Microsoft has released the first Windows Vista Service Pack for public download, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. The two packs can be downloaded manually from Microsoft’s website, but will not be passed on to all users via Windows Update until next month. Boxed versions with Vista SP1 preinstalled is already available in stores and will replace the non-SP1 packs. While Microsoft does say that a number of the things that were still causing problems in the last release candidate have been fixed, there are still a few known bugs and driver-related issues left to be resolved.
The main improvements are suppose to be performance, compatibility, reliability and security. Amusingly, several of Symantec’s applications are on the list of applications that are not working with SP1, but they are aware of this and updates should be rolled out soon.
SP1 is only available in five languages at this point; English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese, while the remaining 20 or so languages will have to wait at least another month.
