Windows Vista

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.

The Event Viewer tool in recent versions of Windows is a useful means to understand some of the things that happen on your computer, especially when you’re looking for why an error of some kind occurred.

In its simplest sense, Event Viewer records details of every single thing going on in your computer. What the operating system is doing, what applications are doing, what you’re doing.

I was looking for something just now in the event log for Windows Vista and came across some entries for the web browser, in this case Internet Explorer.

Take a look at this screenshot:

Notice anything odd?

The two red circles will give you an idea - a spelling mistake!

It’s "browser" not "bowser." I’d also give it an initial cap, in common with other descriptors.

If Microsoft programmers make a simple spelling mistake like this, what else isn’t right, I wonder?

Something to add to my overall sense of disquiet about Windows Vista.

That’s a question I’ve been asking myself every time I check the results of any Windows updates, or do a manual check myself.

Every time, the screen shows this:

Ever since I installed Windows Vista Ultimate on my Dell desktop PC last April, only one Ultimate Extra has ever shown up via Windows Update.

That one is DreamScene, and it’s pretty cool.

But that’s it. Nothing else since.

Quite a few people are asking: Are there any Ultimate Extras?

Love to see some answers from Microsoft.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 could be released on Monday February 4, according to TechARP:

[...] Microsoft will be deploying Service Pack 1 in two "waves". Wave 0, which is the one released on February 4, will only include five languages - English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. The second wave, Wave 1, is scheduled for release 1-2 weeks later, and will cover all 36 basic languages, including Chinese.

Even if it does appear tomorrow, I’m going to wait until the install is delivered via Windows Update - let your computer figure out what’s the best way to install it.

Even if rumours about tomorrow aren’t true, it does look as though the release is imminent.

Related post:

• Vista SP1 RC1 Refresh didn’t