Today, following an overnight update with a bunch of hotfixes and patches as part of Microsoft’s patch Tuesday for April, Windows Update offered Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista for my Dell XPS 420.
Although SP1 has been available since mid March, it’s only now that it will be offered via Windows Update in a more universal manner.
That’s primarily because there have been some technical issues which have now been resolved by Microsoft as well as by some software vendors.
I decided to wait for SP1 via Windows Update rather than grab the install file directly and do a manual update. The issues now resolved were quite complex; unless you’re at the bleeding edge or really know your way around the innards of Vista, it’s worth letting Windows Update ensure your PC really is ready for SP1, and then letting it install it.
The installation itself went wholly smoothly. It took about an hour in total including three reboots.
Once it’s all done, check the system information from Control Panel.
There you’ll see ‘Service Pack 1′ shown in the ‘Windows edition’ dialogue. I also noticed something interesting - in my case, this info now shows the full amount of installed system memory (4Gb); before, it showed only 3.2Gb. There is a reason for this which has been resolved with SP1.
So installing SP1 went without a hitch.
That’s how it’s all supposed to work, so my experience is a good one.
I did do some preparation beforehand including all the steps recommended by Microsoft in order to ensure the PC was ready for Windows Update to be able to offer SP1. This is especially so re video and audio drivers.
If you have any issues, you’ll be glad to learn that Microsoft is offering free tech support through 2009 for Vista SP1.
But if you prepare before deploying, you shouldn’t need it.
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