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Windows 7 for XP ProfessionalsUpdating Support Skills from XP to Windows 7by Bink.nu's Raymond Comvalius
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Microsoft will release Windows Vista Service Pack 1 next week to a wider audience, according to information posted on Amazon.com and reports from a Web site that correctly called SP1's ship date last month.
Amazon currently lists Vista SP1 retail copies as available next Wednesday, March 19, while TechARP.com, the Malaysian Web site that nailed the update's release to manufacturing (RTM) date several days early, said users would be able to download SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18.
Vista SP1 shipped to duplication and OEMs Feb. 4, but since then it has only been available to previous beta testers, volume licensing customers and subscribers to IT subscription services. In fact, subscribers to TechNet and Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) only got access to SP1 after raising a ruckus, with some threatening to cancel their subscriptions and others saying they would postpone Vista deployment.
Most Vista users, however, have been unable to obtain the service pack. That was a conscious decision on the part of Microsoft, which said that the delay was caused by a small number of hardware device drivers that won't properly reinstall during the SP1 upgrade. Microsoft said it needed extra time to identify the drivers and set up blocking mechanisms that will prevent users whose PCs have those drivers from receiving SP1.
Microsoft has never identified the balky drivers or the responsible hardware manufacturers.
Retail buyers of the new version of Vista face no such driver problem, Microsoft has said. According to Amazon.com, customers after packaged retail copies of SP1 can get them beginning Tuesday, March 19.
The online retailer's listings also reflect the new prices Microsoft set for Vista after it cut prices by up to 48% late last month. Price cuts in the U.S., however, were significantly smaller: 15-20%. Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade, for example, lists on Amazon for $129.95, the price Microsoft pinned on it Feb. 28, and down from the earlier $159.95; Amazon, however, is selling that upgrade for $94.99.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian Web site that called Vista SP1's RTM has reported that current Vista users will be able to download and install SP1 starting Tuesday, March 18. TechARP.com named Tuesday as the first possible start date for what it dubbed "End-User Manual Update."
Since early February, Microsoft has said that Vista users would receive SP1 in "mid-March" by either selecting the optional update in Windows Update or downloading a standalone installer from Microsoft's Download Center site. Only in April would it start pushing SP1 to all Vista users who have Windows Update's Automatic Updates set to automatically retrieve and install important fixes. (TechARP has named April 18 as that date.)
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Any approx date on XPSP3? :)
Interesting, so what happens to us admins who are waiting for the new version of Group Policy Manager?
I've held off installing it until this was released but the general release date of SP1 is almost here, but still no new GPMC.
I don't think it'll be a forced update, MS will probably give you a blocker for SP1 for business like they have in the past for other things.
Anyways, I've been reading from users who've updated and many have gotten good results.
Vista's SP1 is a "been there, done that" for me... I too, am really waiting for XP SP3.
GP007, Please check this :
Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit
vasudevg.blogspot.com/.../windows-service-pack-blocker-tool-kit.html
the blocker is available its actually been available for a while now as Vasu said...
if your looking for speed it isnt Vista SP1 or XP SP3... real speed is in a properly configured desktop version of windows server 2008, several sites have already reported that if you reconfigure 2008 for desktop use it can be up to 20-30% faster than both vista and xp.