Windows Vista SP1 Officially Released

By Geoff Duncan Published June 19, 2018

Windows Vista SP1 Officially Released — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Although it’s been available as a retail offering for a little while now, Microsoft has officially released Windows Vista SP1, the long-anticipated updated to its flagship computer operating system. The update weighs in at over 400 megabytes (almost 730 MB for the 64-bit version!) and rather than focusing on slick new features, Vista SP1 includes almost two dozen security updates and 550 hot fixes. Vista SP1 is currently available for users of English, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese versions of Windows Vista, with versions for additional languages coming in early April. Microsoft recommends users install Vista SP1 using Windows Update; users who want to update using a standalone installer should install prerequisite driver updates first via Windows Update.

Vista SP1 includes a multitude of tweaks and fixes, including compatibility fixes for DirectX 9 and 10, support for Direct3D 10.1, additional support for third party search tools, support for Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI), and improved support for high-density drives (like Blu-ray and HD DVD media). The update also includes a swath of updates intended to let applications run more smoothly, and fixes intended to improve Vista’s own reliability, including fixes for Windows Media Layer and many drivers bundled with Vista. The update should also improve Vista’s performance copying files, reading images, starting up and shutting down, and printing fixes.

Recommended Videos

Vista SP1 is an important update for Microsoft: many enterprises have put off upgrading to Vista until its first service pack became available to address known issues and compatibility problems. And Microsoft has not had an easy time getting Vista SP1 out the door: at first, the company planned to hold back release until it manufacturers could complete Vista-compatible drivers, but relented and offered a beta version to users who wanted (or needed) to jump on the release regardless of driver availability—and even briefly let the 64-bit version out the door by accident. Reports of application compatibility problems with Vista SP1 surfaced quickly, but Microsoft is expressing optimism that Windows users—and the all-important enterprise customers—will embrace the update.

Former Contributor

Geoff Duncan writes, programs, edits, plays music, and delights in making software misbehave. He's probably the only member…

Computing

Google Earth’s AI misadventure lasted only a day. It was a tale of dangerous ignorance.

Nuclear reactors, tanks, and historical destruction on a life-like satellite map? Yeah, that's bad.

Nano Banana AI image generator representation.

Technology behemoths are clearly not reading the room, or they are just moving faster than they should when it comes to AI deployment. Google has already stuffed its Gemini AI in every corner of its software stack, from Android to daily productivity tools like Gmail that are used by hundreds of millions of users every day. AI is everywhere. Not all of it is bad, mind you. But in a few places, it just feels forced.

In its latest AI-fication experiment, the company targeted Google Earth. The idea was to let the audience use its Nano Banana 2 AI image generator and make images that can be placed on the map view. On paper, it's a cool idea. What would the Colosseum of Rome look like in your urban neighborhood? Yeah, fun stuff like that.

Computing

AMD is apparently gearing up to raise GPU prices right after Nvidia’s steep hike

AMD has reportedly told AIB partners about a price hike that goes into effect in. August.

AMD RX 7800

AMD is next in line to raise the asking price of its Radeon GPUs, merely days after the news of a similar hike coming for Nvidia graphics cards started making waves. As per ChannelGate on Weibo (h/t VideoCardz), AMD has informed its board partners that the price of GPU and memory bundles will go up by at least 10% in August.

Is a similar price hike coming for standalone graphics cards? I won't be surprised if that happens. The situation is so bad that AMD is planning to bring back graphics cards with 4GB of onboard memory. AMD just introduced the RX 9050 GPU, which costs $279. Notably, it's just $20 less than the RX 9060 XT that offers double the graphics memory.

Computing

Microsoft will make Windows work well with just 8GB RAM. We desperately need it

The dream of a reliable and affordable Windows laptop hinges on the next milestone at Microsoft.

Surface laptop on wooden table

The year 2026 has marked a huge course correction for Microsoft after years of frustrating users with plenty of confusing processes, unoptimized UI elements, and just the generous bloatware that can bring any Windows system to a crawl. Microsoft has finally shifted into a new phase. From fixing the right-click behavior to speeding up the Search system, the company has fixed plenty of papercuts.

The next major milestone is making Windows 11 run smoothly on Windows PCs with just 8GB of RAM. That directly means entry-level and budget laptops will at least get the basics right, even if that means sacrificing the on-device AI bells and whistles. Let's face it. The increasingly AI-first approach to computing on a Windows 11 machine is a little too taxing on the hardware at hand.