Microsoft released the Windows Vista SP1 for download. It is supposed to includes various performance improvements which will make the operating system more stable and likable.

Windows Vista SP1 will be made available through Windows Update marked as “optional update” during April. You can currently get standalone installers. The bulk is due to all the language packages that are included within these standalone installers. Vista SP1 will just weigh about 65MB, if downloaded through Windows Update.

Download: Vista SP1 32-bit (434.5MB) |Vista SP1 64-bit (726.5MB)

Some significant improvements that SP1 for Vista will bring are as follows:

• Power consumption and battery life will be improved.
• Improved performance over Windows Vista’s current performance:
  • on 25% faster when copying files locally on the same disk on the same machine.
  • on 45% faster when copying files from a remote non-Windows Vista system to a SP1 system.
  • up to 50% faster when copying files from a remote SP1 system to a local SP1 system.
• Improved speed of adding and extracting files to and from a compressed (zipped) folder.
• Improved the copy progress estimation when copying files within Windows Explorer to about two seconds.
• Improvements to Windows Superfetch that help to further improve resume times, in many environments.
• Windows Vista SP1 contains a new compression algorithm for the Remote Desktop Protocol that helps reduce network bandwidth.
• It will allow support for hotpatching, a reboot-reduction servicing technology designed to maximize uptime. It works by allowing Windows components to be updated while they are still in use by a running process.
• It also includes a number of changes which allow computer manufacturers and consumers to select a default desktop search program similar to the way they currently select defaults for third-party web browsers and media players.
• With the new Service Pack 1, Windows Vista will report the amount of system memory installed rather than report the amount of system memory available to the OS. Therefore 32-bit systems equipped with 4GB of RAM will report all 4GB in many places throughout the OS, such as the System Control Panel. However, this behavior is dependent on having a compatible BIOS, so not all users may notice this change.

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