Vista SP1 and My Notebook as a Dog
I've been wondering why my notebook has been running like a dog lately. It was up to some of its old tricks. The trick that involved opening windows explorer when you have mapped drives and even on the local drives it just staring at you with a blank Windows Explorer window for about 3-5 seconds before it populated. Tricks likes the fan constantly coming on and whirring at such a speed that I thought the machine was about to launch into space. Tricks like trying to copy a file or extract a zip took something close to an eon for completion.
Oh yeah--- did I mention I run Vista. This isn't actually a bash on Vista but a proclamation of how much better is SP1. We (us techies) often install an SP and wonder - 'and did that really do anything for me?' I know Vista SP1 did because I had it, my demons were gone, I removed an RC version to put on the next RC version and just never got around to putting that last RC release on. I know very well what SP1 did for me because I downgraded and lived with it for a while. Yuck!
I've been one of those 'few' Vista SP1 beta testers. I have been running the SP1 betas on my notebook,well, since the first ones became available to us on Microsoft Connect. Even from early on the install of SP1 had resolved all the little 'tricks' I mentioned above. Back in mid January, or there abouts, RC2 or RC2 refresh or some variant came out. I started my dutiful but long uninstall of the prior SP1 RC so that I could install the new one. But that night after the 3 or 4 reboots and long wait times in between for the uninstall I just was not up to installing the newest bits.
Then I forgot about it. I forgot well enough that even with the little build number info in the lower right corner missing and my little demons back that SP1 had been so nice as to remove that I never remember to put the latest bits on board.
Now I am glad to say the RTM for Vista SP1 is available via MVL and to those of us who had access on Microsoft Connect. As I write this I'm installing it via Windows Update (I always did the standalone install on all the other versions). I'm glad to now realize why my machine was acting like such a brick and how glad I am to be putting the actual release bits back into it's life so that we can live harmoniously together.
I've read news reports that it won't be publicly available until Mid-March. I'll believe that when I see it. I suspect public pressure will cause an acquiescence by Microsoft and the SP1 will hit the broader public sooner than is currently being reported.
I'll let you know how the update goes and how much my demons have gone.