The very official version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is nearly upon us. Microsoft's announced the first major update for the OS has gone gold and should be available to the public mid-March.
Initially SP1 will appear for download on the download centre on Microsoft's website, and then in mid-April lazy people who have selected to download updates automatically will get it.
But, says Mike Nash from the Windows Product Management group, "any system that Windows Update determines has a driver known to not update successfully will not get SP1 automatically.
"As updates for these drivers become available, they will be installed automatically by Windows Update, which will unblock these systems from getting Service Pack 1. The result is that more and more systems will automatically get SP1, but only when we are confident they will have a good experience."
Nash promises that SP1 further improves the reliability and performance of Windows Vista.
"SP1 also" he adds, "includes changes focused on improving the performance of Windows Vista in areas that impact the customer experience the most.
"For instance, with SP1, copying or moving files around your PC, your home network or your corporate network should now be much faster - up to 50% faster in some scenarios (according to our internal tests).
"In addition, on many kinds of hardware, resuming a Windows Vista-based PC from sleep is faster on Service Pack 1".
There's nothing game-specific mentioned. But will SP1 persuade you to switch to Vista if it improves things generally?
