Windows Vista SP1 RTMs, with a Catch - SP1 brings improvements in reliability and performance (
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"With Service Pack 1, we have made great progress in performance, reliability and compatibility … I've personally been running Windows Vista SP1 pretty exclusively for a few months and I've noticed that my systems run faster and more reliably than they did with the 'Gold' release of Windows Vista," Nash said.
He also acknowledged that
Vista
users had experienced trouble finding applications that worked well on Windows Vista as well as finding the right device drivers for some of the hardware devices that they used.
Vista
had made progress on the application and device compatibility front, with 98 of the top-selling 100 applications now having versions available for Windows Vista, while there are 78,000 devices and components supported by Windows Update, up from about 34,000 in November 2006.
"As a result, we have licensed over 100 million copies of Windows Vista to date," Nash said.
SP1 brings improvements in the reliability and performance of
Vista
, as well as changes such as speeding up everyday processes like copying or moving files around a PC, home or corporate network.
"Our internal tests found that his could be as much as 50 percent faster in some scenarios, while resuming a Windows Vista-based PC from sleep is also faster with Service Pack 1," Nash said.
Many business are hopeful that Vista SP1 will deliver the improvements Microsoft has been promising.
OEM partners will be among the first to get SP1 so that new PCs will be able to ship with Vista SP1 pre-installed, while a retail version of
Vista
with SP1 will be available in stores for new customers in the coming months.
Windows Vista SP1 will be made available in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese by mid-March, with the remaining languages being released to manufacturing in April.
"While Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is an important milestone, we will continue to invest in the continuous improvement process," Nash said.
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