Microsoft has released Release Candidate 1 of Windows XP to it's official site. Anyone can now download this eagerly awaited update to the world's most popular operating system.

This update is sure to be a hit with consumers and professionals who have been less than enthused with Windows Vista. As we have previously covered, there is still a huge demand for Windows XP, despite the fact that it's successor has been in production for several months now.

The final release of Windows XP SP3 isn't expected until next year, but in the mean time, users who like to live on the wild side can feel free to install it now.

[Note: this is a bit of rehash from here, sorry about that!]

Microsoft has announced plans for Windows Vista SP1. As we've previously noted, a small group of PC users have been testing a pre-release version of SP1. Apparently this is pre-beta stuff, as Microsoft now says it will launch a private beta within the next few weeks. The full version of Windows Vista SP1 is scheduled for release during the first quarter of 2008. There will probably be a public beta somewhere between the private beta and the final release, but no word on when we can expect that.

So what's included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1? Microsoft has published a white paper on that topic, and here are a few highlights:

• All of the updates that had been previously offered through Windows Update
• Improved reliability and compatibility with newer graphics cards
• Improved reliability when working with external displays on a laptop
• Improved reliability of systems that were updated from Windows XP to Vista
• Improved printer driver compatibility
• Increased reliability and performance when entering and returning from sleep mode
• Includes APIs by which third party security and malicious software detection applications can work with kernal patch protection on x64 versions of Vista
• Improves the security of running RemoteApp programs and desktops by allowing Remote Desktop Protocol files to be signed
• Enhances BitLocker Drive Encryption to offer an additional multifactor authentication method that combines a key protected by the Trusted Platform Module with a startup key stored on a USB storage device and a user-generated PIN
• Faster copying and extracting of files
• Improves the time to become active from Hibernate and Resume modes.
• Reduces Internet Explorer 7 CPU utilization and speeds up JavaScript parsing
• Improves battery life by not redrawing the screen as often on certain computers
• Support for exFAT file system which will be used in forthcoming flash memory storage devices
• Support for Secure Digital Advanced Direct Memory Acces
• Support for Direct3D 10.1

Service Pack 1 will be about 50MB if installed using Windows Update. As you can see, there aren't many new features included, but there are a ton of fixes that should improve compatibility with your hardware and generally make Vista run more smoothly.

Word on the street is that Microsoft may be sending out pre-release beta versions of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows XP Service Pack 3.

If the rumors are true, and they may not be (despite a series of screenshots making the rounds), the Windows XP service pack weighs in at about 350MB and offers up about 900 solutions to reported problems. Many of those fixes have been addressed via various Microsoft hotfixes since Service Pack 2 was released. But it's nice to have everything in one place.

As for Windows vista Service Pack 1, it appears that it's only available as a DVD ISO, not as a standalone updater. Again, take this all with a grain of salt. For all we know someone doctored a few screenshots just to get us excited about the possibility of a less buggy version of Windows Vista. One thing we can tell you. Those reliability packs released prematurely into the wild last week are not Service Pack 1.

[via All About Microsoft]

Five days until Windows Vista is unleashed on the general populace. Back when we did our Vista upgrade poll, about 15% of you said you wouldn't be upgrading to Vista until after they release the first service pack. Well, good news for you: Microsoft is already laying the groundwork for Vista SP1's release. CNet says Microsoft has outlined an update with minor enhancements along the same lines as Windows XP's SP1, rather than a large overhaul like XP's SP2. "We expect Windows Vista SP1 to be a standard service pack that will include security updates and hot fixes, as well as limited other changes focused on improving overall quality," a Microsoft rep told them. Sorry, folks, that means no WinFS for you. Again. Redmond says expects Vista SP2 to be ready "in a timeframe similar to that of service packs for previous versions of Windows." Windows XP's first service pack came out 11 months after the OS' initial release.

Vista's release is no cake walk for Microsoft, owing in part to the fact that the internet is a very different animal than it was the last time Microsoft released a new OS. We now have the marvel that is BitTorrent, and as you might imagine it's as much a thorn in Microsoft's side as it is the movie industry's. Computerworld has an interesting article on the piracy challenges Microsoft is facing even before Microsoft hits retail shelves. "The pirates that cracked early copies of Vista all sidestepped Microsoft's latest antipiracy technology, the Software Protection Platform," the article goes. "SPP is supposed to shut down any copy of Vista not registered to Microsoft over the Internet with a legitimate, paid-up license key within the first 30 days." Microsoft is trying to scare consumers off pirated copies of Vista with boogey-man stories of viruses and malware, which I'd say probably isn't too effective on the sorts of people who are in the habbit of trolling BitTorrent for pirated operating systems.

And speaking of malware, Webroot Software, makers of Spy Sweeper, have issued a press release warning of "potentially ineffective blocking capabilities in Windows Defender, slow definition updates, and weak anti-virus capabilities in the default anti-spyware and anti-virus components of Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system and Live OneCare suite." Are there really scary vulnerabilities in Vista and gaping holes in its anti-malware software? Well, probably, but what Webroot is doing here ain't public service. Webroot's CTO Gerhard Eschelbeck says the company wants to help cunsumers "make informed decisions about their computing security needs," which, if he has his way, means loads of them buying Spy Sweeper for their new Vista setups.

Today we've had a little bit of good news for Windows XP users. So here's the bad: XP Service Pack 3, which was formerly slated to be released before Vista, has now been pushed back a year to the second half of 2007, according to Bink.nu. According to Microsoft's Service Pack Road Map, "this date is preliminary."