Windows Vista SP1 RC1 Released for Public

[alsiladka]

Windows Vista SP1 RC1 has been released for public through Windows Update. All you have to do is run the included CMD file with elevated priviliges.

After that, run Windows Update, before you get to download Windows Update, you will first have to download 2 3 pre requisites and reboot your PC.

Read the included XPS document for more details.


Install Windows Vista SP1 RC through Windows Update!

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 RC is available through Windows Update. Experience the WU based Vista SP1 installation by following 4 simple steps.

Windows Vista SP1 RC distributed through Windows Update will be applicable to Windows Vista machines that are running on any of the 36 languages supported by Vista RTM.

If you already installed the Service Pack to your machine by using the standalone package, you must uninstall before you scan Windows Update for Windows Vista SP1.

Systems running on Windows Vista RTM require as many as three updates before SP1 can be installed. These updates are permanent to your Windows Vista systems. Windows Update will detect your system configuration and offer the prerequisite packages that are applicable to your system. For details, please see the instructions below.

Here are 4 simple steps to get SP1 on your machine.

On Vista RTM:

1. Download the command (.cmd.remove) script to your machine, rename it by removing deleting ".remove" at the end of the file name. Run the newly named script on an elevated prompt.
• To run the script on elevated prompt, after you download the script, right click on the file and select “Run as administrator” option.
• The script sets a registry key on your system. The registry key is required for WU server to recognize your machine as a valid target for Vista SP1.
• After running the script, Windows Update automatic updates would normally automatically update your machine each night for the next several days with the prerequisites and then offer the Service Pack. However if you would like to install SP1 quicker you can manually do the next few steps to speed up the process.


2. Install all pending “Important” updates and reboot. You may have to do this several times to get fully up to date.
• Check for updates on Windows Update. Go to Control Panel à System and Maintenance à Windows Update and check for updates by clicking on “Check for Updates” in the top left of the task pane.
• You will be offered all previously released Windows Vista updates that you may not have installed on your system. Install all applicable updates. If you have a clean install of RTM, there might be quite a few updates to install. You may need to do this a couple of times to get fully up to date. At some point Update for Windows (KB935509) will be in this list. This is the first pre-requisite install. Reboot your machine when prompted.
• If you see Ultimate Extras, you can hide them by right-clicking and hiding. Simply unchecking them will not let the remaining updates show up. Please install all of the remaining “important” updates.
• If you reboot and rescan right away, at times you may not see all updates right away. Wait 10 minutes and scan again.


3. Install Update for Windows (KB937287) and Update for Windows (KB938371) as they are offered sequentially
• The first package that will be offered is Update for Windows (KB937287) and it does not require a reboot.
• Check for updates on Windows Update again, install and reboot when prompted for Update for Windows (KB938371). You may need to wait 10 minutes and re-scan again if it does not show up right after reboot.


4. Install Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (KB936330).
• Check for updates on Windows Update again, install and reboot when prompted for Windows Vista Service Pack 1. You may need to wait 10 minutes and re-scan again if the package does not show up right after the previous reboot.
• This process will typically take from 30 minutes to 1 hour but may take longer on some systems.


To reduce the number of reboots required to install Windows Vista Service Pack 1, the prerequisite packages will be released to Windows Vista customers through WU prior to the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1. These prerequisite packages will be coupled with other updates that are applicable to Windows Vista RTM systems and require a reboot. Consequently, the systems that are getting updates through automatic updates will already have prerequisites installed at the time of the SP1 release and be directly offered SP1 through WU.

Source - Microsoft Download (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=9de6260e-4275-482d-9524-de850c4dd91c&displaylang=en&tm)

[hemant_mathur]

Thanx for the info.

[casanova]

Sounds nice. But would prefer waiting for another 3 months.

[NucleusKore]

I think the standalone package is here
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=be34577a-e925-48fb-9d6d-50fe9461f808&DisplayLang=en#filelist

[gxsaurav]

I think the standalone package is here
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=be34577a-e925-48fb-9d6d-50fe9461f808&DisplayLang=en#filelist

That's for the whole 36 language files, since most of the people are using english version, here is the 5 language package which is 100 MB smaller then the above mentioned package..

http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/3/c/b3cf192f-7f49-4da7-a740-07818dc8c7aa/Windows6.0-KB936330-wave0-X86.exe 436 MB

[Third Eye]

Does it have a time-bomb?

[Krazy_About_Technology]

^^Yes it has a time bomb for June 30, 2008.

Installed it today, Certainly a pain in th A**, if you have a slow 128KBPS connection like me. Installation size was around 75.9 MB for me. Installation gone fine untill reboot then, it crashed. It happened during the time when system is going to reboot and there is a 3 phase installation routine working. Somebody who has installed it can tell. In the second phase it crashed at 7% and Windows didn't start. Even the DVD was not booting, just loading upto 100% and then Swoosh! Used a linux live cd. It also didn't booted for first time but fsck ran and then it started, but hanged. Again tried Vista, this time it booted and completed the setup. Took 5 long hours from downloading to setup.
But the initial pain was not worthless. i haven't noticed any bootup performance increase but on using the /SOS switch in the bootloader, i noticed that the volmgr.sys file now takes no time to load. Instead the file that takes longest time to load was pci.sys.Earlier it was the former one. Well anyways, booting is same story for me.

But UI responsiveness has massively increased on my lappy. There are less nag screens and performance in file copying and networking in general has improved greatly, it shows. Thats all i had been able to find out in my 2 hours with Vista SP1. Will post more if i found anything else. :-)

[assasin]

to say the truth i aint satisfied with SP1 RC1 and with Vista as a whole.RC1 doesnt give any significant boost in gaming performance.i was happy with Vista till these latset games started to run slow in Vista (as compared to XP). so i'm seriously thinking bout reverting back to XP SP3 RC1.

[shantanu]

SP1 sucks.. lol ! i am saying that.. but its true.. ! i hated it.. first of all it gives you that watermark! and the timebomb..

[Krazy_About_Technology]

i wont say It Sucks actually. But ya, its installation sucks! And the time bomb is there so that you don't forget to update to production level code later. BTW after installing sp1(with that crash at installation time) my hdd has filled around 2 GB. I thinks there may be some temp files. Can anybody tell me which files i can delete to regain my space?

[NucleusKore]

That's for the whole 36 language files, since most of the people are using english version, here is the 5 language package which is 100 MB smaller then the above mentioned package..

http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/3/c/b3cf192f-7f49-4da7-a740-07818dc8c7aa/Windows6.0-KB936330-wave0-X86.exe 436 MB

Thank you

[assasin]

first of all it gives you that watermark!

u can easily remove that watermark.so that sudnt be a reason to complain.:)

[shantanu]

i aint complaining ! i dont like it :X , i know ho it can be removed.. but its time bomb.. and i felt bad coz i am using a genuine version and i dont like it to be called EVALUATION .. :)

[Krazy_About_Technology]

shantanu, since you are online, would you answer my question plz, i am very low on space. i will highly appreciate your help. :-)

[Charan]

@shantanu did you mean RC1 sucks?

[shantanu]

did you try : disk clean up.. or just clear your TEMP folder.. C:/user/your name / temp.. and c:/windows/temp/

and also a temp folder named : 337f41af603eb0139223349d
or
b492a4aa723465d983b1666aa0 or something like this ..

yeah i meant that : charan

[alsiladka]

i aint complaining ! i dont like it :X , i know ho it can be removed.. but its time bomb.. and i felt bad coz i am using a genuine version and i dont like it to be called EVALUATION .. :)

They kept the time bomb on RC1 build so that you dont go on using the RC1 build only! They just want you to test it and when the final and better version is released, there is no reason you should continue to keep using this release!

I am not able to download it using WU!! After 13%, the download gets stuck and wont move on!

[assasin]

^^^ the same thing happened to me.stayed that way for a full day.i was able to complete the dl 2day morning.b4 that it was giving an error code like 8009024.

i'll suggest u not to dl it.it just aint worth the time, and bandwidth.

i'll suggest u not to dl it.it just aint worth the time, and bandwidth.

[Charan]

Umm actually why do you guys use Beta or RC's? after all you will be installing the final version na... I dont install Betas or RC's cause its just a waste of bandwidth and time for me .. Unless you are a tester or really need that update .. I dont see a reason to install this :| . this is just my opinion

[Voldy]

thanks for the info :D

[alsiladka]

Umm actually why do you guys use Beta or RC's? after all you will be installing the final version na... I dont install Betas or RC's cause its just a waste of bandwidth and time for me .. Unless you are a tester or really need that update .. I dont see a reason to install this :| . this is just my opinion

If we dont, then who would? And then how would they reach the final stage?
But basically, just for the fun!!

[Krazy_About_Technology]

^^Dude world is divided between the two, one who test beta and RCs and others who dont! :-D :-D

@shantanu : I did everything as you said, and it did clean up much of the mess. And i can't find the folder specified by you, the one with long name :-) . Still there is about 800Mb-1 GB data that is lurking somewhere.
Also can i delete the contents of download folder inside c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution. Are those files needed if one of the system files get replaced by some software. Since i have upgraded to SP1, i dont think Vista DVD can be used by SFC. ??

[hemant_mathur]

The downloadig took 40 mints but the instalation took just 17 mints.

[shantanu]

i wont say you to delete the files there ! the max you can do is to clean your drive! that you did already.. another thing is to check for the broken files.. first defrag your drive and then clear your internet cache and temporary internet files from INTERNET explorer properties.. after that nothing else is to be deleted manually.. :)

[alsiladka]

What you could also do is run a Disk Chekup. Maybe there is free space but it is not yet allocated as free space in your MFT.

Still not able to download from WU, stuck at 13%. Deleted the contents of Download folder from Softwar Distribution 4 5 times. After the download, the contents of the folder just keeps increasing. 10000 files are there in it sometimes! I have also downloaded the Standalone, will use it later.

[gxsaurav]

My age old computer feels faster then before :D, but I did a clean install & then SP1 RC

What you could also do is run a Disk Chekup. Maybe there is free space but it is not yet allocated as free space in your MFT.

Still not able to download from WU, stuck at 13%. Deleted the contents of Download folder from Softwar Distribution 4 5 times. After the download, the contents of the folder just keeps increasing. 10000 files are there in it sometimes! I have also downloaded the Standalone, will use it later.

Just download the 436 MB standalone installer. That's what I did.

[Krazy_About_Technology]

@shantanu : OK. Thanks very much.
@gx_saurav : I also have, you can say, an age old laptop, a celeron 1.6 on GMA 915 with 1.24 GB of RAM. It feels more responsive after Vista SP1.
Ya, i also thought about doing a clean install, but at this time i cant coz had to use my lappy immediately. But ya, when final version arrives, i would definitely prefer to install fresh using the standalone installer for 5 languages.

[alsiladka]

Even with the Standalone, i am not able to install. It is giving me an Internal error. Will be formatting and installing today!

Lets hope all goes well.

[casanova]

Can RC1 be slipstreamed in Vista.

[shantanu]

^^no

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Even with the Standalone, i am not able to install. It is giving me an Internal error. Will be formatting and installing today!

Lets hope all goes well.

ya i think there may be some configuration problems, that may be not allowing the upgrade. Clean install will definitely work.

[gxsaurav]

Also can i delete the contents of download folder inside c:\windows\SoftwareDistribution. Are those files needed if one of the system files get replaced by some software. Since i have upgraded to SP1, i dont think Vista DVD can be used by SFC. ??

U can delete the contents of the "Download" folder...

SFC /scannow no longer needs a DVD to work, it will work without the DVD too

[alsiladka]

Even after the clean install, something is messed up!! Getting impatient now! WU again stuck at 13%, Standalone gives an error again while extracting!

What do you people suggest?

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Even after the clean install, something is messed up!! Getting impatient now! WU again stuck at 13%, Standalone gives an error again while extracting!

What do you people suggest?

Well there are many possibilities. First of all, how much time did you wait for Windows Update to finish? In my case, i had a fully patched system before SP1. Windows Updated told at first the size of install to be 54 MB. But twice it seemed hanged for an hour or so and then the download size increased. At 95% it hanged for a long time and then the install finally finished at 79.9 MB. It didn't even showed any percentage after 95%, just finished in a go. So maybe in your case too the installations seems hanged but it may be not. It takes a lot of time in certain cases.

And about your standalone executable, well may be its corrupt.

If you have a fast connection, try re downloading the standalone file in one go without stopping your download manager. If you prefer Windows Update, try giving it more time, it can take up to 5 hours to download and install, or maybe even more, can't say.

[casanova]

Couldn't resist to wait. Downloaded the multi-language release candidate. Would be doing a fresh install followed by the pack.

[gxsaurav]

Even after the clean install, something is messed up!! Getting impatient now! WU again stuck at 13%, Standalone gives an error again while extracting!

What do you people suggest?

Do a clean install & then install using the 436 MB standalone installer. Forget WU when u have then full file

[alsiladka]

Even on a clean install, the first thing i did was run the standalone. It gave the internal error while installing the service pack!

[Krazy_About_Technology]

Even on a clean install, the first thing i did was run the standalone. It gave the internal error while installing the service pack!
what is the exact error message and error no, if any that u r getting?

[alsiladka]

Some internal error in installing Service Pack. One of the error codes was 0x80070032

[Krazy_About_Technology]

This is ERROR_NOT_SUPPORTED in the list of errors for Windows Update.Shantanu, gx_saurav, any idea?

[shantanu]

i also installed it on a fresh install and i did not gave me any problem.. the error you are getting refers to : some security issue.. are you using PIrated windows ? it maybe that the serial is in black list.. you can try installing without activating..

[alsiladka]

No pirated windows. I am starting the installation on unactivated windows only. I purposefully did not activate since i knew there would be issues and i would be formatting!!

While downloading it from WU, this time it is getting stuck at 20% and gives me the error code -

Windows Update error 80070002

If you receive Windows Update error 80070002 while checking for updates, you need to remove the temporary update files that Windows uses to identify updates for your computer. To remove the temporary files, stop the Windows Update service, delete the temporary update files, restart the Windows Update service, and then try to check for Windows updates again.

To stop the Windows Update service
You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

Click to open Administrative Tools.

Double-click Services. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Right-click the Windows Update service, and then click Stop.

To delete temporary update files
Click to open Computer.

Double-click the local hard disk where Windows is installed, typically drive C.

Double-click the Windows folder, and then double-click the SoftwareDistribution folder.

Double-click the DataStore folder to open it, and then delete all files and folders in the folder. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Click the Back button. In the SoftwareDistribution folder, double-click the Download folder to open it, and then delete all files in the folder. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

To restart the Windows Update service
You must be logged on as an administrator to perform these steps.

Click to open Administrative Tools.

Double-click Services. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Right-click the Windows Update service, and then click Start.

If the problem persists after you have followed the steps above, see this Knowledge Base article on the Microsoft Help and Support website or go to the Windows Update Support Center website to request support by e‑mail.

Note
Deleting temporary update files will help solve the problem, but it will also delete the history in Windows Update. You can still see which updates are installed on your computer by going to Installed Updates:

To see which updates are installed on the computer
Click to open Installed Updates.

Help and Support search term: WindowsUpdate_80070002

[gxsaurav]

Yash, boy...I told u not to use Windows Update. In my case, I re-installed Vista, then after first boot I installed the service pack wit th 436 MB standalone installer & it worked fine. Do this, don't go for Windows Update when there is a stanalone exe available.

[nitish_mythology]

Thts gr8...But i m still w8ing to get my hands on vista!
:-(

[blademast3r]

hey where dyu download the standalone installer from?? can sm1 gimme the link...(not thru windoes update thing)

[gxsaurav]

Download Windows Vista SP1 Standalone Installer (http://download.microsoft.com/download/b/3/c/b3cf192f-7f49-4da7-a740-07818dc8c7aa/Windows6.0-KB936330-wave0-X86.exe) 436 MB

[alsiladka]

Yash, boy...I told u not to use Windows Update. In my case, I re-installed Vista, then after first boot I installed the service pack wit th 436 MB standalone installer & it worked fine. Do this, don't go for Windows Update when there is a stanalone exe available.
Did that, still get that internal error. Will try it again today! When is the next release for a SP1 testing expected?

[shantanu]

436 mb ? GX : what i got was 836 mb ? and it installed flawless.. ? whats this..

[gxsaurav]

After installing SP1 some system hacks will not work, here is the solution.

1) Download uxtheme patched for Vista SP1 RC (http://cid-eccd256d4687f1cc.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Files/uxtheme.zip)

2) To remove the "Evolution Copy" text from desktop, just replace the user32.dll.mui file in C:\Windows\System32\en-US with this Moded version (http://cid-eccd256d4687f1cc.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Files/user32.zip).

3) Must install Vize (http://www.vizeos.net/), it's a must for all Windows Vista users.

If you are unable to replace the files due to permission restriction, then just rename the existing file to filenameold.dll & then copy the new files.

436 mb ? GX : what i got was 836 mb ? and it installed flawless.. ? whats this..

Check yourself, it is the version with only 5 languages, so it's 436 MB, There is another version with all 36 languages, which is 550 MB.

What u got was beta version, the file size of RC is reduced a lot & it doesn't leave any clutter like previous beta used to leave

When is the next release for a SP1 testing expected?

Can't say, since this is RC not RCx (like 1 or 2). The next release might just be Final SP.

Yash, mind stating your hardware config.

[shantanu]

GX: you muct have downloaded it from technet or directly from M$ site..

i got it from connect : and it is RC1 in five language.. let me tell the file name :

mu_windows_vista_service_pack_1_rc1_x64_en_de_ja_f r_es

and it si 733 MB :) sorry for the wrong size previously..

[gxsaurav]

u_windows_vista_service_pack_1_rc1_x64_en_de_ja_fr _es

and it si 733 MB :) sorry for the wrong size previously..

That's the reason.

[shantanu]

oops ! my mistake.. :)

[alsiladka]

I have a Celeron M 1.4Ghz laptop with 759 MB RAM. Intel 915 chipset. A dumbass laptop, wish i could upgrade!

Got it working. I had to download the 5 Language Standalone again. But it would not work on vlited Windows, i just removed the languages and the printer drivers. Still it would not work.

Did a clean install and then ran the standalone at the first instance.

Definitely see some improvement in deleting files from the desktop. Dont think there was any improvement in file copying.

[Chirag]

I installed SP 1.. I m not able to give full control (permission) to my account or anyone... Its disabled and not letting me edit. What shld I do?