Early testers say Vista RC1 appears stable
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Also: Stephen Hawking looking for assistant. Read these stories and more from around the Web on News.com Extra.
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Vista's still in its early days, which means plenty of adjustments for Redmond, its allies and competitors.
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Microsoft has finalized the code for the&#160;first service pack for Windows Vista,&#160;but won&#39;t release the code via its update services to customers until mid-March, the company said Monday. Moreover, some devices may not work with the initial version of the software because of driver issues that continue to plague the OS.According to&#160;a post&#160;on the Windows Vista blog by Mike Nash, corporate vice president of Windows product management, Microsoft will release Vista Service Pack 1 in English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese to Windows Update and to the download center on Microsoft&#39;s Web site beginning in mid-March. In mid-April, the software will be available in those languages to anyone who has chosen not to download it. Microsoft will follow with the remaining language releases of Vista SP1 in April.In the post, Nash said Microsoft is holding off on immediately releasing the code for SP1 until hardware vendors have delivered PCs with Windows Vista SP1 installed to retail stores to give those vendors time to correct problems with some device drivers that beta testers discovered during the software&#39;s evaluation process.When installing SP1, some device drivers did not correctly follow the automatic instructions, so devices associated with them did not work correctly, according to the post. Microsoft expects hardware vendors to correct these issues before releasing PCs with the service pack installed. The company will not let customers install SP1 via automatic update if their PCs won&#39;t install the drivers correctly. However, customers can go to Microsoft&#39;s download center to obtain the software if they want to.In his post, Nash said that most Vista users will not be affected by the device driver issue, but Microsoft is being cautious about the release of SP1 to &quot;improve the experience for all customers.&quot;However, some comments about Nash&#39;s blog entry show that some Windows users are eager to get their hands on the software, so are none too thrilled with the delay in SP1&#39;s release to manufacturing and release to customers.&quot;So it&#39;s done ... but we won&#39;t be able to actually get it for another six weeks? That [is] incredibly frustrating,&quot; wrote one user called &quot;freibooter.&quot;Another Windows user called &quot;Hurricane Andrew&quot; said the release of SP1 to manufacturing was &quot;great news,&quot; but also expressed displeasure at the delay.&quot;Just wish we could get our hands on it earlier, &quot; he said. &quot;Patience has never been one of my strong points.&quot;There were hints that Microsoft was nearing the final code for SP1 in the last several weeks, as the company offered two refreshes for the first release candidate, a sign that the software was nearing completion. Many believe the SP1 milestone is the one that will bring about a new wave of adoption for Vista, especially among business customers that have been awaiting the service pack&#39;s release before updating employee desktops.The combination of SP1 and Windows Server 2008 is expected to bode well for Vista adoption in the enterprise and medium-sized business sectors. Microsoft said Monday that it also has released Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing. That product and the release of Visual Studio 2008 and SQL Server 2008 will be featured in an official launch event in Los Angeles at the end of the month; however, while the new version of Visual Studio is available, SQL Server will not ship until the third quarter.&#160;
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Software giant Microsoft confirmed Monday that the first update to its Windows Vista operating system will be available as an official download in mid-March. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will address various performance and stability issues and improve the desktop OS's hardware support.
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Microsoft Corp. has released a near-final version of its new Windows Vista operating system to a select group of technical experts who are testing the software.
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Although some companies may be ready to jump on the Vista bandwagon, analysts said most enterprise users will take their time testing the new operating system before rolling it out to employees.
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"Patch Tuesday," when Microsoft Corp. releases repairs for problems in its software, came and went this week with six critical fixes &#151; including the first one that touches Vista, the new operating system billed as the most secure Windows version yet.
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A status report released yesterday by the director of Microsoft's Security Technology Unit contends that, over the first six months of its shelf life, Windows Vista was proven more secure than its competitors during their first six months, and more secure than Windows XP after its debut, by virtue of the sole fact that fewer Vista vulnerabilities were entered into the National Vulnerability Database.
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Microsoft has launched the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment public beta.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft has touted Vista as aÂ more secure version of Windows, but on the day ofÂ Vista's official launch, a security company has identified malware already in circulation that can infect computers running the OS. Sophos identified three viruses typically spread through e-mail that can infect Vista customers who use a third party Web e-mail client. While Vista's e-mail client stops Stratio-Zip, Netsky-D, and MyDoom-O, the malware slips past Vista's defenses when users receive infected messages through a Web-based e-mail service, Sophos said. Stratio-Zip topped Sophos' list of malware affecting computer users in the month of November, accounting for 33.3 percent of malware in circulation. Combined, the three viruses that can affect Vista users make up 39.7 percent of all malware in circulation during the month, Sophos said. However, even if the malware Sophos identified slips through in an e-mail, customers won't necessarily be affected, another researcher said. Additional Vista security mechanisms should protect users, said Mikko HyppÃ¶nen, chief research officer at F-Secure. If a customer opens an infected malware file, Vista would warn and question the user before allowing the malware to wreak havoc. "These particular examples of malware probably wouldn't still be able to successfully infect the machine unless the user specifically allows it," he wrote in an e-mail exchange. Sophos applauded the security improvements in Vista, saying that the variety of popular third party applications used by consumers inevitably will open doors to hackers. Other anti-virus companies haven't been so kind.Â McAfee has been highly criticalÂ of changes in the operating system that it says will make Vista less secure than previous versions of Windows. Symantec said itÂ has discovered vulnerabilitiesÂ in Vista's networking software which makes it less stable than Windows XP. Sophos found that overall, the proportion of infected e-mail remained low in November at 0.28 percent, but identified a record number of new threats, 7,612, during the month.
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Microsoft releases a refresh of its first service pack for Vista to beta testers, indicating the final release might be near.
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Now that Microsoft has set a release date for both the beta and final versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the company is also offering a detailed look at what's being fixed and changed. One thing customers will not see is major changes to User Account Control, although Microsoft says it will reduce some pop-ups.
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It could take months for many businesses to test and deploy Microsoft&#39;s most-secure operating system. By John Foley. Despite the promise that Microsoft&#39;s Windows XP Service Pack 2 release will make PCs more
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Get a sneak peak at many of the key aspects of Vista, as it looks today. Though not vastly changed, there are several new looks in Release Candidate 1.
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A beta of the first service pack for Windows Vista could come any day now, with a final release by November, sources close to the company say.
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Microsoftâs description of the Windows Vista operating system is âClear, Confident, Connected.â But a more truthful motto would be âLooks, Locks, Lacks.â
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Microsoftâs description of the new Windows Vista operating system is âClear, Confident, Connected.â But a more truthful motto would be âLooks, Locks, Lacks.â