While Microsoft has officially released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to manufacturing in preparation for general public availability in Mid-March when the product will begin being delivered to customers through Windows Update and retail channels.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is a continuation of Microsoft’s and its partners’ drive to provide the best experience possible. The goal is to address key feedback that Microsoft has received from its customers without regressing application compatibility. Service Pack 1 delivers improvements and enhancements to existing features that significantly affect customers, but it does not deliver substantial new operating system features.

While Service Pack 1 offers several improvements and enhancements to the existing features in Windows Vista, it does not deliver any substantial new features to the operating system. For example, one of the biggest improvements was the way Microsoft improved the file-copy performance in Windows Vista. The updates included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 fall into three categories, which will be described in detail later in this review.

Service Pack 1 Updates By Category:

*This portion of the review will be addressed at a later date once both products are generally available.

The Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Deployment Scenarios and Experience

Over the course of this review I will be sharing my experience with regards to the different deployment scenarios consumers will have available to them for Windows Vista Service Pack 1. This section of the review will cover the following scenarios

• Windows Update
• Stand-alone Installation
• Integrated Install

The Prerequisites Required To Install Service Pack 1

In order to receive Windows Vista Service Pack 1 via Windows Update, there are a couple of prerequisites that need to be installed prior to installing Service Pack 1.

The first of which updates several internal components that Windows Vista requires in order to install or to remove Windows Vista Service Pack 1 more reliably (KB938371). This update must be applied separately before you install Windows Vista SP1 to make sure that Windows Vista SP1 can be installed or removed from the computer. The is necessary to install and to remove Windows Vista SP1 on all versions of Windows Vista. 

The second prerequisite that needs to be installed prior to receiving Service Pack 1 is a package that contains updates to the Windows Vista installation software. The installation software is the component that handles the installation and the removal of software updates, language packs, optional Windows features, and service packs (KB937287).

In addition to the aforementioned prerequisite updates, users of Windows Vista Business and Ultimate editions will be required to install  an update that you must have to correctly service Windows BitLocker Drive Encryption-capable computers (KB935509). Additionally, this update must be installed prior to obtaining the prerequisites that are needed to successfully obtain Windows Vista Service Pack 1.

The new “Configuring Updates Experience”  

Once setup is done installing the prerequisites you will be prompted to restart your computer, once you restart your system, you will notice that the new updates go through a three step configuration process. The first of which is completed when you restart your computer, meanwhile the second is after the computer reboots and is restarted. Likewise the third and final stage is completing the configuration of the updates which doesn’t  take too long depending on your hardware configuration and the size of the update being configured.

Overall, the initial setup in preparation for the install of Service Pack 1 is a welcome change, and is more informative than the previous “Configuring Updates” text on the welcome screen. Alas, the setup experience is a definitive improvement that makes installing updates easier and more informative, because you now know where the update is and how much it has to complete before you can get back to the desktop.

Deploying Windows Vista Service Pack 1: Windows Update

After installing the (small 4MB)  prerequisites you will finally be offered Windows Vista Service Pack 1 via Windows Update. While you may think Service Pack 1 is a large update, it’s really not that large when obtaining it from Windows Update. If you update an existing installation and have all of the updates that were released over the last year, Service Pack 1 weighs in at approximately 90-100MB. Whereas if you are updating what I like to call a “fresh install” you are looking at downloading and installing all 534.4MB of Service Pack 1.

Windows Update downloads the required service pack files to the target computer and installs the service pack. This method requires low bandwidth and minimizes network traffic, because only changes needed for a specific computer are applied.

Installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1

The overall installation process is pretty seamless and as always the time to install will vary based on your specific hardware configuration. While it doesn’t require much user interaction, except to start the installation of Service Pack 1, accept the EULA and to restart your system when requested to do so by Windows Update. Once you restart your system, you will be waiting while your system configures the service pack, in my experience the total time it took to configure the update before being returned to the desktop was approximately about 15-25 minutes and again, as always the time to configure updates is based on hardware configuration.

The approximate space requirement for installing the update using Windows Update is as follows:

x86-based: 1170 MB
x64-based: 1505 MB

To see the full installation process take a look at our screenshot gallery.

Deploying Windows Vista Service Pack 1: The Stand-alone Installer

Whether your updating and existing installation of Windows Vista or a fresh install the setup experience to deploying Windows Vista Service Pack 1 via the stand-alone installation package is narrowly the same to the experience you get when installing Service Pack 1 through Windows Update.

The stand-alone SP1 package contains all files, including the prerequisites that the previous section described, needed to install SP1 on any computer. You install the stand-alone package to upgrade computers that are already running Windows Vista. Microsoft recommends this method for applying Service Pack 1 to computers without (or with limited) Internet connectivity.

As with obtaining Windows Vista Service Pack 1 via Windows Update, you will be required to install the prerequisites before installing Service Pack 1. The difference with installing the service pack in this manner is the prerequisites are included within the installation, and thus are installed before service pack 1.

The way the stand-alone install works is simple, setup will determine if your system has the prerequisites installed and if you do not have them installed already, setup will automatically install them. If you do not have them installed, your setup experience will be longer as it will require your system to be rebooted at least twice (or three times if your using Windows Vista Business or Ultimate) before installing and updating your system to service pack 1.

As you may have noticed, you will be graced with the updated “Configuring updates” portion of setup when installing the prerequisites for service pack 1.

Installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1

During the stand-alone installation of Service Pack 1 you will be prompted to start the installation and accept the EULA and setup will continue on it’s own until it’s time for the system to be rebooted. During the configuration process of Service Pack 1 the computer will reboot at least twice to complete the configuration before being able to access your desktop again.

Step one of the configuration process is relatively fast and completes in a short period of time, and the system will be rebooted to continue the second and third step of installation. The third step of configuration takes the longest and at this time you may walk away and come back in about 15 minutes to check on the progress. After this stage is complete you will be able to use your computer again and you should notice the effects of Service Pack 1 during your first few minutes of using your system.

Overall the setup experience with using the stand-alone installer is great, with the exception of the added time it takes to install the update as opposed to Windows Update and obviously the integrated install is much better!

The approximate space requirement for installing the update using the stand-alone installer is as follows:

x86-based: 2515 MB to 5445 MB
x64-based: 4105 MB to 7840 MB

Deploying Windows Vista Service Pack 1: The Integrated Installation

With integrated installations, the service pack is integrated with the operating system, and the operating system and service pack are installed simultaneously. These disc’s will be provided to consumers via a boxed retail product or bundled with new PCs once service pack 1 is available in the coming months.

As with the previous setup experience when installing Windows Vista on a new PC or reinstalling the operating system on and existing PC, Windows setup is unchanged except for the new EULA for service pack 1 and the portion of setup where setup updates your system with the SP1 code.

Installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1

While you may notice little difference in setup from the first time (or multiple times) you experienced the new windows pre-installation environment (WinPE). There are only a few minor changes you will notice during the initial configuration of Windows Setup (I.e. setting up the hard drive or partition to install windows). The changes present in the updated version of WinPE include an updated End User License Agreement (EULA) to reflect the changes Microsoft made to the license in late 2007 to allow Windows Vista (all versions) to be installed virtually and Service Pack 1.

Unlike the other available options to install Windows Vista Service Pack 1, you do not need to install the prerequisites as you would if you use one of the other two options.

This is virtually the fastest and most efficient way to install the service pack, of course, this is assuming you want to format your system or install Windows Vista on a new PC without an OS or upgrade a PC running Windows XP.

If you have a new PC or are planning to make the upgrade to Windows Vista this is definitely the easiest and most efficient way to install Windows Vista with Service Pack 1. Overall it doesn’t extend the installation time by very much, in my experience this method of install is the fastest because Windows Vista only takes approximately 20 minutes to install on my system at home when booting from the DVD.  

The approximate space required to install using this method (either x86 or x64) is as follows:

15 GB

Additional Improvements related to deploying Windows and Updates:

Windows Vista is built on the principle of modular design. This approach has several advantages, including some ability for IT pros to customize the platform and to service individual components and a minimized need for testing during deployment. Customers can install languages as optional components without the need for a separate image for each language, thereby reducing the number of images that a global organization must maintain.

Windows Vista is distributed using the new Windows Imaging (WIM) format, a hardware-agnostic image file format. This means that an organization needs only one image to address a range of hardware configurations. Another advantage of the WIM file format is the ability for IT pros to service the image — including adding and deleting optional components — offline, without starting up each client computer or creating a new image.

Based on customer feedback and telemetry data, Service Pack 1 improves servicing and patching. First, Service Pack 1 enables support for hotpatching, a restart-reduction servicing technology that maximizes uptime. Hotpatching works by allowing Windows components to be updated while they are still in use by a running process. Update packages that support hotpatching are installed through the same methods as traditional update packages but will not trigger a system restart.

In addition to “hotpatching” Service Pack 1 also does the following:

• Improves update deployment by retrying failed updates when multiple updates are pending and the failure of one update causes other updates to fail, as well.
• Improves robustness during update installation by improving resilience to transient errors (for example, sharing violations, access violations) and unexpected interruptions (for example, power failure).
•  Improves the uninstallation experience for updates by improving the uninstallation routines in custom operating system installation code.
• Improves certain migration and upgrade scenarios. These scenarios involve the component that allows alternate text-input modalities (e.g., speech, handwriting and multibyte character-input editors) in applications that were not written specifically to support them.
• Enables global organizations to deploy SP1 more easily in a multilingual environment, as the SP1 standalone installer includes all 36 language packs. This change contributes to the increased size of the standalone package.

Improvements to the Windows Installation Experience:

Windows Vista SP1 enables more reliable operating system installation by optimizing operating system installers so that they are run only as required during update installation. The result of fewer installers running is fewer points of failure, leading to a more robust and reliable installation. SP1 also improves overall installation time for updates by optimizing the query for installed operating system updates, and it improves the robustness of transient failures during the disk cleanup of old operating system files after installation.

Windows Preinstallation Environment Enhancements With Service Pack 1:

Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) is a Win32-based, minimal operating system. It simplifies deployment, testing, diagnostic and recovery processes in a more secure and flexible environment. Many of the deployment tools are built on a Windows PE foundation.

SP1 improves Windows Vista deployment by enabling customers to install 64-bit versions of Windows Vista from a 32-bit operating system. This will allow IT pros to maintain a single Windows PE image. SP1 also improves deployment by supporting the installation of offline boot-critical storage drivers. With SP1, Windows PE automatically looks to a hidden partition for drivers. It will search that partition recursively, and if boot-critical drivers are present, Windows PE will load them. Windows PE will stage (but not load) non-boot critical drivers before starting the operating system.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1: Broader Compatibility

Over the past year, the PC Industry has made dramatic progress in addressing Windows Vista compatibility issues. Now more than 2,500 applications and 15,000 components and devices have earned either the “Works with Windows Vista” or “Certified for Windows Vista” logos.

A year ago, when Windows Vista launched, there were 13,000 components and devices on Windows Update; now, there are more than 54,000 using this automatic system (plus another 20,000 in the box). That means that nearly all of today’s computers will have all the drivers they need on Windows Update or through download links provided through the Problem Reports and Solutions center.

While improving application compatibility applications Windows Vista Service Pack 1 also improves hardware compatibility. Additionally, Service Pack 1 add support for new hardware that is coming to the market at a fast pace. While providing New device drivers for Windows Vista  on an ongoing basis via Windows Update. For this reason Windows Vista SP1 does not include many new device drivers.  By delivering new device drivers through Windows Update, Microsoft can provide just the updated drivers that a particular computer needs in a timely manner without having to wait for the next service pack.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1: Increased Reliability

In Windows Vista RTM reliability of the operating system is far better than previous versions of Windows, and with service pack 1 Microsoft wanted to make reliability even better.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 includes improvements that target some of the most common causes of identified failures, giving users a more consistent Windows Vista experience. Specifically, Service Pack 1 does the following:

- Helps prevent data loss while ejecting NT file system (NTFS) file system-formatted removable media.

- Improves the reliability of Internet protocol security (IPsec) connections over TCP/IP version 6 (IPv6) by ensuring that all Neighbor Discovery Request for Comments (RFC) traffic is exempted from IPsec.

- Improves scenarios in which a driver goes to sleep with incomplete packet transmissions by helping ensure that the driver is given enough time to transmit or discard any outstanding packets before going to sleep.

- Improves wireless ad hoc connection (that is, a computer-to-computer wireless connection, such as when using Windows Meeting Space) success rate.

- Improves the success of peer-to-peer connections, such as Windows Meeting Space or Remote Assistance applications, when both computers are behind symmetric firewalls.

- Improves the Windows Vista file-backup solution so that it includes files encrypted by the Encrypting File System (EFS) in the backup set.

Additionally,  Microsoft hardware and software partners have provided additional updates that improve the Windows Vista experience in very tangible ways. Battery life is a good example. Compare the battery life of a computer at the time Microsoft released Windows Vista with the battery life of the same computer after updating device drivers from Windows Update, and you might see dramatic improvements. After measuring 16 computers in a Microsoft test lab, the median improvement was 7 percent, and five computers gained more than 10 percent of battery life.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1: Tighter Security

While Windows Vista is even more secure than previous versions of Windows, Microsoft felt the need to update the security threshold of the operating system and make it even more secure.

In the first year of Windows Vista being available the operating system has had far fewer security vulnerabilities than it’s predecessor Windows XP. Service Pack 1 includes all of the previously released security updates, at the same time, service pack 1 also offers enhancements and refinements to the existing security layer within the operating system.

Service Pack 1 includes updates to the new BitLocker Drive Encryption, which is a data-protection feature that addresses the real threats of data theft and exposure from lost or stolen computers. BitLocker uses a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) to protect user data and to ensure the system has not been tampered with while being turned off.

Service Pack 1 improves BitLocker by offering an additional multifactor authentication method that combines a TPM-protected key with a startup key stored on a USB storage device and a user-generated personal identification number (PIN). Service Pack 1 also extends the encryption support to volumes other than bootable volumes in Windows Vista. For example, some companies configure their PCs with two partitions, one for data and one for the operating system. With Service Pack 1 both partitions can now be encrypted.

Most notable security updates provided by service pack 1 include:

Kernel Patch Protection - Updated for Windows Vista x64 and includes supported application programming interfaces (APIs) by which non-Microsoft security and malicious software–detection applications can work alongside kernel patch protection on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista.

Data Execution Protection - improves security with a new set of Win32 APIs that allow programmatic control over a process’ DEP policy. This will provide application developers with finer control of a process’ DEP settings for security, testability, compatibility and reliability, enabling new and existing applications to take advantage of this security feature.

Cryptographic Random Number Generator - improved to gather seed entropy from more sources, including a TPM when available. It replaces the general-purpose pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) with an AES-256 counter mode PRNG for both user and kernel mode.

Smart Card Security - improves security in smart card scenarios by doing the following:

•  Introduces a new PIN channel to more securely collect smart card PINs through a computer. This mitigates several attacks that otherwise require an external PIN reader to prevent.
• Enables smart cards that use biometric authentication instead of a PIN. (Fingerprint reading technology which is built-in on some of today’s laptops.

Additional Security Improvements include:

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