Windows Vista SP1 can be officially downloaded NOW – but don’t do it!

by Alex Zaharov-Reutt

Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Page 2 of 3 Where many regular consumers would probably get stuck is in their ‘legal agreement’ to the Microsoft Partner Program. I guess, seeing as this is a site meant for OEMs only, if consumers started signing up in number, Microsoft could start terminating a lot of not truly valid OEM registration accounts. But all of this is unnecessary anyway, as (at least for now), the direct download works for anyone who just can’t wait and wants SP1 now - or at least, it did start download for me - and I didn't go through that 15 minute OEM registration process. But I immediately stopped the download because I don't need the 64-bit version and didn't feel like wasting 500MB or more of my download limit, even though I’m usually very keen to try out the latest software and updates. One of the reasons why I don't want SP1 right now anyway is because of the latest post from the Microsoft Update Product Team Blog I mentioned on the first page. Here they explain that: “This week we're releasing two more prerequisites for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 that will be coming later this quarter.  We wanted to let you know about them because they are both marked as Important updates (and they’re a little different than usual)”. The blog entry continues that: “KB938371 is a multi-component update that supports the successful install of SP1 and allows it to be uninstalled.  KB937287 updates the Windows Vista “Servicing Stack.”  Both updates (required before SP1 will be offered via Windows Update) are being made available now to reduce the number of reboots and make installation of the service pack easier”. They finish off by saying that: “Even if you're not ready to install the service pack once it's released, you'll want to install these updates because they'll help increase performance and reduce failures for the installation of other updates”. UPDATE: When you go to page 3, you will notice a reader comment from Urufu Shinjiro that says: "If you use the reg key to download SP1 through windows update then these two updates mentioned in the blog will download before SP1 is even offered". UPDATE 2: Those pre-SP1 updates have now downloaded themselves to my Vista computer - see the new article here. However... downloading SP1 from the direct download link provided in this article (sourced from WinBeta) is NOT downloading SP1 through Windows Update by using a 'reg key', at least as far as I am aware. It is a direct download which can then be immediately installed. Whether or not this way of installing SP1 ensures you get the updates as explained in the Microsoft Update Product Team blog is unknown. Certainly this is only advised if you are a technology expert, and not an everyday consumer, where my advice remains the same: wait for SP1 to be offered to you via the Windows Update mechanism within Windows. Tech professionals can happily ignore this if they want, theoretically they will know what to do if something 'goes wrong'. So, even though it looks like, at least for now, that there IS a way to get SP1 direct from Microsoft (and not from potentially dodgy bittorrent sources) - but why would you risk it when even Microsoft refuses to release it to everyone via Windows Update? Please read onto page 3. << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

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