Vista SP1, A Review (Page 1 of 4 )
On Tuesday, March 18, Microsoft made Windows Vista SP1 available for download through its website and Windows Update. This article will go over what improvements this initial Service Pack will bring to current Vista users along with the issues that potential users should be aware of before downloading it. Vista hasn't exactly been the toast of the town since its release last year, so we'll see what SP1 does to alter people's perceptions.
I recently wrote an article covering the price cuts made to retail versions of Vista and the possible causes. What I found out was that Vista seemed to be lacking in terms of hardware compatibility and the overall user experience. Additionally, Microsoft was steeped in a cover-up scandal regarding Vista's “capability” right around the time the cuts were announced. But this is all past (of course, so was the last paragraph, but I digress) and SP1 should be given a chance to prove itself. After all, it's supposed to make Vista better. How much better? We'll have to see.
As it stands now, SP1 is only available in English, Spanish, German, French, and Japanese. The remaining languages are expected to become available this month. Coincidentally, this is also when SP1 will be obtainable through automatic update. Its major improvements focus mainly on reliability and performance, support for new hardware and standards, and administration experience. A lot of the information I give about these three areas will have come from an article, by Mark Edward Soper of informIT.com. The article has much more technical detail than I will be giving here, so I urge you to check it out.
As far as the performance improvements are concerned, SP1 addresses many of the complaints attributed to Vista RTM (Released to Manufacture – the original version), such as its file copy operations and network file share browsing. Soper lists the following performance improvements:
Faster file copying to and extraction from compressed (zipped) folders
Faster file copying when using BITS
25% faster file copying on the same machine
45% faster remote copying from a non-Vista SP1 system to a Vista SP1 system
50% faster remote copying between Vista SP1 systems
More accurate estimates of file copying time
Less bandwidth used when browsing network shares
Better use of bandwidth when Remote Desktop Protocol is in use
Moves folders with complex structures faster
Responds better to Copy + Delete files and other media operations
Reads large images 50% faster
Better IE7 performance on sites using a lot of JavaScript
Faster booting with specific ReadyDrive-capable hard disks
Resume is faster when ReadyBoost is used
Better Superfetch performance
Improvements in the shutdown, resume from standby, and unlocking PC operations
The next section will cover the new hardware/software support, the improvements in administration experience, and some other tidbits that could be of interest to you.
Next: Hardware and Software >>
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