This is something everybody should take advantage of. Instead of wasting your time asking others and searching on the net, Microsoft is offering unlimited installation and compatibility support at no charge until March 18, 2009.
This is a step forward for Microsoft’s tech-support. Currently they charge an amount that I consider outrageous for operating system support, especially when they don’t offer even one or two free support sessions for their customers spending hundreds of dollars on Vista. Anyway, if you haven’t updated to Windows Vista Service Pack 1 yet, you should definitely do so right away.
What to do if you cannot update to or install Windows Vista Service Pack 1
List of the most notable changes made by Windows Vista Service Pack 1
Check your Windows Updates guys, because the long awaited Service Pack 1 for Vista has finally been released.
So how do I get it?
- Open the Start Menu and type windows update, then push enter
- Click Check for Updates in the Sidebar
- The Windows Service Pack 1 update should be available
Still don’t see it?
Microsoft said they wouldn’t release it via Windows Update via April, but a lot of users have found it available as an update. If you can’t find it, here are the links for the Standalone Service Packs:
Download Windows Service Pack 1 Standalone (32-bit based systems)
Download Windows Service Pack 1 Standalone (64-bit based systems)
Some of the most notable changes are:
- Less UAC prompts in specific scenarios
- Improved third-party support for software and hardware
- WGA tweaked to prevent two popular activation bypass methods
- Support for DirectX 10.1
- File transfers no longer hang and take forever
- Better responsiveness in resuming, shutting down, and sleep (hibernation)
- Some “sleep” problems fixed (Many were unable to put their computer to sleep)
Quoted from the Microsoft website, before you install SP1:
If you install Windows Vista and then install SP1 without first activating Windows Vista, you might not be able to uninstall the service pack. Either activate Windows Vista before you install SP1 or activate SP1 before you attempt to uninstall the service pack.
Another quote for after installing SP1:
The Windows Vista SP1 install process clears the user-specific data that is used by Windows to optimize performance, which may make the system feel less responsive immediately after install. As the customer uses their SP1 PC, the system will be retrained over the course of a few hours or days and will return to the previous level of responsiveness.
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The final version of Windows Vista SP1 has been released. This is an RTM (Release to Manufacturing) version so you probably won’t be getting an “official” update until some time in March. Anyway, the good news is if you can’t wait until then, you can download them here! Just remember that you need a minimum of 7GB of space on your HD. Always try Mirror 1 first since the other mirrors seem to be temporarily down.
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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.
Microsoft responded quite swiftly to the animated cursor exploit by releasing a security patch this Tuesday, but you may want to think twice before installing it. There have been various reports of programs malfunctioning as a result of this security patch, particularly anti-virus software which you can read about here. Microsoft also has a knowledge base entry with details for those experiencing difficulties with Realtek Audio.
It’s a good thing that Microsoft is responding so quickly to users’ problems, but at the same time, it’s not all that helpful if your anti-virus goes down. I have not encountered any problems on my computer, but I would suggest uninstalling that update if you were forced to compensate your anti-virus software for the update.
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Let’s not mistaken this as another crack. This time, Microsoft has made life easy for pirates by allowing them to modify the Skiprearm registry entry.
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Whether you’re a new owner of a copy of Windows Vista or have been using Vista since it was released, these 10 articles are a must-read for any Vista user. Together, I have compiled the some of the best featured articles on Vista Rewired as well as a couple of great ones from other websites. I am sure you will find these extremely informative and helpful.
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Microsoft has provided a Daylight Saving Time Help and Support Center page to help those who have not received the DST update to adjust to the new DST which beings on March 11, 2007. In addition, the website will also help your programs adjust to this new time setting such as Windows Outlook, Windows Calendar, etc.
You can reach their website here.
It looks like VistaRewired has made it to the digg pages.
The notorious “digg effect” managed to keep our site down for about 8 hours from approximately 12:03 PM EST until 8:05 PM EST.
We thank all for their continual support and apologize that the site was down. We are hard at work trying to optimize our site so that doesn’t happen again. It appears wp-cache alone was not enough to withstand the visits.
If you know of anything that might be of help to us, please feel free to comment
Update: The owner of these photographs have decided to make them downloadable in high-resolution. You can download them here
If you thought the Vista wallpapers were amazing, wait till you look at these. Besides the photos that you’ve already seen, the same photographer had uploaded all the other photos he had taken for the Vista project that didn’t make it into the OS.
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