Deployed: Windows Vista SP1 RC on ALL of my PC’s


Posted by Brandon LeBlanc on Wednesday, December 05, 2007 11:22 AM 22 Comments
Today Nick announced the availability of the release candidate for Windows Vista SP1. I had a chance to get the RC build of Windows Vista SP1 installed a few days ago. I decided to roll the RC out on all of my PCs which showcase a variety of device types and scenarios:
  • My Main Desktop PC running Windows Vista Ultimate x64 - check.
  • My Test/Work PC running Windows Vista Business - check.
  • My Dell Vostro 1500 Laptop running Windows Vista Ultimate - check.
  • My Samsung Q1 UMPC running Windows Vista Home Premium - check.
  • My Digital CableCard PC running Windows Vista Home Premium - check.

In installing the RC on my PCs, I did a combination of using the standalone installer and Windows Update. Before proceeding to install the SP1 RC bits, I first needed to uninstall the SP1 beta bits first. Users looking to install the Windows Vista SP1 RC will need to uninstall any previous version of SP1 prior to the installation of the RC from either Windows Update or the standalone installer. With Windows Update, once SP1 was downloaded, a new series of screens telling me about SP1 appeared. The same series of dialog screens seen in the standalone installer is now launched when installing Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. This will be really helpful to the user in installing Windows Vista SP1. Previously with the beta, there was no guidance from Windows Update in installing Windows Vista SP1 like there was with the standalone installer. The ability to catch issues like insufficient disk space or PC not on battery power has been implemented earlier in the installation process - with a simple more useful error message to the user. In installing Windows Vista SP1 over Windows Update, a series of pre-requisites must first be installed before SP1. For the RC, these pre-requisites presented themselves to me in proceeding to install SP1 from Windows Update. However, before the final version of Windows Vista SP1 is released, it is likely these pre-requisites will be installed prior to SP1's release. If you have Windows Update configured for Automatic Update - it is likely these pre-requisites will be installed automatically at night.

When logging in to my PCs for the first time after installing the Windows Vista SP1 RC, the first thing I took notice of was that none of my PCs displayed a "find device driver" pop-up like I had experienced with the beta. Previously, I had a "find display driver" pop-up for my graphics driver for the PCs I had installed the SP1 beta on. In the RC - this seems to have been fixed. Many of the improvements I took note of back in September still held up, if not better, with the RC. All of my applications continue to work including:

  • Sony Vegas 7
  • New Zune software
  • Visual Basic 2008 Expression
  • Windows Live suite of applications
  • Windows Live OneCare
  • Smart FTP
  • ImgBurn
  • Yahoo! Messenger 9 Beta
  • Virtual PC 2007
  • Paint.NET

These are just a few of the applications I use and have tested with the Windows Vista SP1 RC. I'd also like to note that Games for Windows - LIVE games such as Shadowrun and Halo 2 for Windows Vista also continue to work as expected.

A few days ago I had blogged about my new HP MediaSmart Server and deploying Windows Home Server in my home. Those unfamiliar with Windows Home Server can learn about it here. Windows Home Server is essentially the server for the home based off Windows Server 2003 SP2 code. With my PCs running the Windows Vista SP1 RC, I've seen some noticeable changes in how fast it takes for PC backups to complete. Windows Home Server uses a connector to configure backups to the server which take place over the network. With the networking fixes in Windows Vista SP1, transferring files over my network has improved tremendously. Accessing file shares on my Windows Home Server is also much more responsive.  

Because of these experiences with improved network performance, I decided it was time to migrate my network to a gigabit LAN.  To do so, I picked up a D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit Router as well as D-Link DGS-2205 gigabit switch.

Transferring recorded TV shows to my Windows Home Server is a breeze! I continue to be impressed with my network speed and responsiveness running Windows Vista SP1.

I'd also like to call out experiences on my laptop and UMPC with some SP1 improvements. Most notably is the improvement seen with my laptop and UMPC in resuming from sleep mode. Resuming from sleep is much faster. In coming out of sleep, I can now immediately use my mobile PCs rather than having to wait through a lag until the system is usable.

I've spent a total of 3 days now running a complete Windows Vista SP1 environment and am very impressed with the improvements and fixes that the RC provides over the last beta.
DEC 05
 

Posted by chakkaradeep

I will soon join you Brandon :)
DEC 05
 

Posted by Windows Vista News

New post at windowsvistablog.com
DEC 05
 

Posted by boe

I can't imagine anyone who can install a SP (not that it is difficult) would willingly install Vista on a PC?  I think I'll buy a ferrari and shove banana in the tailpipe to see how it runs.   Nothing made by human hands was meant to run Vista - it is unnatural to slow down a PC on purpose unless you are running the original DOOM on a new PC and it just moves too fast for you.
DEC 05
 

Posted by untg

Fantastic news!

I used the beta and it worked pretty well, although there were problems running some applications.

I can't wait to get this installed and see the improvements, it's good to see this out so soon!
DEC 05
 

Posted by Brandon LeBlanc

Let me know how things go after you get it installed!

- Brandon
DEC 06
 

Posted by someone

Wow you must be rich to afford 5 computers AND 5 Vistas. Btw, if SP1 still doesn't seem to address many issues from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Features_removed_from_Windows_Vista, so I'll just wait till Windows 7. If MS screws up that too, I'll sadly switch.
DEC 06
 

Posted by chakkaradeep

@someone, please read this whitepaper - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/bb738089.aspx to get familiar with Vista SP1, what it would be focusing and if you are beta tester, you would have all the required documents with you to look into the issues being addressed.
DEC 06
 

Posted by chakkaradeep

Hi All,

Installed SP1 RC via WU in my primary machine which I use for development and daily activities, successfully. No failures, No errors.

Machine Specs

==============

Dell Inspiron 6400 E1505

1) Intel Core 2 Duo T5300 1.73 Ghz

2) 2 GB RAM

3) Windows Vista Ultimate RTM

4) nVidia GeForce Go 7600

My applications list,

Applications

=============

1) Windows Live Messenger, Writer, Mail

2) Microsoft Visual Studio 2008

3) Expression Blend SP1

4) Skype

5) gTalk

6) SQL Server 2005 Developer Edition

7) MS Office (Word,Powerpoint,Excel,Visio)

8) Kaspersky Internet Security 7.0

9) MagicISO

10) Ashampoo Burning Studio

All my applications work and also my Vodem (Vodafone 3g device) too works perfect after installation. My new Microsoft Notebook Wireless Presenter 8000 mouse which I bought just this week and the accompanying software too works great!

Great work Windows Vista Team! The installation took 50 minutes this time.
DEC 06
 

Posted by jrpatterson

Greetings everyone!

The SP1 install worked great.  We have tested in on numerous hardware types (all Dell Precision, Optiplex and Latitude systems) without any problems.  Some of the programs we have tested are:

SolidWorks 2008

AutoCAD 2008

ProEngineer Wildfire 3

Office 2007

Acrobat Pro 8.1

ImgBurn

Photoshop 7 and CS3

Illustrator 10 and CS3

Nero 7 and 8

WinRAR

We spent three weeks hammering on the RC preview (v658) building our WDS deployments.  Using the SP1 WAIK we injected drivers into our images and setup fully unattended deployments for bare hardware.  We are very excited about the new deployment tools as it reduces our setup time significantly.

Our overall experience with SP1 has been very positive.  The added stability and performance has allowed us to demonstrate to our users that Vista is powerful system.  Not to mention the unreal network performance between Vista SP1 and Server 2008.  That benefit alone is worth the upgrade.

Congratulations to everyone on the Vista Team.  This release it what the RTM should have been *cough*.  Thanks for finally getting us there!
DEC 06
 

Posted by Knowledge Base

I thought that I would point you to the official release notes for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release
DEC 06
 

Posted by caywen

I have been running the SP1 RC since this morning and noticed that on my HP DV9000, it reverted a lot of my updated drivers that I downloaded from HP. After installing, I would recheck your vendor for driver updates and reinstall them. My Conexant High Definition Audio was broken after installing SP1 RC, but reinstalling the latest drivers (re) fixed the problem.

So far, I’ve noticed SP1 RC chew up an extra 1GB of disk space *after* all files have been cleaned up - this is also after deleting all restore points. So, you’ll have to determine for yourself if the loss of space is worth it. Given that no features were added, I’m curious why I lose a gig.
DEC 06
 

Posted by mareeds

Gee, I forgot about how long it takes to deal with language packs.
DEC 07
 

Posted by Reckon

I've met the prerequisites stated in the doc provided and I can't download the SP1 using Windows Update. Bad experience. Stops at 12% when downloading. Any link to get the full standalone SP1 file?
DEC 07
 

Posted by laubin

Brandon,

When I installed a couple of weeks ago (I forgot which version) my system became unbearably slow. I had to uninstalled it but not everything was uninstalled. I finally did a complete reinstall of Vista.

Do you think that it could have been a bad install or something?

Did your over-all system speed and performance get better?

Thanks for any info..

Larry
DEC 07
 

Posted by Brandon LeBlanc

Reckon, if you are *not* a Microsoft Connect beta tester for Windows Vista SP1 or a MSDN/TechNet Subscriber, the new RC bits for SP1 have not been released just yet. So the standalone installer it not yet available. As Nick said in his post - public availability will occur next week sometime.

laubin, I can't really say what went wrong with your installation or uninstall. You have to understand - previously the SP1 bits were available only as a beta and betas are not for just anyone to install. Betas will have bugs and issues and there are always dangers to installing betas.

With the release of the RC for SP1 - SP1 has gotten quite a bit better because of all the feedback Microsoft has taken in but is not final release nor should be treated.

My overall system speed and performance remains very good after installing the SP1 RC on all 5 of my PCs currently.

caywen, I forwarded your experience on to the necessary folks. Thanks for leaving your feedback!

- Brandon
DEC 07
 

Posted by Reckon

#Brandon LeBlanc: I'm already a Technet Suscriber (this is my second year) and at the technet site is where I got the info and the reg file to install SP1.
DEC 07
 

Posted by GridGI

I like the SP1 already. I did a file transfer test this morning and the difference is huge.

http://www.profile6.com/vista.html

Artur
DEC 07
 

Posted by Brandon LeBlanc

Reckon, then if you're a TechNet subscriber the standalone installer should be listed under subscriber downloads where the info/reg file for installing SP1 was listed.

GridGI, that's great to hear!

- Brandon
DEC 08
 

Posted by Reckon

You were absolutely right Brandon. The filter I applied to show the content in the download area, only let me see the file to update using the Windows Update Experience!

Thanks. I will report results.
DEC 09
 

Posted by adrian

Got my RC1 through updates yesterday. Haven't tested the full 1Gb file transfer experience yet (haven't installed it on the Family PC yet.). There weren't lags in file copy, move nor delete than before. And seems to me that I gained back 100MB of RAM from the currently running processes in Vista. Download time for Wifi was around 30min, and installation was roughly the same. Also since I didn't try the Beta, do note that we have to install 3 updates to our systems before we actually see the Vista SP1 RC item in the updates list.

Specs:

Pentium D 805 @ 3.00Ghz

2x 1GB Corsair Value RAM DDRII 533

Asus P5LD2 (not the SE edition) motherboard

160GB Seagate

MSI 8600GTS OC Edition

D-Link 802.11G Wifi Adapter
DEC 10
 

Posted by Spencer

I installed it on my laptop last night.  So far no issues.
FEB 19
 

Posted by Mangal

I am facing log in problem with gtalk, i can login  sometimes successfully, however, most of times, it gives following error:

Could not connect to the google talk service (error 10053)

I have disable firewall and checked but the same problem persist.

I work on Window XP as well but never encountered with this problem. My friend has also encountered the same problem. We brought laptop with Vista operating system now do not know how to switch back  XP, otherwise would have done the same.

Secondly, sometimes Internet explorer and Mozila firefox automatically stop working and get closed giving error message.

Regards

Mangal
Anonymous comments are disabled
© Copyright 2007 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.