Amidst all the conflicting reports about Vista Service Pack 1 (some say it'll arrive soon, some say 18 months from now), the fact of the matter is that some people have a beta of SP1 already, and that means it's now been leaked to the rest of the world. APC acquired and installed that beta, and posted some opinions on it here. Here's what you need to know.

Performance is "very noticeably " improved, with "far less hard drive thrashing " and better responsiveness.

There's only one new feature included in SP1: A "Create a Recovery Disc " system that lets you build your own recovery DVD which lets you create a new install disc without a Vista install disc. Sounds useful.
There are over 130 updates included (rumor confirmed), but little information on how exactly these updates work or what they do. APC includes a long list of components that have been updated, but no news on what exactly has been fixed in them. It's not their fault: Since Microsoft hasn't released the beta officially, APC has no way of knowing. That said, various changes (likely just stability bug fixes for the most part) have been made to a wide variety of services, including the backup system, indexer, MovieMaker, IIS web server, remote assistance, tablet PC system, and storage management. Look at the list about halfway down the linked post: Virtually no part of Vista appears to have gone untouched.
The two fixes released last week are also included.

As for their opinion, APC doesn't speak much about its hands-on experience except to say that those performance improvements are worth the price of the upgrade alone. Frankly, that's good enough for me.

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Testers can download the BETA Here [techies only] (Be sure to read the pre-install directions.)

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=be34577a-e925-48fb-9d6d-50fe9461f808 &DisplayLang=en

Windows Vista SP1 Details List

Quality Improvements

These improvements target some of the issues Microsoft has identified as the most common causes of operating system crashes and hangs, giving customers a more
reliable experience. These updates also improve performance in key scenarios—for example, when copying files or shutting down the computer.

Security
Security improvements that will be in Windows Vista SP1 include:

• Provides security software vendors a more secure way to communicate with Windows Security Center.
 
• Includes application programming interfaces (APIs) by which third-party security and malicious software detection applications can work with
kernel patch protection on x64 versions of Windows Vista. These APIs help ISVs develop software that extends the functionality of the Windows
kernel on x64 computers without disabling or weakening the protection offered by kernel patch protection.
 
• Improves the security of running RemoteApp programs and desktops by allowing Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) files to be signed. Customers can
differentiate user experiences based on publisher identity.
 
• Strengthens the cryptography platform with a redesigned random number generator, which leverages the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), when present,
for entropy and complies with the latest standards. The redesigned RNG uses the AES-based pseudo-random number generator (PRNG) from NIST Special
Publication 800-90 by default. The Dual Elliptical Curve (Dual EC) PRNG from SP 800-90 is also available for customers who prefer to use it.
 
• Enhances BitLocker Drive Encryption (BDE) to offer an additional multifactor authentication method that combines a key protected by the Trusted
Platform Module (TPM) with a Startup key stored on a USB storage device and a user-generated personal identification number (PIN).
 

Reliability
Windows Vista SP1 will include improvements that target some of the most common causes of crashes and hangs, giving users a more consistent experience.
Many of these improvements will specifically address issues identified from the Windows Error Reporting tool.
The following list describes some of the reliability improvements that Windows Vista SP1 will include:

• Improved reliability and compatibility of Windows Vista when used with newer graphics cards in several specific scenarios and configurations.
 
• Improved reliability when working with external displays on a laptop.
 
• Improved Windows Vista reliability in networking configuration scenarios.
 
• Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from Windows XP to Windows Vista.
 
• Increased compatibility with many printer drivers.
 
• Increased reliability and performance of Windows Vista when entering sleep and resuming from sleep.
 

Performance

• Improves the speed of copying and extracting files.
 
• Improves the time to become active from Hibernate and Resume modes.
 
• Improves the performance of domain-joined PCs when operating off the domain; in the current release version of Windows Vista,
users would experience long delays when opening the File dialog box.
 
• Improves battery life by reducing CPU utilization by not redrawing the screen as frequently, on certain computers.
 
• Improves the logon experience by removing the occasional 10-second delay between pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and the password prompt displaying.
 
• Addresses an issue in the current version of Windows Vista that makes browsing network file shares consume significant bandwidth and not perform as fast as expected.
 

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