 |
Vista SP1 release candidate now available
6 December, 2007
By Patricia Pickett
Microsoft Corp. has made the release candidate (RC)
for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) available to
all of its SP1 beta release testers, subscribers to
TechNet and the Microsoft Developer Network, and plans
to make the test software available to the public
next week.
Elliot Katz, senior product manager for Windows Client
at Microsoft Canada, said that the goals behind SP1
remain the same as they were when the vendor announced
the beta version back in the fall: The software would
include all the updates to Vista that have previously
been delivered through auto updates, as well as new
updates that address three main categories: emerging
standards and new types of hardware; improvements
to administration experiences; and security, reliability
and performance enhancements.
However, the RC does include some changes that have
been made as a result of the feedback Microsoft has
received from testers as far as "things that
are working well and also not working well, and improvements
to the code that we've delivered," Katz said.
Consumers and small-to-mid-sized businesses (SMBs)
typically get their service packs via auto update
or by actively going to the Windows Update site. At
this point, the size of the download is about 50 to
60MB. However, larger companies, especially those
that support multiple languages, will typically download
the standalone package that includes some software
distribution tools. Those tools tend to bulk up the
size of the standalone package. However, the size
of the standalone installers has decreased. According
to Microsoft's Vista blog, the packages that include
all 36 languages for x86 and x64 chip architectures
are more than 50 per cent smaller, while the packages
that contain just five languages are more than 30
per cent smaller. Katz said the size of the standalone
package with all the languages is about 1GB.
Furthermore, the required amount of disk space for
SP1 installation, including the space needed to expand
and create temp files, is now significantly smaller.
"For (the beta release) it was about 7GB . .
. but for the release candidate it's down to 4.5GB,"
Katz said. The shrinking size is a natural result
of the progression from beta to release candidate,
he added. "The code becomes more efficient as
the developers work on it, and some of the debugging
software included in the betas and release candidates
starts to get removed." Katz noted that there
is still some debugging code left in the RC, and that
the size of the download should not be used to judge
exactly how big the final version would be.
According to the blog, the RC includes an automatic
disk clean-up feature to remove a 1GB directory of
files that are no longer useful after the SP1 installation.
Installation reliability has also been improved, as
has the user installation experience via Windows Update,
which now includes more guidance for the user.
Also included is a blocker patch to prevent installation
of SP1 upon its release, geared toward companies that
are running managed desktops.
"Usually a larger mid-market-and-up customer,
when deploying a managed environment, doesn't want
its people deciding whether they want SP1 -- it wants
to evaluate it first and download it when it is ready
to support it," Katz explained. When the blocker
is installed, it prevents employees from downloading
SP1 via auto update or the Windows Update page. "That
way (the company) can roll out the service pack in
an orderly fashion and have control over their network,"
he said.
Earlier this week Microsoft also announced that it
is changing its Vista anti-piracy tactics in SP1,
ditching the reduced functionality mode, into which
systems enter after running past the 30-day activation
grace period, in favor of frequent and prominent reminders
for users to get a genuine copy and register it. While
this more laid-back approach will be part of the final
version of SP1, it is not included in the RC.
|
|
