Early Vista SP1 64-bit installs causing new problems

By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Monday, 25 February 2008 04:01

Opinion and Analysis

Has the fallout already begun from Microsoft’s serious snafu of releasing Vista SP1 early to users of 64-bit Vista? We’ve just received a report that shows two new problems we haven’t heard of before, as we unofficially rename SP1 to ‘Snafu Pack 1’.

Watch out, Microsoft – you’re in serious danger of sending people over the edge. While I’m happy with my own Vista installation, especially since a stack of driver issues were sorted out earlier in 2007, I’ve stayed well away from SP1, and based on the latest report, I’m glad I did.

Now, I’m not using the 64-bit version of Vista, but only the 32-bit, yet the latest report of SP1 troubles we’ve received was experienced on a 64-bit Vista system that received a notification of SP1 ready to install last week.

And as far as our reader knows, it has only affected two things so far on his system, one minor, the other much more important, which we’ll get to in a moment. Critics might say the effects aren’t such a big deal, but as we all know, it’s the little things and attention to detail that we all notice.

If this problem turns out to be widespread, you can guarantee there’s going to be a few people out there that are going to get mad, and are not going take it anymore! And why?

Because some doofus at Microsoft didn’t quintuple check before letting the 64-bit SP1 off the leash, and ended up sending it to many more people that was originally intended. 

So, after all this merciless criticism that I’m giving Microsoft, what are the new SP1 problems that our reader has reported on their very own Vista x64 Ultimate with SP1? Please read onto page 2.