Vista Service Pack 1: What’s new?

March 10, 2008 · Filed Under Recent News · Comment 

Windows Vista has been a moderate success but hasn’t blown any of us away by any means.

Slow and steady adoption continues through upgrades and new system purchases.  Most critics cite security issues and ease-of-use as failures (UAC?!?).  As some features are pretty exasperating at times to use.

The primary goal of this new operating system form windows to to enhance security of the Windows Operating System. One setback for the Vista’s predecessor, the Windows XP, is that it was very susceptible to malware  and viruses which cause computer to either breakdown or be hacked.

Microsoft has been known for releasing service packs of their software to the public for eta btesting. This allows the company to add and improve the features of their latest product. On February 15, 2008, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 was introduced to the market, readily downloadable by beta end-users.

Aside from security, Microsoft also targeted performance as an added improvement to their latest operating system. Microsoft touts that Windows Vista SP1 has many enhancements as compared to the original Vista.

The key areas if these improvements are device support, power management, application compatibility, security, performance, and reliability.

One major improvement of the Windows SP1 is desktop search. Windows SP1 allows a user to change search engines from that of the built-in Windows search engine to a third party such as Google.

Another improvement is the introduction of a new security measure for Application Programming Interface (API) and this will bring in more security for users who are frequently practicing P2P or peer-to-peer file sharing.

Some see the SP1 release as acknowledgement from Microsoft that Vista was flawed.

Microsoft of course is merely doing what they always have - never first to market, but after constant revision they usually end up with a winner.

A quick rundown of some of the critiques of Vista and SP1.

Software Compatibility

Critics claim that so much codes have been changed in the Windows Vista that it causes many programs to crash and mutate. There are many observed side-effects upon usage of the operating system and it is not compatible with other existing programs designed for other Windows applications.

Laptop Battery Life

According to users, Windows Vista can drain a laptops battery faster than Windows XP because of its added features. Because of its higher requirements, higher power consumption is a side effect.

Hardware Compatibility

Although this speculation was dispelled when Microsoft announced the requirements for Windows Vista to run, many end-users cannot use the operating system if their computers are bought earlier than 2005. For some, they may use Vista but they cannot enjoy other features, as their computers’ hardware cannot support Windows Vista’s requirements. The impact is the level of frustration for many end users who purchased the product and yet cannot fully access its features.

Cost

Windows Vista was criticized as overpriced—more expensive than Windows XP.

All in all, this attempt of Microsoft to provide better operating system will have it wonders and flaws. As with any other product, nothing really comes perfect. The bad thing is, purchasing a new operating system such as this is not wise for people who are not computer savvy. And with computer savvy I do not mean the simple end use type. What I mean is really computer savvy in which the degree of knowledge extends to that of program compatibility. If you purchased this operating system and it does not support your other existing soft wares or programs, you will end up using your old one.

Performance

Many comparison tests have been run (you can pick and choose which are more believable). But consistently Vista does not show up as a better performing OS then XP.   Users were hopeful that the SP1 would rectify some of those stability and performance issues.  From reports of beta testers it appears unchanged.  Vista Sp1 appears on par or sub-par to XP on both stability and performance.

One could try to argue that the security gains on Vista are worth the performance hit -  but that’s just no fun.  You’d hope after 5 years of OS development things would improve across the board.

We will see what changes are made in the Vista Sp1 release which should hit windows update in the next week or two!

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