Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh download open to the public

Microsoft originally planned to make SP1 RC Refresh only available to a private group of beta testers but luckily for you, they have made the pack available to the public.

Update: SP1 is now officially released. Click here for more information

The instructions and files required to download the service pack can be found by clicking here.
In it contains a Word document and XPS file with the instructions and a .cmd file that must be ran in order for your machine to be recognized as a valid SP1 beta tester. Please don’t forget that the Service Pack is still in Beta. RC means release candidate, and refresh basically means v2.

Before you go about installing it, I figure I should let you know on my thoughts on this download. If you are downloading this because you are a Vista enthusiast or you want to experiment or beta test it, then this is for you. But if you are downloading this for the sole purpose of hoping that it will fix any current issues that you may have such as slow data transfer, I do suggest that you wait until the final product so you are not troubled by any bugs SP1 RC R may have. Moving on….

In short, I have summarized the steps below:

1) Right click RCRefreshSP1betaprogramsRK.cmd and Run it as Administrator. The command prompt window should say that the Windows Vista SP1 Registry key had been set successfully.

2) The next step is to check for any important updates you’ve missed. Click on Start > Accessories > Windows Update. Click on Check Updates to acquire a list of the latest updates and make sure you’ve installed all the Important Updates.

3) After you’ve installed these important updates, there are the “pre-requisite” updates required for SP1. You may have to repeat this step several times. If you have Windows Vista Ultimate or Enterprise, the pre-requisite update will be KB935509. For any other version, it should be KB938371. I have Windows Vista Ultimate but for some reason they asked me to install 938371 instead. Please let me know if this is the case for you as well. When the update is finished installing itself, a reboot is required.

4) After that, there is another update. Luckily there is no reboot required for this one. It’s about 4MB.

5) When the update is finished installing, you’ll have to give Windows Update “10-15 minutes” for the update to self-install
according to Microsoft. However, it only took me 5 minutes, but the SP1 update does not show until after a few minutes wait. Click on Check for Updates in the Left Pane and you should be able to find the SP1 update. This one is 85MB.

Vista Rewired is not responsible for any damaged caused by the installation of Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 15th, 2008 at 1:52 am and is filed under Vista news, Windows Vista. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.