so what?

*yawn... who cares*

as far as I'm concerned it's only a marketing patch not a real patch... the bloat is still there.

anyone remembers the 640kb that ought to be more than enough ?

/that tuxedo is mine...

Windows 6

The Vista SP1 download is called Windows6.0.........exe

Getting us ready for 7.0 ? Could it be any worse ?

Download size

...and the download is 434.5MB.

Just to finish off the article for you.

PS. Tiscali/Pipex users are advised to just wait for Vienna bundled on their next PC as this will be quicker than downloading SP1.

The website doesn't say it's out

The link you provided in the article just goes to TechNet to download the whitepapers etc, or go via MSDN subscription to download. Doesn't look like it's out for public consumption yet (as of 19:48 GMT)

The more I see/hear about Vista...

The more it seems like the best patch for it will be Windows 7.

Vista = WinME to me.

[still, at least with the names Vista and Server 2008, you won't have people asking for Vista 2008, like they used to with "Windows 2000 : Millenium Edition" ]

Bring on Vienna, or whatever it's called these days.

Steven R

Here's the 64 bit link

Here's the 64bit version link.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&DisplayLang=en

No point going with 32bit Vista...

No surprise Vista breaks broken "security" software

Didn't this happen on Vista's initial release? Four our of eleven security products failed Virus Bulletin Magazine's VB100 tests (including MS's OneCare, McAfee Suite and Norton Internet Security).

Back then, VB Magazine told El Reg, "Security vendors have had plenty of time to develop Vista products, so there's little excuse for the failure rates unearthed by the test."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/05/vista_security_criticisms/

Keep it coming. The more garbage broken by Vista, the more quality products we'll see sprouting up. Think of it as evolution.

SP1 - Extensive testing starts here

"SP1 signals .... Broad take up by businesses"?

Err... what? It breaks A/V software and other packages suffer a loss of functionality? What business is going to install such a lemon? Time to hang on to XP Pro methinks.

Only 2000?

Last time I checked, there was a helluva lot more than 2000 which work with, say, Ubuntu, and are immediately accessible via apt-get.

One down

For those of you with short lives and/or memories:

Windows 1 took 5 updates (to 386)

Windows 3.0 took 4 updates (to 3.11)

Windows 95 took 5 updates (to 98SE)

3.51 and 4.0 each required until SP4 to be generally usable (or one could say Server 3.1 took 11 updates)

Windows 2000 wasn't nearly finished until SP3

XP didn't even reach poor until SP2

Average things out, adjust for differences in update methods, and two axioms stand out:

Wait at least 4 years or 4 Service Packs, whichever comes first.

If by chance a version of Windows sort of works before it is replaced, skip the next Windows entirely (ME, Vista).

nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!

i work as 1st line support for anisp. i can already see the call queue for dumbasses thinking it's somehow our fault their 3rd party antivirus has gone titsup. time for a few days with a cold/flu thing i think ;-)

/the one with the tissues/paracetomol filled pockets

So for so good..........

I'm planning on doing a fresh install of Vista this weekend, so wasn't overly worried if SP1 went horribly wrong.

Installation did take a while - and M$ are still incapable of making a progress bar that works - For god sake - how difficult can it be - a progress bar shouldn't go straight from 0% to 100%, nor should should an installation have three different progress bars when one would do the job. A progress bar has one job to do - show the end user how far into a job their PC is, so they know whether to just go make a coffee, or go watch the Godfather Trilogy. /end rant.

When I came back to my PC, everything looked normal apart from some customer feedback spyware doohickey. I decided to copy the 400MB patch onto my backup server, and something weird happened - it copied the file. It didn't spend three hours calculating how long it would take - it just copied in a few seconds. I've just tried the reverse - I copied a 1.3GB file from my server onto my desktop - It instantly said it would take 34 seconds, and it did. That alone is worth the hours installation, as if it carries on working will save me time in the long run. Well done M$ (yes I know it should have worked like that from the beginning but if M$ feel appreciated maybe they'll fix other things too - like why I'm using 1GB ram when I only have Firefox running).

I'm sure there will be horror stories about this patch - And I may well have been led into a false sense of security only to get my head chopped off at any moment, but for the moment M$ still have at least one moderately happy customer.

quick quick!!!

Linux is over here... you know it makes sense compared to that over price pile of crap you PAY for....

Somebody tell me

Is there a reason someone should be using Vista?

Please tell me.

I cannot, for the life of me, discover the source of so much pro- and anti-Vista passion. It's not like anyone needs it.

It must, therefore, well-up from within through some illogical human need to 1) control the uncontrollable, or 2) disdain the unredeemable. Both seem a waste of effort, to me.

Or am I off my chum?

devil is in the details and he's tiny

Y'know I've had my issues with Vista too..but..this story is either lazily researched or markedly slanted against microsoft. C'mon..look at the link to the technet article. Out of the hundreds (perhaps thousands) of applications that can run on Vista, they list:

*Five* that are blocked from starting - and 4 of those have updated versions that resolve that.

*Three* that do not run under sp1 - and 2 of those have updated versions that resolved that.

*Three* that experience a loss of functionality under sp1 - and 2 of those have updated versions that resolve that.

That's it..11 total applications listed and 8 of them have updated versions that fix the issue. Not bad for an OS that covers the entire globe. Am I a windows lover? No..but for the territory they have to cover it's not bad. I have a Mac as well, each OS has its strengths and weaknesses. I made sure I ran Vista on hardware built for it, and keep it updated and virus free. It has been rock solid the whole time.

Oh joy! More bloat.

I wonder how many kids in the developing world will starve in the coming year so that we in the "developed" world can divert more and more food crops into fuel production in order to create enough electrical power to run this bloated monstrosity?

880 MB of RAM, 60% of a dual-core 64-bit processor, and 350 watts of electricity to run a bloody web browser? It's obscene.

Every time we have "upgraded" this product we've had to double the server count in the data center. Companies now spend more on getting the waste heat out of the server room than they used to spend on actual computing needs.

Fortune 500 companies are moving to new locations, not for any business purpose, but because they have exhausted all available commercial power in their current location trying to feed the insatiable needs of this bloatware.

We aren't doing one iota more work on Windows servers than we doing ten years ago, but we are doing it 100 quad dual-core, 32-GB, 1.5 kw servers instead of 10 dual processor, 512 MB, 500 watt servers because the OS now consumes 5 or more times the resources that the actual work does.

I tried to look at the process list on a VIsta 64 laptop today, and it couldn't even fit on the screen. I had to scroll halfway down what would have been the second screen to view the entire list of processes needed to run that single instance of a web browser.

When will this farce end? When we melt Antarctica? When we bankrupt every company on earth? How much money is enough, BillG?

13 Moths Later

13 Months later Vista is propped up on its feet by a zimmerframe made of 435MB of what should have happened pre-Vista, stumbles forth and then.........Falls flat on its flabby face! Ubuntu rushes over and asks are you ok? Ubuntu screams for help 'Anyone?!!! Please help!!!!! Vista is in trouble and needs help!!', Vista coughs and splutters and shudders all over. XP sniggers as big brother breathes his last breath. It's over... XP and Ubuntu go for a pint and laugh at what Bill had in mind for them.

Here is the Windows Vista Service Pack 1

Here is the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone (KB936330)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en

Here is the Windows Vista Service Pack 1

You like it or not, here is the link for downloading it.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=b0c7136d-5ebb-413b-89c9-cb3d06d12674&DisplayLang=en

x64-based Systems:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=874a414b-32b2-41cc-bd8b-d71eda5ec07c&DisplayLang=en

Don't mention the ME...

When are ME, sorry MS, going to dump Windows ME v2, sorry slip of the ME, sorry, sorry, Windows Vista and start working soMEthing, sorry, that actually does what it supposed to ME,sorry, sorry.....

sp1 alined with server 2008

arrr never a truer word. server 2008 a,k,a, XP sp3 :-P

thats my next goal.

downloading now :-)

Yay, looking forward to copying files in under 3 hours, well done Bill. Linux is for weirdy beardies - tho I'd go that route if I had to because Apple is... well it's just shite - itunes makes Media player look good for gosh' sake. I hate when a customer has itunes on their PC, insinuating itself into the software like a worm...

Proprietary hardware, how 1950's.

You all know it, Vista looks better than anything else out there... and as a computer engineer has kept me in much work.

Bill Gates because I love him so very very much.

Tony F Paulazzo.

Good timing.

I decided to do a backup of me laptop last night in preperation for the big event.

This is the defining moment M$. You fuck up my laptop any more than it already is (why on earth does it take 3 minutes for my wireless to kick in on Vista yet with XP by the time I've logged in I'm on my network... I'm still bloody pissed off I need my SSID broadcast turned on just so you'll connect. On top of that I fail to understand how with a fresh install you give me windows errors everytime I'm in a VIDEO_TS folder) and I'm moving to linux...

Just try me sunshine, I've Mandriva sitting ready and waiting..

Paris Hilton because like me she expects things to go down on her.

Seems fine to me

Installed SP1 last night, it took about 20 minutes. My PC seems a lot more responsive, which is quite surprising really. I was fully expecting not to notice any difference.

Lot's of little glitches seem to have gone away, like the sub-second pause I used to get when connecting a mobile device and the screen flicker when tabbing in and out of games.

All in all, as a home user I'm pretty happy with it.

Vista memory hog?

For those complaining about Vista using a lot of memory, do you know how it works?

Vista is not taking those rescources for itself. It has been designed to learn what programs you use most and pre-cache them on startup for faster loading times. It's called superfetch and there is a good article about it here

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000688.html

Should you try and load something that isn't pre-cached, Vista will instantly free up the necessary resources and in my experience manages memory better than any previous version of windows

Bad News

Well this is bad news.... Now my boss, who doesn't know a computer from an aardvark is going to start pushing for this behemoth to be installed company wide. I shudder when I think what may happen now. When an entire OS (like DamnSmallLinux or Slax) can fit on a measly 50Mb (DSL) or 190Mb (KDE Slax) and come with office apps built in. What the heck is in that update? Did they slap Office2k7 in there as well?

Fine

Downloaded in seven minutes, installed in 25 with three reboots and no fuck ups along the way. So far it seems ok, not sure if it's sped up much or if it's just a placebo effect, but file transfers have sped up from around 25-29MBPS to 40-43MBPS. I haven't had any Vista related problems anyway, so I wasn't expecting groundbreaking things from the pack.

@Vista memory hog?

oooh, so Vista now has file buffering that Linux has had for years and years and years and years....

And that "Super" pre-fetching sounds like a nightmare: constantly trying to swap your "usual" files into memory if you dare to use something new.

@Vista memory hog?

I'm fed up with all the things that companies want running on my computer constantly. Without intervention on a fairly basic computer you get quicktime, real player, acrobat reader, java updater among many others.

What exactly does wdfmgr.exe do? A quick look round the net says it's something to make windows media player open quicker,though with or without it, my WMP opens at the same speed

ctfmon.exe "provides text input service support for speech recognition, handwriting recognition, keyboard, translation, and other alternative user input technologies." I don't want any of that

wuauclt.exe checks for updates even if I've got fed up with auto update interrupting me at the most inconvenient times so I've turned it off

Most of these files may be tiny but they add upto a hell of a lot

Turning off/killing/renaming these files frees up so much memory space and makes startup/shutdown quicker, makes everything run smoother and has no perceptible impact on how long anything takes to startup/run/update

A bit of control over what I have on my machine without hacking chunks out of the registry would be nice [/rant]

"installed in 25 with three reboots and no fuck ups"

Actually that's two fuck ups right there (I'll allow them one reboot to start a new kernel).

So...

So....I gave Linux it's bi-annual go on one of my machines the other week.

Installed Ubuntu....all installed OK. Restarted....thought hmm this is taking a long time...maybe it's just the first boot. But no, performance was dire, much worse than XP, at *everything*. Here was me thinking Linux was 'lightweight'.

Then I tried installing Pidgin...but which of these 4 installed package managers shall I use? I'll the first one...oh dear, that one throws a nasty-looking text error at me, scratch that one. Next one....whoops I've failed a dependency, so where's the button I press to get the dependencies installed? Doesn't seem to be one, guess they forgot that part. Now I have a list of dependencies on a post-it, try hunting these down. Launch package manager again, but wait! "You cannot run more than one package manager at a time, please close XXXX". I@M NOT RUNNING ANOTHER ONE YOU PIECE OF CRAP I JUST WANT A FRICKING IM CLIENT.

Ok, breathe....lets go 'old skool' and compile from source. ./configure if I remember right...blergh, failed again.

...please wait while Windows XP installs. Yay I can manage my system from one interface without having to ever resort to a command line, praise be!

Bear in mind I'm a geek with a compsci degree, not a total chump. Linux is still a heap of crap as a desktop OS/

1 desktop and 2 laptops

in the house in the last 12 months. All have been 'upgraded' to XP Pro from Vista.

I like my OS to load before it's lunchtime thanks.

Evil Bill 'cause he musta been in a helluva mood the day he signed off this tat.

@Vista Memory Hog

The thing is....

Why does it need to do all this pre-caching.

For years we ran without it and programs loaded perfectly quickly.

My Vista Machine is an

AMD Dual Core 5000, with 2GB memory.

A SATA 320GB harddrive which can pull data off at some incredible rate.

That's really a phenominal spec if you compare it to what we were running

a few years back.

and yet my Vista SP1 (Beta admitedly) machine runs like a dog.

It's constantly accessing the disk, and opening apps takes ages.

Yet my Apps apart from having a few tabs here and there... haven't changed much.

I tried clearing the pre-fetching and things did improve imensly... until it rebuilt

it all again... and now it's back to square one.

I'm sure theres some way of turning it off properly... but just for once it would be nice if it just worked out the box.

@ @Vista Memory Hog by Mr ChriZ

you should be able to turn off Superfetch by stopping and disabling it in services.msc .

SP1 - booo!

I installed it a couple of hours ago and have had a fair few problems. Trying not get angry about it, but this will be my vent.

Tried file copying. Seemed fast at first, but then it got slower as the transfer neared the end. Then it stopped completely. Other apps stopped responding too, so had to restart.

Am now having endless problems with my external harddrive. Can't eject it from Vista, seems to be doing something with it and won't let it go.

While certain functions seem less sluggish, simple things such as opening folders take longer for me now!

And winamp is stuttering on songs every 2 seconds! Have had to restart my laptop 3 times so far because it becomes completely unresponsive.

There. I'm done.

@vista Memory Hog

Vista and Linux on a 64 bit single core PC with 2Gb RAM have similar performance.

Drop that machine to 512Mb RAM and Vista runs like a dog, maybe 5 minutes from boot to log in. Linux runs OK on 512Mb.

Because Vista IS a memory hog...

Three reboots?

I only needed one.

Not sure how I did it

According to taskmanager at least, with liberal application of services.msc, I managed to get Vista to run around 300 MB and 390ish with firefox and winamp running. looking at performance monitor on kubuntu running on my laptop right next to it it appears to be about the same with Firefox and Amarok running though with not much tweaking.

Well enough of that, back to server 2k3

Paris because she is used to having to clean nasty stuff up

Yep I just upgraded my Vista

To Ubuntu 7.10 it only took 15 minutes with 1 reboot right at the end.

Now this laptop actually works without freezing and I can finally get my job done again.