Microsoft releases changelog for Vista SP1 RC

Those of you clamoring for a public beta of Vista SP1 Release Candidate can spend your weekend brushing up on what all is going to change when that download finally goes live. Available now on Microsoft's website is a sizable document outlining "notable changes" in the forthcoming update, which includes improvements in application compatibility, hardware ecosystem support, reliability, performance / power consumption, security, desktop administration, support for new technologies / standards and interoperability. If we tried to even hit the highlights, all but the most vigilant would probably doze off before they could scroll down to the next post, so we'll just advise the curious to hit the links below and cancel every plan you had for the next 30 or so hours.

[Via I Started Something]

[Mayank Agarwal @ Dec 8th 2007 2:07PM]

Anyone want to wade through and give some highlights? I sure don't have 30 hrs of my life to spare on a changelog.

[Kizorblade @ Dec 8th 2007 2:39PM]

It'll take an average reader 5-15 minutes ;)

[Antimatter @ Dec 8th 2007 3:02PM]

There are already highlights in the article.

[Daniel Smith @ Dec 8th 2007 5:29PM]

Here's a big one

"In SP1, PC administrators are able to modify the network throttling index value for the MMCSS (Multimedia Class Scheduling Service), allowing them to determine the appropriate balance between network performance and audio/video playback quality."

If you don't remember MMCSS was the service responsible for crippling gigabit network bandwidth while listening to music.

Mark Russinovich the guy that blogged about this flaw emailed me and said he'd be blogging about his in a few days. I spent a while trying to figure out how to change this option in SP1 but haven't been able to find it yet.

[Eh @ Dec 8th 2007 6:59PM]

Support for UEFI is a massive change. We are finally one step closer to getting rid of that horrible horrible BIOS. Now if only MS would get their head out of their ass and make it for 32bit too.

[Craig @ Dec 8th 2007 2:07PM]

Unless "No longer brings reasonable hardware to its knees" is at the top of the list of changes, I'm still not interested in Vista.

[Darkest Daze @ Dec 8th 2007 3:19PM]

That patch came out a while ago. It's called "Up-to-Date Drivers".

[tcc3 @ Dec 8th 2007 8:04PM]

What, you cant get it to work on your 486DX?

[BobTurbo @ Dec 8th 2007 9:08PM]

Just press the turbo button to bump it up to 70mhz.

[Bruce @ Dec 8th 2007 2:10PM]

That's nice and all..... But can it run Doom....?

[Rususeruru @ Dec 8th 2007 2:25PM]

Yes, only at 320x240 in monochrome; to get full 640x480 in 256 colors you need to be sporting a graphics card and monitor with HDCP support.

[sr @ Dec 8th 2007 3:14PM]

^^^ Ha Ha!

[Homeboy @ Dec 8th 2007 2:33PM]

I've heard positive experiences about SP1 Beta, so I'm looking forward to this RC release and will download it as soon as it's out.

[Maestro @ Dec 8th 2007 2:38PM]

I know this only concerns a small # of users, but Vista and FIOS at high speeds don't exactly mesh. I have the 20/20 product and the autotuning tcp feature on Vista just doesn't work well with it. There is a hotfix from MSFT to address this, but I hope it is a part of SP1.

[g0k1ngsg0 @ Dec 12th 2007 6:22PM]

here ya go
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/939006

[jtc970 @ Dec 8th 2007 2:44PM]

For those who haven't used Vista or haven't used it long enough to get used to it, please leave the bashing to those with real gripes.
I look forward to the many improvements that will come with SP1, but my biggest problem with Vista has not been addressed.
I want a decent outgoing firewall, one that annoys me with popups for every new program that connects to the net. I want to be able to control where it connects and how easily, without having to go to a separate area to manually configure.
In this day and age, we shouldn't have to rely on 3rd party software to control this.

[saintchuck @ Dec 8th 2007 3:07PM]

Unfortunately, we do have to rely on 3rd party software. If Microsoft were to include a complete firewall product, DoJ would have something to say about it.

[ben @ Dec 8th 2007 5:54PM]

that is why they made onecare. Originally it was supposed to be a part of the OS, but the DOJ made that impossible. You can normally find it for 10 - 20 dollars for three computers for a year. Not too much.

The real problem at MS? I can backup with Vista, with OneCare, with Windows Home Server, or use Foldershare to manage my own backup/synchronizations.

Seem like too many ways to backup?

Yep

[Frankenstein Black @ Dec 8th 2007 3:51PM]

Here you go: http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
And not only is it free (that's FREEEE) but it crushes all others in head to head tests and works on Vista 64 as well. Or, also the config and learning functions are top notch. Enjoy...

[mlb @ Dec 8th 2007 3:53PM]

You can make it notify you of blocked items already. Its in the firewall options on the control panel. As for the other stuff, I really can't speak on it because I'm not that big of a control freak to need to know where everything is going.

[Rob @ Dec 8th 2007 2:48PM]

Somewhere in the fine print also reads "smart pc users should wait at least a year or two, so it gives MS time to work out the bugs." As it is right now, I'm avoiding Vista like the plague. I haven't met anyone who can honestly say that Vista is better than XP. Other than eye candy, it's just not ready. We'll see if it gets better around Christmas next year. It's not MS bashing. It's an honest expression of my dissatisfaction with a half-baked product.

[Tony @ Dec 8th 2007 2:56PM]

Funny, I can't find that quote anywhere.

Are you flat out lying, or do you not know how to use quotes?

[Jamie Marsden @ Dec 8th 2007 3:00PM]

Dude...get a funnybone.

[DG @ Dec 8th 2007 3:08PM]

I have Vista. I prefer it to XP. So there.

[mike @ Dec 8th 2007 3:22PM]

Hi, my name is Mike, and I find Vista better than XP for my needs.
Now you've met somebody...
Honestly, I'm not a MS apologist and I think Vista has a lot of issues. But it really has been better for me than XP in that it can recognize and utilize an external monitor connected to my dock on its own. XP, would always come up on the external monitor and then think about it for several seconds (6 maybe) and then switch to the monitor on the laptop. Now it was no big deal. A little context menu action to a predefined setting put it back on the external. But it was hugely freakin' annoying as it did it every single time it came up.
When I installed Vista and it came up all on its own to that external monitor... I knew it had a lot of leeway to suck before I'd go back. It hasn't sucked nearly enough to go back to XP for me.
And most of the issues I find with it are issues XP has as well.
I think most people hate it because they moved some controls, seemingly for no reason.
I don't think the control layout is better or worse than XP though, just different.
They are both horrible in that regard.. with settings sometimes spread out to different areas.
I've also come to like the quick search which takes focus when you open the start menu.
I haven't had issues connecting to any hardware or most any of the other horror stories I've heard of. I'm hopeful for service pack 1 improvements though. We'll see. Maybe my monitor will stop behaving so well. hahahahaha...
I guess it was just my dumb luck that I wasn't smart enough to wait a year or two before trying it out. Then again Stuart, I've always been a daredevil, just like my old man.

Of course... I'm beginning to like Linux a bit better... but that is another story.

- Mike

[Ryan L. @ Dec 8th 2007 3:28PM]

Hello!

There, if you can consider comments on a website to be meeting then you just met someone who can honestly say that they like Vista better than XP. I've been using Vista since the day it was released (and before if you count release candidates)

Three of the four computers are currently running Vista. I have not experienced any serious bugs or problems. If I have, they have been so small that I can't remember. All of my cameras, printers, video games, keyboards, mice, etc, have worked without a glitch. I really like the new search features, media center, the photo gallery and dvd creator.

In the end though, an operating system is just a platform to run software. Your computing experience is defined by the programs that you use, not the operating system.

[slartibartphast @ Dec 8th 2007 5:14PM]

How can you be dissatisfied with something you don't have? It's all a bunch of hype, vista is one of the best releases I've used.

People have short memories (or a deficiency of age!). XP was quite a big jump with a whole new kernel coming along. There where far more issues with that, and a bunch of problems back in ye old win9x days.

[Joshua Walters @ Dec 8th 2007 5:19PM]

I use XP, but Ive heard people say that Vista is better.

I am waiting for SP1, just to make sure the major bugs are gone, but that doesnt mean that people dont like it.

Jeeze, you must be hanging out with Mac fans or something.

[Rob @ Dec 8th 2007 10:07PM]

Yes, XP had a bunch of issues when it came out too. But, I did wait for about 1.5 years before installing it. For the same issue of bugs and incompatibility. However, considering how much MS has learned from the challenges it had with XP, you'd think that Vista should've been more ready to roll. But, again, Vista feels rushed because it's possible that MS wanted to beat Apple to the punch.

I had a new pc with Vista and after a few minutes dealing with it I decided to remove it. I know of plenty of other people that had the same experience. But, considering that XP does everything I need my OS to do, I don't see any need to migrate to Vista.

And why is it that as soon as someone criticizes MS, people start making statements like "Jeeze, you must be hanging out with Mac fans or something." Unless you have some financial investment in the company, what difference does it make. And yes, I do have Macs in my house too. But, I'm not going to get Leopard because I don't need to. I'm ok with my older version of the OS.

[Jeff Zander @ Dec 8th 2007 11:50PM]

Yeah, you know, I purchased Vista Ultimate the day that it was legally released and I installed it, installed ALL of the applications that I had installed on my XP machine, plugged in my two external drives and got them working with no problems, hooked up my old HP Printer I got in 2001... I use Perfect Disc and Registry Mechanic, and am very diligent as far as keeping my computer up to date and quick and clean. I have literally had NO problems to speak of. I installed Vista on an old 3.2 GHz PC with 4 gigs of Memory. Of course you wouldn't install Vista on an 8 year old PC. DUH. Buy yourself a Dual Core.

You know What? Leopard doesn't run on my old G4, so what the hell is Apple talking about "It Just Works"? Seriously. Justin Long was funny in Ed and in Dodgeball, but I stayed away from Live Free or Die Hard just because of those arrogantly inaccurate Mac v PC "Commercials"

[ShortFuse @ Dec 8th 2007 3:01PM]

I guess I can see why people can say Leopard looks like a service pack. When Microsoft releases a service pack they REALLY do a lot.

[Baluki @ Dec 9th 2007 2:09AM]

Not to mention the fact that MS doesn't charge for THEIR service packs.

[Antimatter @ Dec 8th 2007 3:05PM]

Remember, some of these changes have already been introduced into Vista through updates like the reliability and compatibility pack and performance pack.

[Alex @ Dec 8th 2007 3:09PM]

I have both vista ultimate and xp pro dual booting on my core 2 duo, and i find myself using xp less and less. Sure, vista is not without its flaws, but I really think its got a bad name from all those apple commercials. I dont use my laptop for much more than internet, office, music, games, video editing and os foolin around though, so what do i know. ;)

[matt @ Dec 8th 2007 3:24PM]

For school work and organization, I find vista much easy to use and more intuitive than xp. It does take some time to get comfortable with, but for what I use vista for I find it better than xp.

[Ryan @ Dec 8th 2007 3:42PM]

FYI to those that don't have a legit copy ---
Also coming with SP1 but not in the current release candidate, we will also be including updates that deal with two exploits we have seen, which can affect system stability for our customers. The OEM Bios exploit, which involves modifying system files and the BIOS of the motherboard to mimic a type of product activation performed on copies of Windows that are pre-installed by OEMs in the factory. The Grace Timer exploit, which attempts to reset the “grace time” limit between installation and activation to something like the year 2099 in some cases.

[David Clark @ Dec 8th 2007 4:56PM]

"we" will be including?? So you're from the inside??

In which case, I highly recommend you don't mess with my Vista install. Though it isn't legitimate, I'm a happy Vista user that's an invariable walking advertisement for the OS. And right now, it's unhappy people that have bigger mouths than grey matter that are makng Microsoft backpedal so much.

[Irfan @ Dec 8th 2007 7:52PM]

umm hey David Clark, that was a quote straight from the document.

[Anton @ Dec 8th 2007 3:42PM]

Sweet, Windows users get their Service Pack for FREE.

[enric @ Dec 8th 2007 4:10PM]

i don't really get it, why would a company charge for correcting its own mistakes?

[Dylan K @ Dec 8th 2007 4:16PM]

@enric
Ask Apple.

[Yours Smugly @ Dec 8th 2007 5:30PM]

People who think major OS X updates are "service packs" don't know what they're babbling about. Sorry to feed the troll, but Mac users also get their "service packs" for free. They're named 10.5.1, 10.5.2 and so on. (Leopard is OS X v10.5.)

[Jon Doe @ Dec 8th 2007 6:37PM]

Bullshit. There are some fairly major issues in 10.4 that were corrected with 10.5 Namely with network shares and finder and NOTHING was ever done about this in any 10.4.x release. Only the fanbois of Apple will claim that everything after 10.0 until 10.3 were anything other then bug fixes. 10.1 bug fixes. 10.2 bug fixes. 10.3 bug fixes with some solid features. 10.4 intro of some nasty bugs and more minor features. 10.5 shit load of bugs and some more nice features. My personal favorite in 10.5 is WIFI getting wonky when you disconnect external power on a Mac laptop. That is all kinds of fun that Apple refuses to even acknowledge.
Simply put Apple is no better and no worse then Microsoft. Rate me down fanbois but its the truth. A year with a Mac I know it all too well now.

[Yours Smugly @ Dec 9th 2007 11:41AM]

So? Of course there would be corrections to bugs in previous versions.

Apple has not been consistent with the version number/new feature ratio in OS X releases. 10.1 (Puma) was a service pack like release and was distributed for free, while 10.2 was sold as a separate upgrade. At least since Tiger, the major releases have had great differences to their predecessors. Remember that OS X comes with lots more bundled software than Windows (iCal, Address Book, Dictionary, Preview and whatnot). All of these get bumped to a new version number with lots of new features. (For example, Preview in Leopard is a big improvement over Tiger). And I wouldn't exactly call features like Spotlight, Exposé and Spaces "minor".

To be more precise, major releases of OS X are (or have been since at least 10.5.3) much more than a Windows service pack (which are mostly fixes to stability and performance issues, and don't exactly introduce new features) but not as radical changes as major Windows releases (say, 2000 to XP to Vista). You really can't compare them like they were the same thing.

I have used Windows since 3.1 and still have to use different versions of it, but the computer I own is a Mac. A MacBook running Leopard, and its WiFi doesn't get wonky when the machine is disconnected from the external power source, thank you.

[Dusty @ Dec 8th 2007 3:46PM]

Here's some highlights I pulled out for you guys,

First, Windows Vista SP1 will include all previously released updates for Windows Vista. It also will include security, reliability, and performance improvements. These improvements target some of the issues Microsoft has identified as the most common causes of operating system crashes and hangs, giving customers a more reliable experience. These updates also improve performance in key scenarios—for example, when copying files or shutting down the computer.

Windows Vista SP1 will include improvements that target some of the most common causes of crashes and hangs, giving users a more consistent experience. Many of these improvements will specifically address issues identified from the Windows Error Reporting tool.

Improves the speed of copying and extracting files.
• Improves the time to become active from Hibernate and Resume modes.
• Improves the performance of domain-joined PCs when operating off the domain; in the current release version of Windows Vista, users would experience long delays when opening the File dialog box.
• Improves battery life by reducing CPU utilization by not redrawing the screen as frequently, on certain computers.
• Improves the logon experience by removing the occasional 10-second delay between pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL and the password prompt displaying.
• Addresses an issue in the current version of Windows Vista that makes browsing network file shares consume significant bandwidth and not perform as fast as expected.

In the future, flash memory storage and consumer devices will use the exFAT file system. Windows Vista SP1 adds support for this file system to Windows Vista.

The service pack will add support for Direct3D 10.1, adding application programming interfaces (APIs) and features that enable 3-D applications, so game developers can better take advantage of a new generation of Direct3D graphics hardware.

[Ed @ Dec 8th 2007 3:50PM]

Wow, lots of Vista lovers out there...far more than I'd ever "met" before. Wonder if these folks are MS plants? Ha! Just kiddin. Anyway, I've been running SP1 for Vista for a while now on a Lenovo T60 laptop with a couple gigs of memory and a fairly robust ATI graphics card. Unfortunately, there's not much in the SP to be happy about. The big problems are still present. Near constant HD activity...it drives me freaking batty. How much indexing can it possibly be doing? I still have occasional issues waking up a hibernating laptop. Why? CPU usage and Mem usage are still simply out of control. App launches are still typically slower on Vista than on XP. Vista looks nice, but outside of the over hyped directX 10 and bit locker, there is absolutely no reason to have Vista when XP just SCREAMS on the same hardware. Here's hoping that SP2 is the magic bullet.

[Tony @ Dec 8th 2007 4:14PM]

Ed, your hard drive noise doesn't sound like a Vista problem. Sounds more like a hard drive problem.

My bios allows for a 'cool and quiet' mode that slows down the speed of the drive, maybe you can do the same for yours if the noise is so annoying. Also, indexing can be turned off if you don't do much searches. You can also upgrade to a quieter drive as a last resort.

[slartibartphast @ Dec 8th 2007 5:09PM]

Turn off the auto restore point stuff. Until I did that it was crazy like a rattlesnake and never stopped. I have a drive that doesn't do acoustic management so it was a nightmare for a media center pc in a quiet room!

turn that off and you'll be set.

[Christian Martin @ Dec 9th 2007 12:59AM]

Watching an episode of Heroes in WMP while burning a DVD with CloneDVD2, while replying, under Vista Ultimate. Paint Shop Pro XI is open, as is iTunes.

CPU usage (Intel Q6600): 19%
Memory usage (2GB DDR2-800): 49%

What was that about out of control CPU/Mem usage again?

[tyler @ Dec 8th 2007 3:59PM]

xp sp3????