March 20th, 2008
Vista SP1 collateral damage not as bad as I had expected
On Tuesday Microsoft opened the door on Windows Vista SP1. This is a landmark occasion because it marks a transition from where only a select few have had access to the software to where “everyone” can get access to this major system update. After watching the public release of more service packs than I can remember I’ve come to expect a certain level of collateral damage. But so far the damage is quite limited.
I’ve been keeping my eye on a number of blog posts and forum posts which covered the release of SP1 and so far the number of people claiming to have had problems is very small indeed. As the number of home users picking up this update increase I do still expect to see more people affected, and I guess it’ll be interesting to see what happens over the weekend.
Problems I’m seeing so far include:
- Users unable to download SP1 (since there are a lot of reasons why people might not be seeing SP1, I’m not surprised to see this complaint regularly).
- Users finding the download really slow or unreliable (I sure that a large number of people have been hitting the update servers lately).
- Random crashes and lock-ups (I’m guessing that there are a variety of reasons behind these issues, ranging from actual SP1 issues to things like spyware getting in the way of the install, software conflicts and bad drivers - remember, SP1 is not a paramedic, priest or voodoo witch doctor and it’s not going to heal a sick system.)
- Total system wipeouts (not a common complaint thankfully).
- Driver problems after install (and not just drivers known to have issues with SP1, but odd stuff such as nVIDIA drivers vanishing).
- Post-install performance issues such as spiking CPU and sluggish response times (again there can be numerous reasons for this, from the Windows Indexer kicking in to a system defrag being needed or actually being carried out in the background or driver issues).
You can read what I think it a pretty good cross-section of feedback on the Windows Vista Team blog.
However, the real test for SP1 will be when it’s pushed via Windows Update/Automatic Update. How things pan out once SP1 is actively pushed to Vista users should be interesting to see.
If you’re still waiting to carry out the update, my advice remains the same - hope for the best but plan for the worst.
Thoughts? Anyone here upgraded? If so, how did it go and what are your feelings about the update?
Adrian is a technology journalist and author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology. He also runs a popular blog called The PC Doctor. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations
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