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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This is an amazing feature that I have seen on my computer a year ago but I can’t believe I never touched it until recently. I was able to free up gigabytes of spaces on many of my drives using this feature. And this was the result:
Before:
After (7.5GB freed):
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When Apple revealed Leopard with their brand new Time Machine feature which allows you to backup individual files from different time periods, everyone was in awe. However, what many do not know is that Vista is also equipped with a similar feature. Yes, you can restore deleted files or previously saved versions of your files on Windows Vista.
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This is an interesting feature I found while trying to compare Windows Vista Experience Index scores with my friends. Other than boasting purposes, this is also a good way to find out what parts your computer is made of, as well as the speed of your computer parts. It displays the model of your CPU, basic motherboard info, hard drive info, video card info, and network card info. I’ll also go into how to analyze the information for computer upgrades after explaining how to access this hardware summary feature. Although if you are using this feature for the purpose of upgrading and you are ready to download software, skip this tutorial immediately and go download PC Wizard. The reason why I wrote this was because many wanted a feature like this without having to download an extra piece of software.
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System Restore is a feature in Windows Vista that allows you to take periodic backups of your system files, registry files, and system configuration. So if your computer ever runs into trouble, it can rollback its settings to a time when your computer was operating properly. Although System Restore can be very convenient since it’s very quick, it cannot compare as an alternative to formatting your hard-drive. System Restore will only restore your system files and configurations to a previous state, and will not affect any of your other files (documents, videos, music, etc) in any way.
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Honestly speaking, when was the last time the Disk Cleanup actually freed up a significant amount of data so you could comfortably use your hard drive? It was probably so far back ago that you don’t remember. Instead of using the usual Windows Disk Cleanup, we will be using a program called CCleaner that managed to remove 11X more data than the Windows Utility during my test.
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One feature Microsoft took out of its defragment tool in Vista is the ability to view how fragmented your hard-drive is during the analyze process. But that won’t stop you from knowing how fragmented your hard-drive is becuase there is still a way to find that information. This tutorial will show you your percent file fragmentation and Windows will decide if you need to defragment your volume.
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Recently, Microsoft has just released a free piece of software that allows you to run two operating systems (later than Windows 98) at the same time on your PC. The program is called Microsoft Virtual PC 2007. It’s great that you can now do more with your computer, but with new software comes new questions. Here, we have written for you a quick-start guide to Virtual PC 2007.
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The never-ending two-step defragmenting process of Vista can soon become a thing of the past. With certain tools, we were able to cut defragmentation time of 25 GBs of files with Vista Ultimate from 82 minutes to 6 minutes!!! That is defragmenting 10X faster than the built-in Vista defragmenter! The tutorial also works with Windows 2000 and XP.
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Because programs such as Partition Magic don’t work on Windows Vista, some of you may be wondering how to resize partitions without losing any data. The good news is that you probably won’t be needing those programs because Windows Vista can manage your partition resizing.
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