Alpesh Nakar's Blog

Installing Vista SP1 RC was an experience in itself. I will summarise the installation procedure and the level of frustrations! In the end, it is well worth it! Trust me

Of course, this was not made available to public, only for MSDN and Technet subscriptions and I can understand why. You won’t release service pack that involves registry hacks and manual intervention. From what I have read from various sources (linked further), installation will be straight forward and well worth!

After couple of restarts, I see that my Vista Enterprise is now an evaluation copy – build 6001. This is displayed in right hand corner of my desktop. Nothing to be concerned about, this was mentioned in the the installation document.

I followed the instructions of this document to the tee! If you have not download the huge self extracting exe, don’t bother. It did not execute, despite turning of the User Access Control. At the end of the manual steps, I had to run Windows Update and it downloaded the SP1 for me!

Steps to install Vista SP1 RC as follows:

1. Execute the batch file as an administrator. This patches your registry and enables Windows Update to download 3 prerequisite packages.

   · KB935509– This is only required on Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate editions (which have Bitlocker capabilities). This update is required prior to installing KB938371, the 2^nd prerequisite package, and is required to prevent potential loss of data on Bitlocker encrypted systems during servicing.

   · KB938371 – This package consists of fixes for several components, including the TrustedInstaller, that increases the success rate for installing the service pack, and which enable the service pack to be successfully uninstalled. This must be installed prior to the service pack install itself to enable these fixes.

   · KB937287– This is an update to the “Servicing Stack” or the Windows Vista component installer technologies built into Windows Vista. This update enables the built-in installer to properly and successfully install the service pack itself.

2. Reboot when prompted. This is after applying KB935509 and KB938371. No reboot is required after KB937287 although KB938371 and KB937287 are offered together.
3. Check for updates on Windows Update again, install and reboot when prompted for Windows Vista Service Pack 1. 
4. After reboot, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is installed in 3 stages sequentially. We don’t have to do anything, infact we cannot do anything, since this happens before you can login.

Image Courtesy Paul Thurrott’s SuperSite for Windows.

Note: Make sure your laptop (as in my case) adaptor is connected. You cannot run this on battery. Vista detects the adaptor and then only reboots after downloading Windows Vista Service Pack 1 update.

So far I have noticed that

1. My registered version of SnagIt is now a trial version! Pre SP1, I had registered SnagIt, so I will need to put in the serial number again
2. My laptop’s lost Bluetooth drivers.
3. The Remote Desktop (mstsc) application has been updated and have lost previous settings. I think there has been an update on this one.
4. I can select volumes that should be defraged with disk defragmenter.
5. Improvement in the speed of copying files from one volume to another volume of the same disk.
6. WM is now working! It wasn’t after I ran some windows updates last month.
7. Quick restore from hibernation.
8. Quick restart.
9. Performance improvement. Whilst copy Vista Enterprise ISO across (wireless) network, I could work on my laptop without feeling the memory drain ‘effect’ since the CPU usage was around 15%. That is a big difference I have seen.
10. Windows Explorer launches quickly, unlike pre-sp1. I have many networked drives and earlier it was a pain at times to launch windows explorer.
11. I had lots of issues with wireless at work. I had to keep refreshing my wireless network couple of times, before I could get connected. Post SP1-RC, it works like a charm. It just gets connected as in Windows XP! I am impressed. This is far by the most productivity improvement for me!

I will keep updating this as I notice anything new, so stay tuned. In the meantime, you can download the Vista SP1 Beta Whitepaper and read the juicy bits and pieces on Windows Vista Blog or watch Mike Nash speak about Vista SP1. You might want to grab the Windows Vista SP1 Guides for IT Professionals.

In nutshell, it is a huge improvement post SP1! Big thanks to Vista Team!