Vista Performance and Reliability Pack hits the web prematurely

Don't look now, but Microsoft is apparently readying a Vista Performance and Reliability Pack for release, and while it's certainly not available through Windows Update just yet, that doesn't mean it's not hiding elsewhere. Reportedly, the aforementioned pack and the Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack will institute a number of welcome fixes and performance increases in a variety of areas, and though the list is indeed lengthy, a few notables include:

• Increased compatibility with many video drivers.
  
• Improved visual appearance of games with high intensity graphics.
  
• Improved quality of playback for HD DVD and Blu-ray disks on large monitors.
  
• Improved reliability for Internet Explorer when some third party toolbars are installed on Vista.
  
• Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from XP to Vista.
  
• Resolves an issue where creating AVI files on Vista may get corrupted.
  
• Improves the performance of Vista's Memory Manager in specific customer scenarios and prevents some issues which may lead to memory corruption.

So if all the red flags prove correct, Vista users can eagerly await an official release of the updates, or if you're the adventurous type, you can bypass the whole "waiting" thing altogether and get your download on immediately.

[Via TechSpot]

[MrGam3r @ Jul 30th 2007 7:03PM]

"Improved quality of playback for HD DVD and Blue-Ray disks on large monitors."


blue-ray disks? (BLU-RAY DISCS) lol seriously.......a big company like microsoft wrote that......come on!

[Jordan @ Jul 30th 2007 8:19PM]

You are correct in noting that blue should be blu, but the correct spelling in this context is Disk, not Disc.

[J. Evans Turner @ Jul 30th 2007 9:05PM]

Jordan:
Unless the disc is in a package, such as a caddy or sleeve, then it is just a DISC and NOT a "disk". Understand?

[E71 @ Jul 31st 2007 8:25AM]

I thought disks are square, like floppy discs and discs are round like CDs? Either way, I sure hope my dual X1900 cards now perform like they used to on XP not like some cheapo el budget 9200 series card.

[Dan @ Jul 31st 2007 10:41AM]

Let me put this disc vs. disk issue to bed.

From Dictionary.com:

Usage Note: When new words come into the language, they often have different forms for a period until one form wins out over the others. There are occasions when competing forms remain in use for a long time. The word disk and its descendant compound compact disk represent good examples of this phenomenon. Disk came into English in the mid-17th century and was originally spelled with a k on the model of older words such as whisk. The c-spelling arose a half century later as a learned spelling derived from the word's Latin source discus. Both disc and disk were used interchangeably into the 20th century, with people in Britain tending to use disc more often, and Americans preferring disk. The spellings also began to be sorted out by function. Late in the 19th century, for reasons that are not clear, people used disc to refer to the new method of making phonograph recordings on a flat plate (as opposed to Edison's cylindrical drum). In any case, the c-spelling became conventional for this sense, which is why we listen to disc jockeys and not disk jockeys. In the 1940s, however, when American computer scientists needed a term to refer to their flat storage devices, they chose the spelling disk, and this became conventionalized in such compounds as hard disk and floppy disk. When the new storage technology of the compact disk arose in the 1970s, both c- and k-spellings competed for an initial period. Computer specialists preferred the familiar k-spelling, while people in the music industry, who saw the shiny circular plates as another form of phonograph record, referred to them as compact discs. These tendencies soon became established practice in the different industries. This is why we buy compact disks in computer stores but get the same storage devices with different data as compact discs in music stores. Similarly, the computer industry created the optical disk, the format that the entertainment industry used to create the videodisc.

[Chris @ Jul 31st 2007 12:42PM]

Paragraphs FTL!

[Dan @ Jul 31st 2007 2:59PM]

I'll sum up:

Disk for computer related media.
Disc for music and video.

So it's a Blu-Ray Disc if it's a movie you bought, and a Blu-Ray Disk if it's a blank BRD? for burning whatever you want to it.

So, Jordan above is incorrect. It actually is a Blu-Ray Disc in that context (Movie playback).

Education FTW.

[E71 @ Aug 3rd 2007 9:19PM]

I still think disc is better spelling for circular discs and disk for stuff like floppy/hard/zip disks.

[elan @ Jul 30th 2007 7:16PM]

Please, please include a networking fix! Vista is somehow incompatible with routers featuring SPI (think Linksys WRT54g). My cable internet connection is crippled to mere dial up speeds. This update will never download anyway, I'll have to use a non-Vista computer to download the file, and transfer it over to this computer using a removable drive.

[dasgooch @ Jul 30th 2007 7:32PM]

I have that exact router and I am running 3 vista machines (mix of ultimate and enterprise) and have not had a single problem with download speeds. If anything Vista is more reliable than my Wife's laptop running XP MCE.

I have these patches installed and they are running great. Have definately noticed the difference on the File Copy estimating time problem.

[Neal @ Jul 30th 2007 7:37PM]

Same router as well Vista and works fine. When was the last firmon ware flash you performed on that Linksys?

[K @ Jul 31st 2007 11:39AM]

I'm using a Linksys WRT54GS v3 running DD-WRT and I have no issues with Vista. I could not speak to how the Linksys firmware works, since I have not used it in several years.

[Adrian Williams @ Jul 30th 2007 7:19PM]

I'm holding out for VPRP2

[m16 @ Jul 30th 2007 7:21PM]

much needed fix's...

[elan @ Jul 30th 2007 7:36PM]

I forgot to add the S. As in, WRT54GS. If it matters. This is a seriously terrible problem, and it's well-documented. I guess you got lucky...

[David Clark @ Jul 30th 2007 7:40PM]

I'm hoping this will fix my flash drive from disappearing after several minutes of use. Although I'm somewhat convinced this is a problem with my crappy flash drive and not my Vista box.

[LookUp4Help @ Aug 4th 2007 11:51AM]

I also hope some of the compatibility improvements will fix the constant IE crashing with Flash Player.

[Tim @ Jul 30th 2007 7:42PM]

...so this takes my Vista Home Premium Edition and upgrades it for free to Vista Home Premium The-Way-It-Should-Have-Been-Running Edition?

Awesome!

[Steve @ Jul 30th 2007 7:57PM]

I'll call and make sure that Dennis Kucinich has this installed on his campaign computers. It'll ensure that his computers are running efficiently, so more time can be spent campaigning.

[Neebs @ Jul 30th 2007 8:02PM]

EPIC FAIL.

[Neebs @ Jul 31st 2007 7:09PM]

Er, and if you're viewing this comment now it's because I was responding to blatant spam. Thanks!

[Eric @ Jul 30th 2007 8:18PM]

And it is Blu-ray not Blue-Ray....

[Pingspike @ Jul 30th 2007 8:33PM]

Bugger that lot. Only thing I want fixed is the god damn delay and glitchy move/copy dialogs. And the progress bar is useless, if it even works. It often might as well say "not done" and "done" for all the use it is.
Oh, and whilst im at it. The driver for the KWorld DVBT 100 just kills it (reboot), no BSOD anymore of course. Actually I'd rather have the BSOD with error messages which would at least help explain why, rather than a my PC just flat-line before my very eyes.
As%$£*5.

[Ryan Smith @ Jul 30th 2007 8:34PM]

Yea, I can finally use Itunes and have readyboost at the same time. Readyboost caused all kinds of problems with quicktime. No more error -36. Vista also seems faster, might be my imagination.

[onbox_james @ Jul 30th 2007 8:41PM]

is this like a service pack?

[LaserBrain @ Jul 30th 2007 8:53PM]

How about a fix so Vista users can watch videos in iTunes?!

[chris @ Jul 30th 2007 9:01PM]

Crawl back under the rock from which you came from.

[seoultrain @ Jul 30th 2007 9:04PM]

I think people running OSx86 would disagree with the statement that you can't steal OSX. Not only that, they didn't have to pay for overpriced Mac hardware.

[Seriously @ Jul 30th 2007 9:09PM]

It's supposed to be released next Tuesday:

"938979 Vista Performance and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the performance and responsiveness for some scenarios and improves reliability of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios. Some examples of the improvements contained in this update are:

* Improves performance in resuming back to the desktop from the Photo and Windows Energy screensaver.
* Resolves an issue where some secured web pages using advanced security technologies may not get displayed in Internet Explorer on Windows Vista.
* Resolves an issue where a shared printer may not get installed if the printer is connected to a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 system and User Access Control is disabled on the Vista client.
* Resolves an issue where creating AVI files on Vista may get corrupted.
* Improves the performance in calculating the ‘estimated time remaining’ when copying/moving large files.
* Improves performance in bringing up Login Screen after resuming from Hibernate.
* Resolves an issue where synchronization of offline files to a server can get corrupted.
* Resolves a compatibility issue with RAW images created by Canon EOS 1D/1DS Digital SLR Camera which can lead to data loss. This only affects RAW images created by these two specific camera models.
* Resolves an issue where a computer can lose its default Gateway address when resuming from sleep mode.
* Improves the performance when copying or moving entire directories containing large amounts of data or files.
* Improves the performance of Vista’s Memory Manager in specific customer scenarios and prevents some issues which may lead to memory corruption.

938194 Vista Compatibility and Reliability Pack
This update resolves a number of individual issues which may be affecting some computers running Windows Vista. These issues have been reported by customers using the Error Reporting service, product support, or other means. Installing this update will improve the reliability and hardware compatibility of Windows Vista in a variety of scenarios. Some examples of the improvements contained in this update are:

* Improved reliability and compatibility of Vista when used with newer graphics cards in several specific scenarios and configurations.
* Improved reliability when working with external displays on a laptop.
* Increased compatibility with many video drivers.
* Improved visual appearance of games with high intensity graphics.
* Improved quality of playback for HD-DVD and Blue-Ray disks on large monitors.
* Improved reliability for Internet Explorer when some third party toolbars are installed on Vista.
* Improved Vista reliability in networking configuration scenarios.
* Improved the reliability of Windows Calendar in Vista.
* Improved reliability of systems that were upgraded from XP to Vista.
* Increased compatibility with many printer drivers.
* Increased reliability and performance of Vista when entering sleep and resuming from sleep."

[Miles @ Jul 30th 2007 9:14PM]

You forgot all the viruses and spyware that come with it.

[Miles @ Jul 30th 2007 9:10PM]

And they have to wait 10 minutes for safari to load up xD

idoit

[Chris @ Jul 30th 2007 9:12PM]

Really?? How'd this copy of Mac OS X get on my Thinkpad then???

[Nomake @ Jul 30th 2007 9:43PM]

While all of that looks great, I see nothing suggesting they fixed the bug where Vista constantly forgets your folder settings. I was really hoping they'd hurry up and fix that, seeing as it's been reported like crazy...

Stop being a troll, Miles.

[Craig @ Jul 30th 2007 9:55PM]

yes, miles is a troll. why has he not been banned?

[Phred @ Jul 30th 2007 10:59PM]

Banning Miles has my vote and I'm a Mac user. He's the sort of moron that promotes fanboyizm to the benefit of no one.

[AdvWar @ Jul 31st 2007 3:26AM]

That thing with the folder settings really irritates me.

[mattclarkie @ Jul 31st 2007 6:17AM]

I have yet to suffer any of the issues reported with Vista. Apart from 98SE this has been my most reiable PC. Only problem I notice is that loading Wikipedia causes the IE to stop for 5-10s, but once it has loaded the homepage the computer returns to normal, and is fine searching wikipedia.

Hopefully the SP wont make my computer suffer the problems I don't get while trying to fix them. Each time XP did an update another part of it would function slower or less reliably.

I think it is a case of making sure all you components are compatible fully with Vista to get the best out of it. I must note I have Ultimate x64, maybe the problems are isolated to x86 systems.

[BlissX @ Jul 30th 2007 10:10PM]

Miles is obviously a retard. Because we all know someone who's familar with the internet can easily avoid getting Viruses or Spyware without any protection. I did it for 6 months before I got my first virus (totally my fault for searching a gen.)

I'm proud Apple has made an OS that enables idiots such as Miles to feel like he's contributed something worthwhile to the world. What's that you ask? The economy, silly.

[Mr. Vage @ Jul 30th 2007 11:05PM]

Psh, 6 months is nothing. I went years without virus protection (actually i had it, but it was never updated so it wasn't doing anything). After about 5 years without protection, I finally got some. 8 years and still virus free on all of my computers!

[boe @ Jul 30th 2007 10:17PM]

Performed testing - still 60% slower copying disk to disk in Vista than XP on identical hardware. Performed network testing still 170% slower than using XP on the same machine to copy files. The patch did however increase network copying speed by 20%. I copied a directory of 1 GIG containing 11 files. The PC had over 50% disk free, had a core 2 2.4 GHZ process 2 gigs of memory and the latest drivers for Vista direct from the manufacturer.

[Aaron @ Jul 31st 2007 3:03AM]

Hmm, I don't have that problem. Copying files on Vista is nice and quick for me. At least as fast as XP, if not better. I have heard claims from both sides, though. It's faster for some and slower for others. Not sure why, but since it works better for some, I would guess it's not necessarily a problem with Vista, right?

[boe @ Jul 31st 2007 9:43AM]

Actually it is a confirmed issue with Vista. At first MS claimed it was because of bad drivers by hardware manufacturers, then they claimed it was because of improperly configured indexing by the end user, then it was claimed it was caused by third party antivirus or firewalls. Eventually MS confirmed there is an issue (it only took 5 months and MANY MANY MANY posts on all their newsgroups and paid calls by people seeking tech support from MS on the issue and a few tech jounalists posting the issue in magazines such as PC magazine. They aren't exactly broadcasting this issue but if you search, you can find it is a confirmed issue. I discovered it the same day I got Vista for one of my clients who insisted they wanted it. I tested out identical machines all with identical hardware with very vanilla configurations, the latest drivers and EVERYTHING turned off that could be such as third party TSRs, indexing, any overhead. All machines were at least core2 machines with 2 gigs of ram and had the latest drivers from the manufacturers for all hardware. MS denied my claims of performance because it was only out a day and there was no way it could have been released with such a major flaw - turns out they were either lying or never did any performance testing in their labs. For some an easy comparison test to see the difference was to run XP in a virtual session within Vista - copying shouldn't be any better yet the numbers prove that Vista is significantly slower at file copys and moves.

A common thought is that the DRM testing in Vista (not in any previous version of Windows) is the cause of the issue - it seems possible to me that might be the case. Many people don't do that much file copying or transfering and only work in standalone environments (not networks) so the issue isn't as noticeable to them. However one reason most businesses have not adopted Vista is this issue that MS doesn't like to comment about. This patch is designed to address it to some degree but doesn't come close to fixing it.

[joe @ Jul 30th 2007 10:24PM]

Take it from a M$ fan. I would never run a M$ OS before SP1. After SP2 is when it gets great. I still don't run Vista and won't until there is some killer App that won't run on XP. For the people that bought premium edition I also have some swamp land for sale.

[michael @ Jul 30th 2007 10:38PM]

For an M$ fan, you sure love to place that old '$' in, don't you? And since lots of companies make profit, it's a big surprise.

I don't know if it's just me, or the small minority of the Earth, but Vista's running great on my Vaio. The only problem I can think of it just 1 or 2 games wouldn't work. That's about all.

But SP1 should be great. I'm quite certain that many people will move on to Vista now. Considering, it's now a tradition to wait until a SP comes out. Good luck waiting a long time for SP2.

[joe @ Jul 30th 2007 10:48PM]

No argument there. I didn't know the $ isn't clever anymore.

[Huy @ Jul 30th 2007 10:52PM]

Hey, at least we don't have to pay $120 for this when it releases! Or heck, wait for new features like our counterparts. Not that I don't love the look of Apple hardware.

[Luigi @ Jul 31st 2007 12:29AM]

Yes, Huy, of course Apple makes you pay 120$ every 6 months for a reliability service pack. In reality, Apple sends out 10.x.x updates every so often (usually once every two months) that do for OS X what this reliability pack does for Vista.

Apple puts out an OS X release about every 2-3 years. All of these provided brand new features, performance enhancements, and new frameworks. Take 10.5, Leopard for example. Not only are you getting the cool end user features such as spaces, the new dashboad widgets, new dock, new menubar, stacks, ext. Apple also includes many under the hood improvements such as core animation which allows for flashier animations and user interfaces, (as well as makes them much easier to write), full 64bit support through the application level, and better, more efficient use of multicore processors to name a few.

Apple puts out alot of releases of OS X, and sure, they do cost money, but most of them are really worth it. Just because each version isn't named OS 11, OS 12, ext. doesn't mean it isn't a major update.

[Dinraj @ Jul 31st 2007 7:12AM]

@ Luigi
You sure know "300 new features" doesn't mean new features but performance upgrades/ changes like the one MS is offering here. I can find a free 3rd party application for every "revolutionary" piece of new software apple adds to OS X.

Admit it, you pay $129 for a SERVICE PACK every second year. Cat names are running out. Wonder what's the next service pack gonna be called.

[Luigi @ Jul 31st 2007 4:15PM]

@ Dinraj:

Leopard is to tiger like vista is to xp. Vista has a few new features, new development tools and many under the hood improvements. Leopard also has new features, as well as a new version of Xcode and new applications for building and testing apps, and many new things under the hood such as full 64bit support to the application level, and core animation.

Apple does release service packs in the form of 10.x.x updates. Tiger on my macbook works perfectly fine. Very fast and stable.

I'm sorry that you don't like Apple, but Leopard is worth the 130$. Before screaming out BS, why don't you learn the facts. With your logic, Vista could be considered to be a service pack to xp, which we all know it isn't.

[Dinraj @ Aug 1st 2007 12:02PM]

@Luigi

Maybe you should learn about platforms. Vista is NOT build over XP. Vista was built on a skeleton Windows Server 2003 codebase. So it's not like leopard which is built on top.

Leopard is like Windows XP 2. XP2 had 'under-the-hood improvements in the codebase, new features. I could find "300 new features" in XP 2, if someone paid me.

This entry talked about performance upgrades. I get vista upgrades every second week alongwith security updates ever since I bought mine in april - Your 10.x.x release types. This one's a nice pack that would probably patch the kernel itself for bugs.

Really sorry, seems like you need another reason to justify paying for your OS X service packs.