Windows Vista SP1: to be or not to be?

Windows Vista Home Basic with SP1 is the edition of Windows for basic home computing needs. If you only want to use your PC for tasks like browsing the Internet, using e-mail, or viewing photos, then Windows Vista Home Basic with SP1 may be the right edition for you. While it won’t provide as many benefits as Windows Vista Home Premium, it will help you use your PC more easily and more safely than you could with Windows XP. Windows Vista Home Basic with Service Pack 1 delivers improved reliability and performance with innovative security and safety features; stunning design; and fast, simple search and organization tools. Addressing specific reliability and performance issues, supporting new types of hardware, and adding support for several emerging standards, Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 makes using your PC safer, more entertaining, more reliable, and more rewarding than ever.

Windows Vista SP1 will arrive one of three ways. Most users will automatically receive the update via Windows Update. Users with limited or no Internet connectivity, or who need to update more than one PC, will be able to download a complete image of Windows Vista SP1 via DVD. Volume license customers (enterprises) will receive an integrated DVD media package for installation on new PCs.

Before installing SP1, all users running Windows Vista RTM (that is, if you bought your computer with Vista preinstalled) will need to install three updates from Microsoft. Microsoft’s Windows Update will automatically detect and install these updates prior to the release of Windows Vista SP1. Two of these updates increase the success rate for installing Windows Vista SP1; one is necessary only if you have Windows Vista Enterprise or Windows Vista Ultimate installed.

While all this sounds complicated, Microsoft says it has learned from Windows XP SP2, an upgrade that sometimes stranded users with long, overnight downloads. Windows Vista is modular, thus the upgrade will download only the bites of code necessary for your specific system. If you have enabled Automatic Updates, in theory, you should have a much shorter download and installation of the upgrade than someone who hasn’t kept up with the numerous updates since Windows Vista’s release. Despite the many changes within the code, Windows Vista SP1 does not change the basic hardware requirements for running the different editions of Windows Vista.

Where Windows XP SP2 introduced the Windows Security Center, and changed the existing Windows Firewall, Windows Vista SP1 introduces almost no visible change to your desktop. There are no new features to view, with almost all of the nearly 300 changes occurring under the hood, and mostly intended for Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions.

Specific reliability improvements include the prevention of data loss while ejecting NT file system file-system-formatted removable media; enhancements to TCP/IP Version 6; improved driver sleep and wake-up times; improved Meeting Space connections; improved Remote Assistance applications; and it includes Encrypting File System in the Windows Vista file-backup set.

For performance, Microsoft says SP1 uses less bandwidth when browsing network shares, and automatically selects between wireless and wired when more than one is offered. There are also many tweaks and improvements in ReadyDrive (requires the use of special hybrid drives) and ReadyBoost (requires special USB drives), and SuperFetch (requires a specific amount of RAM). As a result, users currently running Windows SuperFetch will notice, after installing Windows Vista SP1, their system is slower. Microsoft says that’s because SP1 erases the existing SuperFetch data. As new data is collected, the system will respond “within a few days,” Microsoft says.

There are many new standards introduced with SP1. For example, there’s a new Unified Extensible Firmware Interface, x64 Extensible Firmware Interface network boot, Direct3D 10.1 for 3D gaming, new flash based xFAT, identifies HD-DVD and Blu-ray drives as HD drives, supports SD Advanced Direct Memory Access, second-generation Windows Media Center Extenders, enhances the MPEG-2 decoder, and enhances support for Windows Network Projector.

For security, SP1 improves the Bitlocker encryption in Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Ultimate by adding multifunction authentication methods; moreover, Microsoft now allows encryption support for volumes other than the bootable volume. SP1 also includes some Smart Card enhancements, and allows for biometric, as opposed to PIN, access to Smart Cards. Within Vista, SP1 creates a more secure PIN channel for authentication.

For most home users, the new features will have little or no effect on the day-to-day use of their systems.

In general, CNET Labs found that Windows Vista SP1 offered a mixed bag of improvements. For example, Microsoft says that reading and writing files will be much faster within Windows Vista SP1.

Do you need Windows Vista SP1? Yes and no. It’s always good to install the latest code for any operating system. But downloading and installing the update will take some users a few hours without any visible or tangible improvements to their systems.

Unfortunately, you can’t free download Windows Vista SP1 even to trial it. But you can buy the software on the Microsoft site for about $200.