Over the past couple of weeks there have been a lot of speculation as to when Microsoft would be releasing early builds of the much anticipated Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) to testers outside the realm of Microsoft. Well that day has come and gone, Microsoft released the pre-beta code to a very small and select group of testers. While little is known what new features the Service Packs will bring to the respective operating systems I can tell you of a couple things that will be changing in the first Windows Vista Service Pack. (see list below)

List of changes taking place in Windows Vista SP1:

1. A collection of previously-released and new security fixes, bug fixes, and other updates.

2.  A major update to the Windows kernel to bring the Windows Vista kernel (currently version 6.0) up to date with the version in Windows Server 2008 (currently version 6.1).

3.  A change to the Kernel Patch Protection (also known as “PatchGuard”) feature in the Vista kernel that prevents security companies such as McAfee and Symantec from integrating as tightly with the operating system as the security companies could in previous Windows versions. This will include a set of application programming interface (APIs) aimed at helping developers write code that interacts with this security feature.

4.  A change to Vista’s Instant Search feature that will allow third party desktop search product makers (Google, Yahoo) to more closely integrate their products with Windows Vista. In the initial shipping version of Vista, the Instant Search indexer still runs at full speed even if a third party product is installed, reducing overall system performance.

So what happened to the Windows Media Center update Microsoft has been planning to ship?

The Media Center Team (Microsoft’s WMC core development team) usually releases an update every year around the holiday season, since Windows Vista SP1 wont be released until 2008 it is still unclear as to when Microsoft will ship the Media Center update or how it will be delivered.  Microsoft could ship it out of band by itself to Vista users this year or as part of a set of related updates (like “XP Reloaded” from 2005) later on.

The question still remains, When is Microsoft going to release Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 to the public? Well to somewhat answer that question with regards to Windows Vista SP1 Microsoft has said publicly that it plans to ship a beta version of the service pack later this year, that said I would assume it would be around the same timeframe for Windows XP SP3 as well.  

Finally, all those waiting and wondering when the first service pack (or third service pack for those XP enthusiasts) will ship you can stop the wondering and the waiting. The time has come, testing has begun and in a flash we will have the service pack(s) in our hands. Also, All those waiting to upgrade to Windows Vista can now upgrade (even though you should have when it was released) because SP1 is coming on the horizon.

Source: In-House & Microsoft

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