Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Was Released To Manufacturing

Today Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista to manufacturing (RTM) for the first set of languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese).

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is a very important milestone because it addresses many of the key issues that customers have identified with Windows Vista over the last year both, directly and through programs like the Customer Experience Improvement Program. With Service Pack 1, Microsoft has made great progress in performance, reliability and compatibility.

Performance improvements vary from PC to PC based on hardware, environment, scenarios, and usage, so different customers will experience varying levels of benefits. About 20-25% of these improvements will be released separately via Windows update, prior to Windows Vista SP1.

Notable performance changes included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1:

• 25% faster when copying files locally on the same disk on the same machine
• 45% faster when copying files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system
• 50% faster when copying files from a remote SP1 system to a local SP1 system
• Includes improvements to Windows Superfetch™ that help to further improve resume times, in many environments.
• Improves the performance of browsing network file shares by consuming less bandwidth.
• Improves the speed of adding and extracting files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder.

Notable security changes included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1:

• SP1 includes Secure Development Lifecycle process updates, where Microsoft identifies the root cause of each security bulletin and improves our internal tools to eliminate code patterns that could lead to future vulnerabilities.
• Service Pack 1 includes supported APIs by which third-party security and malicious software detection applications can work alongside Kernel Patch Protection on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. These APIs have been designed to help security and non-security ISVs develop software that extends the functionality of the Windows kernel on 64-bit systems, in a documented and supported manner, and without disabling or weakening the protection offered by Kernel Patch Protection.
• Improves the security of running RemoteApp™ programs and desktops by allowing RDP files to be signed. Administrators now have the control to differentiate the user experience based on the publisher’s identity.
• Data Execution Protection (DEP) is a memory-protection feature available beginning with Windows XP and Server 2003. SP1 improves security with a new set of Win32 APIs to allow programmatic control over a process’s DEP policy. This will provide application developers with finer control on a process’s DEP settings for security, testability, compatibility, and reliability.
• Improves the trustworthiness of data presented in Windows Security Center (WSC) by ensuring that only authenticated security applications can communicate with WSC.
• Improves security on wired networks by enabling single sign on (SSO) for authenticated wired networks. The single sign on experience presents the user with a single point of credential entry rather than being double prompted for local and network logon.

Here’s the timing for SP1 availability for current Windows Vista users:

Note: This blog entry was originally posted on thewindowsblog.net. View original post