Kshitiz_Indian
Executive member
- Joined
- Apr 9, 2006
- Location
- New Delhi, India
Hey guys. Yep, that's the latest(though not very latest) news that Windows Vista SP1 was released on tuesday. Many of you might have already downloaded it but for those who haven't, I happened to start this thread.
The stand-alone installer(which I find more appropriate) can be found here. Although Windows Update has a smaller download, but the size premium is justified when you know that you don't have to deal with stupid pre-requisite updates. With this installer, you just need to install it.
Now before I give my views on Vista SP1, I would like to give a couple of tips to people who want to do it, so that their experience is good with it. I happen to know all this because I've been trying to install this from Wed, while only succeeding yesterday. Here we go.
And you should be ready to go. Now it comes down to views. Ahem....
My views are that yes, Vista SP1 has hit the nail on the head. Its returned the "snappy" feeling to windows, and a whole lot of stability and compatibility issues have been fixed. For example, Gamespy arcade did not work pre-SP1, but now it does. There have been numerous other fixes. Plus, the speed and memory management of the computer has been greatly improved. So I would say that yes, go for SP1, provided you follow the tips above, which would make sure a cleaner and safer install.
Now thinking about whether it is better or worse than xp is one's own choice. In my view, Microsoft has done their job well with SP1, and now its upto manufacturers and software companies to make better drivers and softwares for vista, or atleast make them compatible. XP has long matured, and therefore has that advantage, but we need to move on, And vista SP1 does provide the way finally.
I would really like others to also install SP1 and let us know their views. Cheers.
Kshitiz
The stand-alone installer(which I find more appropriate) can be found here. Although Windows Update has a smaller download, but the size premium is justified when you know that you don't have to deal with stupid pre-requisite updates. With this installer, you just need to install it.
Now before I give my views on Vista SP1, I would like to give a couple of tips to people who want to do it, so that their experience is good with it. I happen to know all this because I've been trying to install this from Wed, while only succeeding yesterday. Here we go.
- Make sure you have atleast 5 GB of space in the drive you have installed Vista. Even though Vista recommends 4 GB, its must safer to go 5 GB.
- Make sure that you don't have any updates in Windows update that have "failed" to install. You can check this by going to windows update and clicking on "View update history". If there is any one as failed, SP1 WONT install. That's one of the major problems I had too.
- If you have any drivers like Realtek Audio or Intel GMA, uninstall them for a safer install of SP1. You can download the latest drivers and install them later.
- Incase you do have the "failed" update problem, you have two options. The first is, that you insert your vista DVD and run an upgrade. This way, you won't lose out on any of your settings or data but the upgrade will reset your windows update problems, hence losing both, the installed and failed updates. But don't worry, when you install SP1, you won't need them, as SP1 already includes them. The second option is to contact Microsoft Technical Support about it, though I didn't get a response from them for 2 days.
- Also, do check out Microsoft's own tips on doing this too.
And you should be ready to go. Now it comes down to views. Ahem....
My views are that yes, Vista SP1 has hit the nail on the head. Its returned the "snappy" feeling to windows, and a whole lot of stability and compatibility issues have been fixed. For example, Gamespy arcade did not work pre-SP1, but now it does. There have been numerous other fixes. Plus, the speed and memory management of the computer has been greatly improved. So I would say that yes, go for SP1, provided you follow the tips above, which would make sure a cleaner and safer install.
Now thinking about whether it is better or worse than xp is one's own choice. In my view, Microsoft has done their job well with SP1, and now its upto manufacturers and software companies to make better drivers and softwares for vista, or atleast make them compatible. XP has long matured, and therefore has that advantage, but we need to move on, And vista SP1 does provide the way finally.
I would really like others to also install SP1 and let us know their views. Cheers.
Kshitiz
