Microsoft Reminds: No Vista SP1 This Year
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Following reports that Microsoft would deliver a beta of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 this week, well before the originally-stated November date, the company has taken the unusual step of issuing a statement to quell any expectation, saying no changes have been made to the release timeframe.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft officials deny that the&#160;Department of Transportation's recent moratorium&#160;on adoption of Windows Vista is indicative of any widespread reluctance in the government sector to install the new operating system.
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Blog: Tucked inside Microsoft's agreement to change Vista's desktop search is word that a beta of the first service pack for Vista will come this year. No word on when the final version will ship, however.
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InfoWorld - Microsoft has finally broken its silence on the timing of the release of the&#160;highly anticipated Windows Vista Service Pack 1, saying the software updates should be in final release in the first quarter of next year with the company shipping off a beta next month to 10,000 to 15,000 testers.
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Tycho:  I don't know whose fault it is exactly, mine or theirs, but I won't be installing Vista anytime soon.  I would like some crazy shit to happen when I minimize something don't get me wrong.  I want my windows to go Waja-wajow(!) is possible.  But if there's a great reason to "trade horses midstream" or whatever the going metaphor is I haven't discovered it.
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The Microsoft operating system is improved by the soon-to-arrive service pack, but Windows Vista still is missing some features we'd like to see.
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Now that Vista and Office 2007 are officially out the door, Windows enthusiasts have been busy scrounging up what they can about the next versions of both products. Not much has turned up besides code-names and potential features, but a number of blog posts prompted Microsoft to say publicly that it's not saying anything.
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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 temporarily omitted mention of the Mac edition of Office in a write-up that accompanied one of Tuesday's security updates.
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(InfoWorld) - When Microsoft unveiled the long-awaited details of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 on Wednesday, the company also quietly pushed back the release date for another highly anticipated product, Windows Server 2008. The update to Microsoft's server OS, formerly code-named "Longhorn," had been due for release by the end of the year, but the company said Wednesday that the new target for release is the first quarter of 2008. The e-mail was sent in conjunction with the timeline for and details of the release of Vista SP1, a service pack for the client OS that many customers have been waiting for before they upgrade to Vista. Microsoft also detailed the delay in a blog entry posted Wednesday on its Windows Server Division Weblog. The entry, attributed to Helene Love Snell, a group product manager in the Windows Server team, cited quality issues with the current build of the product as the reason for the delay. "Microsoft's first priority is to deliver a great product to our customers and partners, and while we're very happy with the feedback we're getting and the overall quality of the latest product builds, we would rather spend a little more time to meet the high quality bar that our customers and partners deserve and expect," Snell wrote in the post. Although product delays are par for the course with Microsoft, the company is planning a launch event in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, 2008 for Windows Server 2008 and two other products -- SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008 -- that it's touting as its next major wave of product releases. In fact, when Microsoft COO Kevin Turner unveiled the February launch at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference in July, he called the products the "big dogs" of Microsoft's enterprise software products and the most significant product release the company will have in 2008. The trouble is, not all the products are guaranteed to be available on their official launch date, making it more of a marketing event than anything else. Visual Studio 2008 still is on track to be released by the end of 2008, though a delay of that product is not out of the question given Microsoft's track record. And while there's a chance that Windows Server 2008 will make it to business customers by Feb. 27 (Microsoft has not specified when in the first quarter it will be available), SQL Server 2008 is not due until at least June 30, Microsoft has said.
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Although Microsoft Corp. may not have the first service pack for Windows Vista ready at the end of this year as some expected, financial analysts say that a delay should not have a negative effect on enterprise adoption of the OS.
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Microsoft yanks wish list of features for Vista's successor.
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft is recommending that all customers still running Windows XP SP1 immediately upgrade to Windows XP SP2, as the company's support for SP1 will end next week. The Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy for Windows XP SP1 ends on TuesdayÂ according to the company's Web site. Microsoft initially planned to end support for Windows XP SP1 on Sept. 17, 2006, two years after Windows XP SP2 was released. However, earlier this year, Microsoft shifted the final support date for XP SP1 to Oct. 10. Microsoft typically provides 12 months of support for service packs, but will extend that support period for products it thinks customers need extra help and time to install. For typical consumer products, Microsoft provides five years of mainstream support. Business customers and developers typically get 10 years of support -- five of mainstream support and five of what is called "extended" support. Microsoft expects to releaseÂ the next major upgrade to the Windows client OS, Windows Vista, to business customers next month, and to consumers in January 2007. Though the release has been delayed several times, the general consensus among analysts is that Microsoft will hit its latest release target for Vista.
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Microsoft vows to release the next version of Windows by the end of 2006 - but  without some key components.
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Microsoft says Windows Mobile, Office for Mac won't be compatible with XML formats until next year.
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In a Knowledgebase advisory to developers today, Microsoft is urging developers for Windows Vista who intend for their programs to run under Service Pack 1 not to assume the default search protocol being used by the system is Microsoft's.
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Released to manufacturing Microsoft this morning released Service Pack 1 for Vista and Windows Server 2008 to manufacturers.â¦