Windows Vista SP1 release candidate available for download

Filed under: OS Updates, Windows, Microsoft

Windows Vista SP1 release candidate available for download

by Brad Linder Dec 12th 2007

As expected, Microsoft has made the release candidate of Windows Vista SP1 available to the general public. There are several ways to get grab the update. You can download a registry key that will allow you to install SP1 through Windows Update. Or you can just download a standalone installer. Depending on your needs, that file will be between 436MB and 878MB. (There are four versions of the standalone installer, two for x86 systems, and two for x64 systems).

You're probably better off going through Windows Update, as Vista will just install the packages that you need. But you may have to check for updates and reboot several times before you actually get SP1.

We're still test driving our copy of Vista SP1 RC, but we've been hearing so much about this update over the last few months that we almost feel like the magic wore off before it was even released. While there are a ton of bug fixes, reliability, and compatibility enhancements in Windows Vista SP1, users shouldn't expect a major performance boost.

Bear in mind, this is a release candidate, not a final release. That means Microsoft could still make some changes before pushing Service Pack 1 out to all customers early next year. It also means that if you don't want to be a glorified beta tester (we know, a release candidate is more stable than a beta, but no one ever talks about "release candidate testers") you might want to hold off on downloading SP1 RC. For a little while at least.

Tags: release-candidate, sp1, vista, windows-vista, windows-vista-sp1

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Alex said 9:39AM on 12-12-2007

Fantastic stats, unfortunately they are for Office SP1 not Vista SP1 RC1!!

TheWax said 9:45AM on 12-12-2007

My 360 HD-DVD drive is now called a HD-DVD drive.(It use to call it a DVD drive)
Nice :)

moby said 9:19AM on 12-15-2007

I took the plunge. Overlooking the 2 hour and 15 minute install time, it was painless. LOL No false starts, no blue screens of death and no weird error messages.

I noticed right away the video off my graphics card seems a tad sharper. The load and shutdown times aren't really changed much.

I use a memory stick for RAM boost and it does seem to work a little better and faster.

A few of the random drivers and browser plugins seem to run a little faster as well.

Overall, an easy wait for the full release unless you just gott have the latest and greatest.

hema said 7:46AM on 2-10-2008

thank u my frind

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters