February 22nd, 2008
Vista SP1: The hits just keep coming
Amid reports by some users of endless-loop reboots and less-than-impressive performance gains with Windows Vista Service Pack (SP) 1, now there’s a new SP1 gotcha.
Microsoft accidentally released SP1 to some users on Windows Update this week. While some greeted the mistake with glee, as they didn’t want to wait until next month to get it, others weren’t yet ready to have it pushed to them.
My ZDNet blogging colleague Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has the details, courtesy of a Microsoft spokesperson:
“Today (February 21), a build of SP1 was posted to Windows Update and it was inadvertently made available to a broad group.”
Microsoft officials have maintained that the company had no plans to push SP1 via Windows Update until Microsoft was able to resolve driver compatibility problems discovered during the SP1 beta-testing process.
Among the few good news tidbits about SP1, another of my colleagues, Ed Bott, notes that SP1 removes another of Windows Genuine Advantage’s “fangs” by making two known activation cracks more easily identifiable.
Meanwhile, in what some Microsoft watchers portrayed as bad news, a list of applications that worked with Vista but break when SP1 is installed is now out from Microsoft. I have to say I was surprised how few apps (12) were on the list (which includes programs that are blocked from installing; programs that don’t run; and programs that experience a loss in functionality). There are new versions available of a number of these programs (but not all) that do work with SP1, as detailed in the Microsoft Knowledge Base article linked above.
A spokeswoman for the Windows client division sent me the following statement, re: Vista SP1 and application compatibility:
“We have made application compatibility remediation and tools be a major priority over last year…. Today, customers have 10 times the number of logoed Windows Vista applications to choose from (from 254 at launch to over 2500 today). Over 150 enterprise applications, such as antivirus and VPN software, have been updated to work with Windows Vista. Customers can be assured that the majority of today’s most popular and best selling software runs on Windows Vista.”
Vista users: Anything new to report, regarding applications that run (and don’t) with Vista and Vista SP1?
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