Service Pack Two For Vista

With Windows Vista hanging in the balance between a coming-to-life Windows 7 and a refusing-to-die Windows XP, a second service pack for Vista and Windows Server 2008 has reportedly been sent to testers. The reports say a release candidate escrow build has been sent for fee dback, with other versions to be available in the next few months.

An Additional Incentive
best to rush out” the new service pack for Vista so people would have an “additional incentive to upgrade to Vista now, instead of waiting for Windows 7.”

The site said its “confidential source” said the escrow build was released early, rather than in February as it originally reported. A release candidate escrow build indicates that coding has stopped, with efforts being put into finding bugs that could force a recall.

The release candidate build will be shipped the week of Feb. 16, according to the site. A release to manufacturing, including OEMs, will happen sometime between the beginning and middle of the second quarter, it said. A final release-to-Web date is still to be determined, but the site speculated it might be in April or May, “barring any further delays.”

” reports are respected, since it accurately predicted the release schedule for Vista SP1 and XP SP3 last year. The site is also predicting that Microsoft will not require hardware makers to include Vista SP2 on new machines, which would have required new testing by the manufacturers.

Windows 7, the successor to Vista, was shown publicly in beta earlier this month, but a release schedule hasn’t been announced. It’s expected to be released by early 2010. As for a Vista and Windows Server SP2 release date, Microsoft has acknowledged only that it is targeting the second quarter.

New Features

New features in Vista SP2 reportedly include faster and improved relevancy in searches, support for the most recent version of Bluetooth, the ability to record data on Blu-ray media, simplified Wi-Fi configuration, and Coordinated Universal Time stamps for file synchronization across time zones.

Other improvements include support for new VIA Technologies 64-bit CPUs, improved performance for resuming a Wi-Fi connection after sleep mode, improved graphics capability and reliability for DirectX, improved audio and video performance for high-definition streaming, and better TV content protection in Windows Media Center.

For Windows Server 2008, SP2 reportedly adds Microsoft Hyper-V Server, a 10 percent improvement in efficiency for power profile changes, the ability to use group policy to manage these settings, and backward compatibility for terminal-server license keys.

Laura DiDio, an analyst with industry research firm Information Technology Intelligence Corps, said people aren’t waiting for SP2 “as anxiously as they had been for, say, XP SP3.” She mentioned an ITIC report that found only 10 percent of organizations had deployed Vista as their primary OS. Businesses and consumers that use Vista, she said, will be happy to get the update. But she pointed out that 45 percent of respondents in another ITIC survey indicated that they were skipping Vista and going right to Windows 7.