results in all components turning on, but screen staying dark or spontaneous restarts after a resume, but there's nothing more you can do besides doing a hard shutdown and restaring your computer again

 

I'll wait for the final version. Right now my Vista is running great.... no problems at all.

 

Arg, next week is going to be very interesting.

Final exams and Vista. Two things that don't co-exist with one another.

 

I agree with this... I will not be a beta tester

 

The point is that an Release Candidate is not REALLY beta. It is still under test, of course, but with much less chance for problems than a beta. It represents the development work applied to a beta after feedback from those folks. Can it have problems, sure of course it can, but then again so can the gold release to manufacturing version too.

Gary

 

Well said. I think its going to be available tuesday.