The wide release of Vista SP1 draws near being about a month away.  Users that installed the pre-release versions of Vista SP1 will be familiar with two updates that had to be installed before the service pack could be downloaded and installed.  These same updates will be hitting Windows Update in order to prepare everyone not using a pre-release or final version of the pack, for the update.

The year, end of 2006, the problem, Microsoft won’t be able to ship Vista until early 2007, the solution, come up with a bait and switch campaign to sell PCs with Windows XP.  This campaign led to confusion among consumers and even Microsoft employees.  Manufacturers were allowed to label PCs with either a Vista Capable or Premium Ready sticker.

If you just can’t wait until March for Vista SP1, you now have two options of obtaining it early.  Any number of torrent sites have it available, see our thoughts on that before proceeding.  Or, you can download a copy of Vista SP1 from Microsoft’s OEM partner site.  This version is not meant for individuals so there is still a question of legality here.

  Microsoft said that Vista SP1 would disable two of the most common hacks for making illegal copies of the operating system “think” they were legitimate.  The two hacks are the OEM BIOS and the grace timer exploit.  The OEM BIOS hack attempted to make the copy legitimate by telling the operating system that it was installed from a manufacture like HP, Acer or other.  The grace timer hack just kept resetting the “time bomb” that told Vista when to deactivate.  Both have been shown to work.  But they work no more, not with Vista SP1.

You can never be too safe with a computer that’s connected to the Internet.  In addition to your firewall, antivirus and antimalware protection, here is another layer of defense to be considered.

There you have it.  Windows 7 may not save us after all.  It’s not that Vista is bad but it could be so much better.  Microsoft was hoping that was Vista SP1 would do only it didn’t.  The industry was hoping that Windows 7 would be the “anti-Vista” as it has been called by some but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen either.

Microsoft has talked and talked and talked about the performance enhancements present in Vista SP1.  Some are there, others are not and in certain instances, Vista SP1 is slower than pre-SP1 Vista (aka Vista SP0).  The main area where Vista with SP1 seems to be slower is file copying.  Vista was always slower than XP at file copying but Vista SP1 takes it to entirely new levels of slow.

Not a few days after Vista SP1 went RTM it’s showing up online.  But not from Microsoft, that would be too easy.  A number of third party download sites have the final version of Vista SP1 available for download.  The company will probably take a dim view of this but they’re going to release it anyway but it’s still one of those “gray” areas.

A few weeks ago several screen shots of early Windows 7 builds began circulating but many called it into question because it looked like Vista.  It more than looked liked Vista, the version number was similar to the one used in Vista.  That’s because it was basically Vista but not completely.

Microsoft knows that Vista’s kernel wasn’t the best when it was released.  The company is doing what any large company with an almost unlimited budget would do, cover up and replace but not really talk about it.  The original kernel included with Vista will be scrapped when Vista SP1 ships.

If you wanted to get your hands on any of the Vista SP1 RC (release candidate) versions, it may be too late.  You can still download the registry “hack” from several third party sites but it seems as though the update has been pulled from both the website and Windows Update.

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer has confirmed that Vista SP1 has been released to manufacturing.  Earlier rumors said that Vista SP1 would be available February 4.  That’s not the case, although it has been released to manufacturing, it will not be available until March.  Additionally, Windows Server 2008 has been released to manufacturing as well.

A few tech sites are reporting that Microsoft will be releasing Vista SP1 on February 4 (tomorrow at the time of this post).  Previous rumors had pegged February 15 as the date it would be released.  Anything is possible and neither of those dates are a “Tuesday.”  Microsoft likes releasing updates on Tuesday but that doesn’t necessarily apply to Service Packs.

It’s not every day you see computer shops offering to remove an operating system.  With many users unhappy with Vista, a small town shop proudly advertises it’s “Vista removal service, XP installed.”  This could very easily spread to big box retailers as well but unlike small shops, they get a benefit for pushing sales of Vista.