Nab Vista SP1 straight from the source... while it lasts

Don't want to wait until March for Windows Vista SP1, but not feeling the whole torrent thing? Microsoft has posted a disc image to its OEM partner site with a full copy of SP1 on it, and the download is free -- if a bit slow at the moment, thanks to all y'all grabbing a copy. The 1.2GB disc image requires you run it as a clean installation, so you've gotta ask yourself it's just worth waiting a few more weeks for an easy peasy update courtesy of Windows Update. Decisions, decisions.

[Via Download Squad; read link is the disk image]

[fuzi @ Feb 12th 2008 11:17AM]

i'm looking forward to SP3 for XP. vista lasted only a week on my system

[Chebwa @ Feb 12th 2008 11:21AM]

I'm looking forward to the day when a Vista article can be posted without somebody mentioning XP/Vista/OSX nine seconds after it goes up.

[atrain @ Feb 12th 2008 11:40AM]

Chebwa:
I think theres a very high chance of somebody mentioning Vista in a post about Vista. This isn't a "My Little Ponies" forum, this is Engadget. Here, we talk about tech. Sorry to burst your bubble.

[Chebwa @ Feb 12th 2008 11:42AM]

CRAP! I meant Linux. Shutty.

PS: There should be a My Little Ponies forum.

[atrain @ Feb 12th 2008 11:49AM]

Chebwa:
There is. But you need to use Linux to be a member :P

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 12th 2008 11:50AM]

dude everyone is over the whole horay im l337 for using xp...

everyone uses vista now

its just you man, just you.

[pimpzilla @ Feb 12th 2008 12:08PM]

Well said Tom. You are not 1337 because you use an outdated OS. You are technologically illiterate because you can't figure out how to make the newer (and better) OS work.

[Mike @ Feb 12th 2008 12:20PM]

The only truly useful thing being thrown into SP3 is the uphcleaner.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=1B286E6D-8912-4E18-B570-42470E2F3582
or, if you hate microsoft checking to see if your copy is genuine:
http://www.mediafire.com/?4dzedm0mjbn

[Erick @ Feb 12th 2008 1:44PM]

@fuzi

A week is hardly enough time to evaluate a next version of an operating system. Talk about preconceived notions ...

[Scott @ Feb 12th 2008 1:48PM]

"Everyone uses Vista."

Thanks for the laugh, man!

[iPriest @ Feb 12th 2008 3:34PM]

Only a handfull of people are running Vista as it's the biggest rubbish MS has released. Only people working at MS use Vista and these are the people that post here. Most people that bought Vista or bought a new PC already downgraded to XP. So its just you folks at MS that use Vista. No one else does.

[Mike @ Feb 12th 2008 5:05PM]

Actually I upgraded to Vista and it's running fine. Any problems I've had have been quickly fixed by windows update and everything is running nicely

Of course, if you self esteem is based on hating, then none of this will really matter to you anyway.

[Charlie Calhoun @ Feb 21st 2008 2:13PM]

Me as well. I did a crack on Vista and liked it so much I actually bought it, and have been running it happily ever since. Only seena few BlueScreens, but, like Mike said, thanks to Windows Update, I've been having NO bluescreens. And of course I torrented down SP1 and my wireless network problems went away in a snap. I always liked how Microsoft humors me with "It may take several hours to install" and it took less than 1.

[Chebwa @ Feb 12th 2008 11:17AM]

FlashGet, I choose you!

[fuzi @ Feb 12th 2008 11:20AM]

http://tasteofink.blogg.se/images/funny_cat_pictures_343_1184269274.jpg

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 12th 2008 11:49AM]

one of the greatest posts ever.

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 12th 2008 12:10PM]

*comments

[Jarod @ Feb 12th 2008 11:23AM]

firsttt

[Chebwa @ Feb 12th 2008 11:25AM]

Sweet Jesus that's sad.

[Rollins @ Feb 12th 2008 1:33PM]

I laughed out loud when I saw how far down this post was.

[jason51873 @ Feb 12th 2008 2:32PM]

What is it with retards always trying to have the first post only to write the words "first" on there. Get a life, nobody cares if your first. And look at you - you look like a complete jackass 1/2 way down the page.

[Jarod @ Feb 12th 2008 5:22PM]

It was a joke, relax.

XD

[nxtiak @ Feb 12th 2008 11:19AM]

A Comment from Downloadsquad (the link) says it's not a full install of SP1, it's a disc with setup files for 32 and 64bit Vistas.

[Burke Hamblin @ Feb 12th 2008 11:22AM]

No, it says it's not a full version of Vista with SP1, just the SP1 files, which should be obvious to that guy.

[Anthony @ Feb 12th 2008 11:28AM]

I had high hopes for Vista & was really excited to get my new computer w/ Premium. However, I have to confess that it *does* crash frequently & isn't really that much faster for day to day stuff (encoding movies blows my XP system away but that's processor speed, not OS I imagine).

I look forward to SP1 as I'm tired of pulling the plug to reboot 2 or 3 times per day.

[DonatoM3 @ Feb 12th 2008 11:31AM]

Something's obviously wrong with your Vista install. Without SP1 my Vista runs solid without being rebooted for a week.

[gotee12 @ Feb 12th 2008 11:55AM]

I'll second Donato. I can't remember the last time I rebooted my Vista laptop. I always use hibernation, so in my mind it's never a true "cold start" when I hit the power button. Any problems/bugs that were present during my last session should (theoretically) still be present since it's coming out of a hibernation and not a full on reboot.

[pimpzilla @ Feb 12th 2008 11:58AM]

Ditto. My computer is rock solid & way more stable than the same system ever was with XP.

[mattclarkie @ Feb 12th 2008 12:05PM]

You probably suffer from Bloat-ware. I have an own build desktop which has never given me issues. My laptop fell over all the time, but installing a fresh version of Vista, not those rubbish OEM restores, and leaving off all the crap that came with the laptop it is fine. I did install one Acer app, but had to remove it 2 days later because it kept making the system hang, but 3 weeks later without the app this hasn't happened once.

I would try getting a fresh OS, preferably x64 Business or Ultimate, and never put anything on it that you don't want or need especially if it is made by Acer.

[DonatoM3 @ Feb 12th 2008 12:12PM]

Oh yeah and I forgot to mention this is the exact same laptop that had XP on it before. Trust me it runs faster with Vista even in games (once Nvidia sorted all their drivers out).

[JD @ Feb 12th 2008 12:13PM]

Sorry for your trouble, but yeah, I'd try re-installing sometime. I'm running Vista 64 bit, and it runs solid for over a month. This is faster than XP ever was, don't listen to all the FUD on the internet. Vista's a big improvement. But it is amazing how powerful the FUD machine is, isn't it? Sorry, your install is broken. 3 times a day rebooting sounds more like Windows ME (I shudder just typing the name), and vista is, in all reality, pretty damn good. I'll wait until SP1 is official 'cause mine runs ok right now..... and the link is down. :p

[Anthony @ Feb 12th 2008 12:39PM]

Thanks for all the replies. I'm not a MS hater (though I was upset that I couldn't run my wifi card as it didn't have drivers, but that's netgear's fault, not MS) so I'll consider what my options are. I hate to reformat so I'll probably live w/ it until March & then decide what to do.

[Brian @ Feb 12th 2008 2:38PM]

i lol'd hard at one week uptime.
Here where i work, we have a BSD box that hasn't rebooted in 5 years.
My linux servers at home have been up for ... 2 hours shy of 74 days. I moved into this house 74 days ago.

Microsoft recommends rebooting servers every 30 days.
I reboot my XP workstation every day.
It's unacceptable that your operating system is so unstable. Stop adding things. Just stop. Be an operating system. Be fast. When i want functionality, i'll add an application.

[Andir3.0 @ Feb 12th 2008 3:09PM]

Wow, so the Pro Microsoft Vote Squad (PMVS) is real... or someone has way too much time on their hands. (I'm going to vote the latter.)

[Raheem @ Feb 12th 2008 11:36AM]

It really perplexes me when people complain about things like, "Vista didn't last 12 minutes until my CPU exploded sending my case fan spiralling into my cat's face which caused it to throw up all over my MacBook!" I just have never had a problem with Vista. Running on a Dell Inspiron 9400.

[Micah Cameron @ Feb 12th 2008 12:15PM]

That's one of the greatest things I've ever read.

[Scott @ Feb 12th 2008 1:48PM]

These posts are so lame. Did you have a problem with XP?

[Alexkass @ Feb 12th 2008 11:40AM]

this is not a full copy of vista + sp1. is a copy of sp1 in various languages.

[The Lizzow @ Feb 12th 2008 11:43AM]

I think it's down as of now. It was downloading at about 3 KB/s (took me back to dial-up days) with a time remaining of about 7 days. All of the sudden it stopped with a bad source error. Now I get a Service uUnavailable error. I'd say Microsoft wised up to the leak and pulled the plug.

[Baz @ Feb 12th 2008 11:45AM]

Oh, I think I'll wait till the smoke clears (literally) from the early adoptees machines before rushing to get the SP1 before time...

Chances are pretty good that even so, SP1 won't be ready for primetime till the late summer anyway - at which point I may just do a full reinstall of the OS and then SP1 to avoid the inevitable crash and burns....

[Wolfticket @ Feb 12th 2008 11:46AM]

I hope SP1 will fix all the little things that bug me about vista, but I bet it won't, so I refuse to get my hopes up.

[xuyaoyork @ Feb 12th 2008 11:49AM]

not bad spead! 120kb/s and rising.

[EUPHOR1C @ Feb 12th 2008 11:54AM]

Been running Vista on my HP laptop as well as on my 5 year old PC (with some upgrades), still have yet to have Vista crash on me. I don't see what the big deal is.

[striggity @ Feb 12th 2008 11:51AM]

I just purchased a new laptop w/ Vista premium and i haven't had any issues. Granted, the whole "vista needs your permission to do yadda yadda" get's old but my bro @ the geek squad knows how to get rid of that trash lol.

[Chris Aubeck @ Feb 12th 2008 11:58AM]

We feel for you.

[sjdurfey @ Feb 12th 2008 2:42PM]

Control Panel -> User Accounts -> User Accounts -> Turn UAC on/off, choose off and reboot and all that damn crappiness is gone!

i didnt know how to get rid of that at first, so i sat on the computer talking to microsoft, for 20 minutes trying to convince them to tell me how to do that. and after they finally told me, i had to deal with 5 or 6 follow-up phone calls later. i appreciate the effort, but thats more like a stalker ex you cant get rid of.

[Derrick @ Feb 12th 2008 12:57PM]

You can easily turn that off in Control Panel.

[Derrick @ Feb 12th 2008 1:06PM]

You can easily turn that off in Control Panel.

[SweetSauce @ Feb 12th 2008 1:18PM]

This is one of the biggest reasons that Vista (or any product for that matter) gets a bad name.

It appears that you are unaware that you can turn that feature off. So you take the time to announce how awful it is that it asks you every time.

Then everyone else that doesn't know how to turn the feature off agrees and goes on to announce how awful it is.

Pretty soon, all you hear is how bad it is, when all you had to do in the first place is do a little research.

I do not have any problems with Vista which I use on four computers at home. I also have not had any problems with OS X which is on one.

I just sit quietly and read all these posts about how bad something is and shake my head feeling like I am in the silent majority. Obviously, I may be wrong, but.....

[Tom Oliveri @ Feb 12th 2008 11:51AM]

umm.. "problem loading page"

i think engadget broke the intarwebs