Under pressure of their partners and the press, Microsoft finally revealed the official information on what can be expected from the first service pack for Windows Vista, and named the approximate date of the release.
Vista Service Pack 1 will be available in the first quarter of 2008, the beta version can be expected in mid-September. Let’s remember, that the corporation has already released the so-called Beta Preview release which is available to a small group of testers. In mid-September, access to beta Pack will be given to around 10-15 thousand people. Microsoft has no plans to recruit new beta testers for the program, and will contact only those with whom it had worked during testing Vista and Windows Server 2008.
The first Service Pack for Vista will not include any major changes or innovations. That is why Microsoft says that users may not wait for its release to start implementing Vista on workstations. SP1 will include improvements relating to the reliability, security and system performance.
Since SP1 has been released, home users will be able to download it through Windows Update. The size of the update will be about 50 MB. For business users, it will be more difficult: the fact that the package will include all languages, its size will be about 1 GB for 32-bit version of the system and its installation will require 7 GB of free space.
