Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008 finalized
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CEO Steve Ballmer announces at a financial analysts meeting that both products have been "released to manufacturing."
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The final version of Vista SP1 kills the Kill Switch, and adds many under-the-hood improvements -- but on at least one system, file copying is actually slower.
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Microsoft released a refresh of its first service pack for Vista to beta testers on Thursday, indicating the final release might be near.On Thursday, beta users of SP1 received an e-mail from Microsoft alerting them that Vista SP1 refresh 2 is available for download. Microsoft released the latest build, which addressed a small number of bugs that testers encountered in the previous version, to around 15,000 beta users, the company said.Microsoft issued Vista SP1 Release Candidate in December&#160;and a refresh earlier this month. It has said that the&#160;final Vista SP1 will be available to the public during the first quarter of this year, with some reports suggesting that it might come out as soon as Feb. 15.The fact that Microsoft even has a beta of SP1 and has now issued two refreshes to it indicates that the company is trying to be very careful in testing the software and ensuring compatibility, said Andrew Brust, chief of new technology for consulting firm twentysix New York. &quot;They are working hard to under-promise/over-deliver,&quot; he said. &quot;Given the dynamics around the initial release of Vista, that is a prudent course to pursue.&quot;Because it&#39;s quite unusual to issue a beta and multiple refreshes, Microsoft is likely very close to issuing the final public version of SP1, Brust said.That will depend, however, on any problems that testers may find in the newest refresh. If something is broken, Microsoft will have to spend time fixing it, said Chris Swenson, an analyst at NPD Group. &quot;We&#39;re just in wait-and-see mode,&quot; he said.The release of a second refresh doesn&#39;t provide many more clues about when to expect the final version of SP1, agreed Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. &quot;The only thing is that we know they are making progress, but we don&#39;t know how close they are,&quot; he saidStill, the initial indication from people who have been testing SP1 is that it&#39;s pretty solid, so it&#39;s reasonable to think the final version might come out in a couple weeks, Swenson said.The final public release of SP1 could boost Vista sales, at least among enterprise users, since&#160;some companies have said they are waiting for the release of SP1&#160;before upgrading from XP to Vista. Consumers, however, don&#39;t appear to have decided to wait. Retail PC sales were up last year and less than 1 percent of all computers including Macs that sold in retail outlets last year had XP, Swenson said. &quot;It&#39;s more of an issue for businesses,&quot; he said.
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Master the server Windows Server 2008 is due for release on February 29, and as with most Microsoft releases, the fanfare from Seattle can be heard worldwide. Will it do what you want it to? What skills do you need? Is it any good?â¦
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Setting the stage for what it hopes will be a &quot;breakout year&quot; for its server operating systems, Microsoft this week announced it will ship the first Release Candidate of its Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows Server 2003 by year&#39;s end as well as a SDK
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Velocity Micro is first system builder to offer Vista SP1
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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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The wait is nearly over for Vista SP1, according to sources close to Microsoft.
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com December 7, 2004, 10:51 AM PT. Microsoft said Tuesday that it has released a near-final test version of updates to its Windows and Windows Server operating systems.
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A number of changes and updates are coming to Vista by way of the upcoming Service Pack 1. We took a look through Microsoft's change log to see just what's new.
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Microsoft Corp.  launched  Windows Vista for businesses on Thursday, unveiling the first  major upgrade of its dominant operating system in five years  and predicting that over 200 million people will run new  Windows, Office or PC server software by the end of 2007.
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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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Not for general consumption, yet Redmond said yesterday that it has shot out another beta build of Windows Vista SP1, although this one is reserved for hardcore testers only.â¦
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The party is on for February 27th, as Microsoft confirms its star attraction, Windows Server 2008, will be released on time. Admins everywhere may now be breathing a sigh of relief.
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The wait is nearly over for the first service pack for Windows Vista, according to sources close to Microsoft.Microsoft has said the highly anticipated service pack would be out in the first quarter of this year, but some say it could be available in the next few weeks, more than a month before the quarter ends on March 31.A Taiwanese news outlet Wednesday reported in a story that Vista SP1 would be released Feb. 15, but &quot;that date is as good as any other,&quot; said Michael Cherry, an analyst with Directions on Microsoft. &quot;For all we know, they could make it available tomorrow.&quot;Through its public relations agency Wednesday, Microsoft declined to comment on the Feb. 15 date beyond reiterating the software would be available in the first quarter. Still, several sources who work closely with Microsoft said a mid-February release is not unlikely, and they expect the software to be out before the end of March.Chris Swenson, director of software industry analysis for the NPD Group, said that analysts have heard Feb. 15 as the target for SP1, but it&#39;s not something Microsoft would confirm publicly to give itself time to make adjustments in case of negative feedback on the current release of the software.Microsoft released Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC) in December but then refreshed that software in a public release earlier this month.Several Microsoft partners said they could not confirm Feb. 15 as the date for SP1&#39;s release, but said they expect the software soon for a number of reasons.One of those is the strength of the release candidate, said Brian Randell, a senior consultant with MCW Technologies in Los Angeles. He has been using the SP1 RC, and it&#39;s stable and running well so, &quot;I can&#39;t see why [the final release] wouldn&#39;t be out soon.&quot;Microsoft&#39;s hesitancy to give a firm date for SP1 means the company is confident it can get the final release out on time, said Andrew Brust, chief, new technology for consulting firm twentysix New York. However, he agreed with NPD&#39;s Swenson that the company wants to give itself room for last-minute changes. &quot;They are not ready to promise anything beyond Q1,&quot; he said. Brust is a regional director of Microsoft partners and works closely with the company.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, due out on Feb. 27, is expected to bode well for Vista adoption in the enterprise and medium-sized business sectors.One date Cherry said Microsoft probably won&#39;t release SP1 is the next Patch Tuesday, Feb. 12. Patch Tuesday refers to the second Tuesday of every month when Microsoft sends out software patches and updates via its automatic updating services.&quot;Hopefully, they would keep the release of monthly patches separate from the release of a service pack,&quot; Cherry said.
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Microsoft confirmed Thursday that its invite-only group of about 15,000 testers has had the final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) for the past two weeks.Other Vista users, however, will have to wait until March to obtain a legal copy of the release-to-manufacturing (RTM) version of Vista SP1, the company reiterated.According to a Microsoft spokeswoman, the build designated Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2, which was seeded to testers on Jan. 24, is identical to&#160;the code that company developers shipped&#160;out the door on Monday as RTM.&quot;In final stages of a product, Microsoft likes to get as much validation as possible before releasing,&quot; the spokeswoman said in an e-mail. &quot;The release candidate ended up being a high enough quality to be approved to release to manufacturing.&quot;The shift in nomenclature, but not bits, is common. Eventually, a vendor must approve a build as &quot;gold code,&quot; at which point that edition becomes the shipping version. Last November, for example, Apple Inc. issued a test build of Mac OS X 10.5.1 to developers one day, then called it good to go and posted it for download the next.However, users who weren&#39;t part of the SP1 testing group must wait until March to get their hands on the update, the spokeswoman repeated today. In five to six weeks -- mid-March according to Microsoft -- the service pack will be offered via Windows Update as a 65MB optional update and posted to Download Center as a 450MB stand-alone installer that supports five languages. A month later, in mid-April, Windows Update will automatically download and install SP1 on Vista-equipped PCs whose users have set Automatic Updates to do hands-off updating.Subscribers to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet will get a slight jump on the general public. &quot;In early March, MSDN and TechNet subscribers will be able to get the &#39;Windows Vista with SP1&#39; full DVD,&quot; the same spokeswoman said in another e-mail. The updated operating system will be offered to MSDN and TechNet subscribers through their respective download centers.Microsoft is holding SP1 so that it can identify device drivers that won&#39;t reinstall -- as they must -- during the service pack update process. On Monday morning, Mike Nash, vice president of Windows product management, said that while SP1 had met the RTM criteria, it would not be available for several weeks because of the&#160;driver problems.That generated a firestorm of criticism from users, who vented by posting over 200 comments to Nash&#39;s announcement, calling the decision &quot;stupid&quot; and &quot;one of the all-time worst moves&quot; by Microsoft.Judging by the tone of nearly 120 comments left on Microsoft&#39;s official TechNet blog, IT professionals and developers are even angrier. The subscribers called the withholding of SP1 &quot;boneheaded&quot; and a &quot;slap in the face,&quot; or dubbed it &quot;the Vista SP1 RTM Debacle.&quot; Others questioned the value of their TechNet subscriptions, admitted that they had had to download a pirated copy using BitTorrent so that they could start testing, and said they would postpone Vista deployments for months because of the delay.Several wondered why reviewers in the press had the finished bits before they did.But a commenter identified only as Joe put it most succinctly: &quot;This is the lamest decision since Microsoft Bob. I get this the same time as my mom?&quot;The backlash may have gotten through to Microsoft. On Monday night, Kathy Dixon, the TechNet Plus team member who normally writes the blog, said that she was looking into the possibility of moving up the availability date of SP1. But as of Thursday night, she had no solution for users. &quot;I have escalated this and am continuing to push internally for a solution ASAP,&quot; Dixon wrote around 8 p.m. EST. &quot;Please hang in there, I should have something more specific soon.&quot;Computerworld is an InfoWorld affiliate.
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The Microsoft operating system is improved by SP1, but Windows Vista still is missing some features we'd like to see.