Microsoft continuously improves the Windows Vista® Operating System by providing ongoing updates while working with software and hardware vendors to help them to deliver improved compatibility, reliability and performance. These updates are provided to customers directly by our hardware and software partners, as well as from Microsoft in the form of hotfixes distributed on a regular basis using Windows Update. Updates to Windows are also delivered directly to some affected customers and preinstalled by PC manufacturers.
Windows Vista SP1 is an update to Windows Vista that, along with improvements delivered via these other channels, addresses feedback from our customers and partners. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack which will be thoroughly tested by Microsoft and by industry partners and customers during the beta cycle, Microsoft provides a single high quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.
In addition to all previously released updates, SP1 contains changes focused on addressing specific reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards. SP1 also continues to make it easier for IT administrators to deploy and manage Windows Vista. Service Packs are not intended to be a vehicle for releasing significant new features or functionality; however some existing components do gain slightly enhanced functionality in SP1 to support industry standards and new requirements.
This document describes many of the notable changes in Windows Vista SP1. For additional information about the changes in SP1, please see the forthcoming Knowledge Base (KB) article 936332, which is a compendium of all prior KB articles documenting updates to Windows Vista. Many of these updates are already publicly available and have been released via the Microsoft Download Center or Windows Update. All of these updates are included in Windows Vista SP1. The full list of these updates can be read in Hotfixes and Security Updates included in Windows Vista Service Pack 1 if(typeof(IsPrinterFriendly) != “undefined”) { var l = “/WindowsVista/en/library/20184cb6-7038-4e82-a32c-4bc10ffe56ab1033.mspx”; var nl; var c = l.charAt(0); var o = document.getElementById(“EIC”); switch (c){ case “/”: nl=(“ [http://" + document.domain + l + "]“); break case “#”: nl=(“”); break default: nl=” [" + l + "]” } if(o != null) o.innerHTML = nl; } .