![]() As it turns out, most of these issues were actually fixed between the last SP1 release candidate (RC) and the final build, but because they were issues with hardware drivers and not something that Microsoft could patch in SP1, the company felt it was best to hold off on SP1's GA until the problems were fixed. Put simply, Microsoft identified 12 specific driver issues that would, in very rare circumstances, cause issues for customers upgrading from Windows Vista to Service Pack 1. Amazingly, the company has also thoroughly documented which drivers were causing issues with SP1, and Gray and Zipkin expanded on that to help explain the issue further. I discussed this release with Microsoft's John Gray and David Zipkin, both of whom seemed eager to explain the events of the past six weeks or so. As previously promised, this initial release is for the first wave of five languages (English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish), and all remaining language versions are still expected in mid-April. On Tuesday, March 18, 2008, a day that might accurately be described as occurring in mid-March, Microsoft announced the immediate public availability of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) via both Windows Update (WU) and the Microsoft Download Center. And in the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Vista users have upgraded to SP1 via MSDN, TechNet, and other means, and there have been no reports of any problems at all. But Microsoft never explained what these problems were, how serious they were, or which hardware devices were affected. That last bit was the most confusing: If SP1 was done, why would Microsoft need to wait at least a month and a half before broadly deploying it to customers? The company said at the time that an unspecified number of hardware drivers were "known to be problematic," which would delay the SP1 release. (Other languages would RTM in mid-April and begin appearing after that.) Broad availability of the English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese versions of SP1 would happen between mid-March and mid-April, depending on your hardware configuration.SP1 was made available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers later in February.Volume licensing customers received the SP1 code on DVD within a week of RTM.Beta testers received the final SP1 code immediately.This schedule was updated a few days later, and looked like the following: Instead, the company outlined a semi-vague schedule during which SP1 would be slowly rolled out. (The company also released Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing on the same date, as Vista SP1 and Windows 2008 are based on the same code base.) However, in a move that angered enthusiasts, Microsoft also announced that SP1 would not be made available immediately to the public. Microsoft announced that it had released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) to manufacturing on February 4, 2008. (See my article, Windows Vista Service Pack 1: Here It Comes Ready or Not, for more information.) More important, perhaps, the company has answered a lot of questions that I and many others had raised in the wake of SP1's release to manufacturing, centered on the delay between RTM and general availability (GA). This morning, Microsoft finally made Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) available broadly to the public, fulfilling a promise it had made early last month when it announced the release to manufacturing of this major Vista update.
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