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Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is when things start to get really interesting

Although Windows Vista hasn’t flown off the shelves to the degree that it might, it is now taking off – and the release of Windows Vista Service Pack1 (SP1) is likely to see the wind change.

It’s hardly news to say that Windows Vista SP1 will see an increased uptake of this now year-old operating system. Even before the launch of Vista, analysts were more realistic than Microsoft in predicting that many organisations would, as they have in the past, wait until SP1 was released before committing to Vista. Those who have adopted Vista within its first year have generally had good results – especially considering the degree to which Vista is reengineered, compared to XP.

Vista saw a radical rethink in many areas, but most significantly in terms of security – and it’s there that most of the headaches have occurred, with third-party vendors working hard to make applications and security suites compatible with the new ‘hard line’ security regime in Vista.

It was such a radical overhaul that, despite massive beta testing (something that Microsoft is now exceptionally good and open about), there were bound to be issues. The good news is that SP1 is likely to iron out many of those issues – and has allowed Microsoft to learn well from Vista’s 12 months in the open.

Let’s remember, although Windows XP SP2 is now seen as a move that made XP substantially robust, there was an initial backlash to its more rigorous methods of imposing security. We don’t always appreciate what’s good for us!!

Windows Vista SP1 concentrates improvements in four areas:

• Security (no surprise)
• Reliability
• Performance
• Administration

Some of the key changes are:

Security

• Enables third-party security software vendors to communicate more securely with the Windows Security Center.
• The provision of APIs for third-party security suites to use kernel patch protection (only on x64 Vista). 
• Enhanced BitLocker Drive Encryption to include a new additional multifactor authentication method.

Reliability

• Improved reliability with newer graphics cards.
• Improved reliability when working with external displays on a laptop.
• Improved networking configuration reliability.
• Increased compatibility with many printer drivers.
• Increased reliability when sleeping/waking.

Performance

• Improved speed of copying/extracting files.
• Reduced the time to resume from hibernation or sleep.
• Improved performance of domain-joined PCs when being used away from the domain.
• Improved speed of network browsing.

Administration

• BitLocker Drive Encryption encrypts drives other than just C.
• The Network Diagnostics tool will help solve the most common file sharing problems, in addition to the basic problems that it already diagnoses.
• Administrators can control the volumes on which to run Disk Defragmenter.

That’s just a smattering of the many new features that are in SP1 – which is currently in beta. During the year, Microsoft has also been improving many other aspects of Vista, for instance, it added support for over 700,000 new devices!

Windows Vista SP1 is likely to be more of a milestone than predicted, nailing down the security fully with less hassle to users and administrators, better performance, better support for devices and significantly increased reliability.

It really will be the time when Windows Vista deployments start to move in large numbers.