Windows Vista® Service Pack 1
Overview
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Ready for Windows Vista?
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Windows Vista® has become the fastest-selling operating system in
history, with more than 100 million licenses sold—and counting. If you haven’t
tried Windows Vista yet, it’s time to give the operating system a look for
yourself.
Windows Vista is already delivering tangible benefits to
customers. For example, it can help enterprises better control costs and
optimize their desktop infrastructures and help mid-sized businesses improve
their security, mobility, and productivity. Windows Vista can also help small
businesses spend less time managing their information technology (IT)
infrastructures. IT professionals already benefit from Windows Vista by more
effectively managing computers, and consumers are better able to open their
digital lives.
Windows Vista is also more secure than earlier versions of
the Windows® operating system. For example, Windows Vista had fewer security
vulnerabilities in its first 12 months than Windows XP in its first 12 months.
In the first half of 2007, Windows Defender detected 60 percent fewer malware
and spyware infections on Windows Vista than on computers running Windows XP
with Service Pack 2 (SP2)1.
Windows Vista and Windows Live™
made major advancements in the way people interact with technology, connect with
each other, and maintain a more secure and safe computing environment. From the
new security model to support for new kinds of devices to a new generation of
rich Web services and applications, business and consumers find it easier and
safer to use Windows and can be more productive than ever before. People are
communicating, sharing, and experiencing Windows to its full extent and are
delighted with the enhanced features of Windows Vista combined with Windows
Live.
Windows Vista introduced major progress but also some
challenges. While Microsoft knows that may Windows Vista users are having
positive experience with Windows Vista, the experience was not smooth for
everyone using it. For some, the applications and devices they used with Windows
XP no longer worked with Windows Vista, frustrating them. In the year that
followed, Microsoft listened to its customers and along with its partners has
made great progress in addressing Windows Vista compatibility issues.
Now,
with Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), the Windows Vista experience gets even
better. SP1 improves the reliability, performance, and security of Windows
Vista. For example, SP1 provides faster file copying, large file handling, and
file decompression. SP1 also adds support for emerging technologies and
standards and helps enterprises better optimize their IT infrastructures.
This white paper provides an overview of SP1 and the improvements it delivers.
It also provides an overview of how to get SP1 and how to install it.
Introducing Service Pack 1
The
release of Windows Vista SP1 enables customers to take advantage of improvements
that Microsoft and its partners developed. It’s a continuation of Microsoft’s
and its partners’ drive to provide the best experience possible. The goal is to
address key feedback that Microsoft has received from customers without
regressing application compatibility. SP1 delivers improvements and enhancements
to existing features that significantly affect customers, but it does not
deliver substantial new operating system features. For example, the service pack
improves file-copy performance but does not include a new version of Windows
Explorer.
The updates in SP1 fall into three categories, which the following sections
describe in more detail:
- Quality improvements, including all previously released updates, which
address reliability, security, and performance (SP1 doesn’t include updates
released in the two months prior to the SP1 release, reducing the number of
last-minute changes in the critical time just prior to release.)
- Support for emerging hardware and standards, such as an Extensible
Firmware Interface (EFI) and flash-based devices formatted using the
Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT) file format
- Improvements that help businesses better optimize their IT
infrastructures
The following sections describe a sample of changes. For a comprehensive list
of changes, see the Windows Vista SP1 section of Microsoft® TechNet at
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsvista/bb738089.aspx
Quality Improvements
Quality improvements have the broadest impact on all customers. It is the
foundation of Windows Vista SP1 and is about improving the overall Windows Vista
experience.
SP1 includes all previously released updates for Windows Vista, except for
updates released in the two months prior to the release of SP1 (as already
noted). It also includes security, reliability, and performance improvements.
These improvements target some of the issues Microsoft has identified as the
most common causes of operating system failures, giving customers a more
reliable experience. Microsoft analyzed a large set of system crashes and
application crashes reported by Windows Vista customers and released numerous
reliability updates through Windows Update that address almost half of the
application and operating system failures initiated in Microsoft code from that
set. SP1 also includes new improvements that further address a total of about
two-thirds to three-quarters of the failures traced back to Microsoft code in
the same set, helping to make Windows Vista easier to use and users more
productive.
The following sections describe many of the compatibility, reliability,
performance, and security improvements that Windows Vista SP1 delivers.
In the past year, the ecosystem has made dramatic progress in addressing
Windows Vista compatibility issues. More than 2,500 applications and 15,000
components and devices have earned either the "Works with Windows Vista" or
"Certified for Windows Vista" logos. As of December 2007, 93% of the 200
top-selling applications2 and 46 of the top 50 downloaded
applications on Download.com are Windows Vista compatible.
Microsoft learned a lot about our customers’ experience with Windows Vista,
too. Microsoft has great information about their experiences, because Windows
Vista creates a symbiotic feedback loop with customers. It allows Microsoft to
pinpoint issues, and then deliver resolutions quickly and efficiently. For
example, when you insert a device into a computer running Windows Vista, the
operating system automatically searches for the right driver for that device on
Windows Update. If a driver isn’t on Windows Update, that’s something Microsoft
wants to know about so it can be fixed.
Microsoft looks at the most commonly requested drivers and constantly works
with hardware partners to make more and more drivers available on Windows Update
so that when you install a new device, everything just works. The ecosystem has
made great strides. A year ago, when Windows Vista launched, there were 13,000
additional components and devices supported by Windows Update; now, there is
support for more than 54,000 components and devices. For computers running
Windows Vista, drivers are available on Windows Update for every device on
nearly all of today’s computers. Device drivers are also available through
hardware vendors’ Web sites.
Note: Most applications that were not compatible with the initial
release of Windows Vista release because of intentional architectural changes
(for example, Windows Vista User Account Control [UAC]) will still not work in
Windows Vista with SP1. Windows Vista with SP1 carries forward those same
architectural changes, because they were intentional and made for important
reasons, such as security and reliability.
Reliability
Microsoft doesn’t measure improvement solely by the number of devices that
Windows Update supports—Microsoft also measures the stability of the Windows
Vista experience. The information that Microsoft collects (by using tools like
the Customer Experience Improvement Program (CEIP)—an anonymous, opt-in
service—as well as Microsoft Online Crash Analysis (OCA) and Windows Error
Reporting (WER)—both of which are opt-in services) helps Microsoft learn which
devices and applications fail and why.
Microsoft understands that failures affect customers’ experiences, so we
spent a lot of time and energy working to improve Windows Vista stability.
First, Microsoft analyzed a large set of system crashes and application crashes
reported by Windows Vista customers and released numerous reliability updates
through Windows Update that address almost half of the application and operating
system failures initiated in Microsoft code from that set.
Sometimes, the failures occur in 3rd party software and sometime
in Microsoft software. In many cases, when Microsoft learns about a frequently
occurring failure, Microsoft analysts investigate the problem and share their
findings with the software vendor. In many cases, they work together to fix the
issue.
Windows Vista SP1 includes improvements that target some of the most common
causes of operating system failure, giving users a more consistent experience.
Additionally, SP1 offers the following improvements:
- Helps prevent data loss while ejecting NTFS file system–formatted
removable media
- Improves the reliability of networking in Windows Vista:
- Improves the reliability of Internet Protocol Security (IPsec)
connections over TCP/IP version 6 (IPv6) by helping ensure that all
Neighbor Discovery Request for Comments (RFC) traffic is exempted from
IPsec
- Improves scenarios in which a driver goes to sleep with incomplete
packet transmissions by helping ensure that the driver is given enough
time to transmit or discard any outstanding packets before going to
sleep
- Improves wireless ad hoc connection (that is, a computer-to-computer
wireless connection) success rate
- Improves the success of peer-to-peer connections, such as Windows
Meeting Space or Remote Assistance applications, when both computers are
behind symmetric firewalls
- Improves the built-in backup solution to include Encrypting File System
(EFS)–encrypted files
Performance
Windows Vista SP1 includes many performance enhancements. For example, SP1:
- Addresses an issue in the current version of Windows Vista that makes
browsing network file shares consume significant bandwidth and not perform
as quickly as expected.
- Improves the performance of copying files. In internal tests, copying
files from one folder to another on the same local disk was 25 percent
faster. Copying files from a remote computer that was not running Windows
Vista SP1 was 45 percent faster. Because of networking improvements in SP1,
copying files from a remote computer that was also running Windows Vista SP1
was as much as 50 percent faster.3
- Improves the progress estimation when copying files by using Windows
Explorer so that the time estimate in the progress window appears within two
seconds.
- Improves the speed of adding files to and extracting files from
compressed folders.
- Improves the performance of power transitions (for example, resuming
from hibernation and standby mode).
- Improves the performance of domain-joined computers when operating off
the domain. Before Windows Vista SP1, users would experience long delays
when opening the File dialog box.
- Improves battery life on some computers by reducing CPU use and
redrawing the screen less frequently.
- Improves the logon experience by removing the occasional 10-second delay
between pressing CTRL-ALT-DELETE and the password prompt appearing.
- Reduces the time to return to a user’s session when using the Photo
screensaver.
- Improves overall media performance by reducing many glitches.
- In internal testing, reduces by approximately 75 percent the time to
start Event Viewer.
Over the past year, Microsoft hardware and software partners have provided
additional updates that improve the Windows Vista experience in very tangible
ways. Compatibility isn’t the only improvement, either. These updates improved
quality and performance, as battery life illustrates. Compare the battery life
of a computer at the time Microsoft released Windows Vista with the battery life
of the same computer after updating device drivers from Windows Update, and
you’ll see improvements, depending on your computer. After measuring 16
computers internally, the median improvement was 7 percent, and five computers
gained more than 10 percent of battery life.
Security
Windows Vista SP1 also includes many security improvements. For example,
Windows Vista SP1 includes:
- Improvements to Windows BitLockerTM Drive Encryption, such
as:
- Encryption of extra local volumes. For example, instead of
encrypting only drive C, customers can also encrypt drive D, E, and so
on.
- An additional multifactor authentication method that combines a
Trusted Platform Module (TPM)–protected key with a startup key stored on
a USB storage device and a user-generated Personal Identification Number
(PIN).
- Application programming interfaces (APIs) by which non-Microsoft
security and malicious software–detection applications can work alongside
Kernel Patch Protection on 64-bit versions of Windows Vista. These APIs help
software partners develop applications that extend the functionality of the
kernel on 64-bit computers without disabling or weakening the protection
that Kernel Patch Protection offers.
- Adds support for important new security standards:
- A new Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS)–compliant mode
in the wireless client
- A new smart card framework that enables compliance with European
Union Digital Signature Directive and National ID (eID)
- A new Suite B–compliant cryptographic algorithm used in Windows
Firewall and IPsec
- Strengthens the cryptography platform with a redesigned random number
generator (RNG) that leverages the TPM, when present, for entropy and
complies with the latest standards. By default, the redesigned RNG uses the
Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)–based pseudo-random number generator
(PRNG) from National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special
Publication 800-90. The Dual Elliptical Curve (Dual EC) PRNG from SP 800-90
is also available for customers who prefer to use it.
- Improves security in smart card scenarios. First, SP1 introduces a new
PIN channel to more securely collect smart card PINs through a computer.
This mitigates several attacks that otherwise require an external PIN reader
to prevent. Second, SP1 enables smart cards that use biometric
authentication instead of a PIN.
- Provides security software vendors a more secure way to communicate with
Windows Security Center.
Emerging Hardware and Standards
The technology industry is fast-paced and constantly changing. Throughout the
life cycle of any version of the Windows operating system, the industry creates
new hardware innovations and defines new standards. Windows Vista SP1 includes
support for some of these new hardware innovations and standards, because
Microsoft expects them to become increasingly important in the near future. The
following sections describe these emerging innovations and standards.
New
Hardware
Between each Windows release, the industry introduces new hardware
innovations. To support current hardware innovations and anticipate future
innovations, Windows Vista SP1:
- Enhances support for 64-bit computers:
- SP1 adds support for 64-bit Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI)
network boot. It also adds support for new Unified Extensible Firmware
Interface (UEFI) industry-standard computer firmware for 64-bit systems
with functional parity with legacy basic input/output system (BIOS)
firmware. This allows Windows Vista SP1 to install to GUID Partition
Table (GPT)–format disks and to start and resume from hibernation using
UEFI firmware.
- Adds support for the 64-bit version of the Microsoft OLEDB provider
for ODBC Drivers (MSDASQL), which acts as a bridge from OLEDB to a
variety of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) drivers and that simplifies
application migration from 32-bit platforms to 64-bit versions of
Windows Vista.
- Includes support for new storage technologies:
- Adds support for exFAT, a new file system that supports larger
overall capacity and larger files and that Flash memory-storage and
consumer devices will use.
- Adds support for Secure Digital (SD) Advanced Direct Memory Access
(ADMA) on compliant SD standard host controllers. This new transfer
mechanism, expected to be supported in SD controllers soon, improves
transfer performance and decreases CPU utilization.
- Adds support for creating a single DVD medium that starts up on
computers with either BIOS or EFI.
- Enhances support for high-definition (HD) drives by adding new icons
and labels that identify HD-DVD and Blu-ray drives as HD drives.
- Adds support for Direct3D® 10.1, an update to Direct3D 10 that extends
the API to support new hardware features and enables 3D-application and
3D-game developers to make more complete and efficient use of upcoming
generations of graphics hardware.
- Enhances the Windows Network Projector to temporarily resize the desktop
to accommodate custom projector resolutions.
- Adds new capabilities to Windows Media Center:
- Adds support to enable new types of Windows Media Center Extenders,
such as digital televisions and networked DVD players, to connect to
Windows Media Center systems.
- Enhances the MPEG-2 decoder to support content protection across a
user-accessible bus on Windows Media Center computers configured with
Digital Cable Tuner hardware. This enables higher levels of
hardware-decoder acceleration for commercial DVD playback on some
computers.
New
Standards
As with hardware innovations, the industry defines new, innovative standards
and technologies between Windows releases. To take advantage of these
innovations, Windows Vista SP1:
- Includes support for new cryptographic algorithms:
- SP1 adds support for new strong cryptographic algorithms used in
IPsec: Secure Hash Algorithm (SHA)-256, Advanced Encryption
Standard–Galois/Counter Mode (AES-GCM), and AES–Galois Message
Authentication Code (AES-GMAC) for Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP).
- SP1 adds support for Authentication Header (AH), Elliptic Curve
Digital Signature Algorithm (ECDSA), SHA-256, and SHA-384 for Internet
Key Exchange (IKE) and Authenticated Internet Protocol (AuthIP).
- SP1 adds the NIST SP 800-90 Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) PRNG
to the list of available PRNG in Windows Vista.
- Includes support for new wired and wireless networking standards:
- Full support for the most recent Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE) draft of 802.11n wireless networking
- Support for Secure Sockets Tunnel Protocol (SSTP), a remote-access
virtual private network (VPN) tunneling protocol that will be part of
the Microsoft Routing and Remote Access Service (RRAS) platform (SSTP
simplifies certain kinds of VPN connections by allowing VPN traffic to
flow more securely through firewalls configured to block other types of
VPN traffic, which is frequently the case in hotels, coffee shops, and
other public hotspots.)
- Support for obtaining identity and invoking an identity user
interface (UI) from an inner method by means of a new EAPHost runtime
API and a configuration UI for tunnel methods (supplicants) (These APIs
are useful for developers working on tunneling and multi-phased
Extensible Authentication Protocol [EAP] authentication methods as well
as those who implement networking supplicants that consume EAP
authentications.)
- Enhances TCP Chimney network card support so that a TCP Chimney
network card can also support Compound TCP.
- Adds support for the Parental Controls Games Restrictions ratings from
the Korean Game Rating Board (GRB).
Infrastructure Optimization
Many changes in Windows Vista SP1 improve the deployment, management, and
support experience for Windows Vista customers. The following sections provide
overviews of these improvements.
Deployment
Microsoft identified numerous deployment issues and has improved the
reliability of operating system servicing in Windows Vista. As a result, Windows
Vista SP1 makes several changes that address identified issues and improve the
Windows Vista deployment experience. For example, Windows Vista SP1:
- Helps organizations better deploy Windows Vista updates:
- Adds support for hotpatching, a restart-reduction servicing
technology that maximizes uptime (Hotpatching works by allowing Windows
components to be updated while they are still in use by a running
process. Update packages that support hotpatching are installed through
the same methods as traditional update packages but will not trigger a
restart.)
- Improves update deployment by retrying failed updates when multiple
updates are pending and the failure of one update causes other updates
to also fail, as well
- Improves robustness during update installation by improving
resilience to transient errors (for example, sharing violations, access
violations) and unexpected interruptions (for example, power failure)
- Improves the uninstallation experience for updates by improving the
uninstallation routines in custom operating system installation code
- Enables more-reliable operating system installation by optimizing
operating system installers so that they are run only as required during
update installation (The result of fewer installers running is fewer
points of failure, leading to a more robust and reliable installation.)
- Improves using Windows Preinstallation Environment (Windows PE) as a
deployment platform for Windows Vista:
- Improves Windows Vista deployment by enabling customers to install
64-bit versions of Windows Vista from a 32-bit operating system (This
allows IT pros to maintain a single Windows PE image.)
- Improves deployment by supporting the installation of offline
boot-critical storage drivers (With SP1, Windows PE automatically looks
to a hidden partition for drivers. It will search that partition
recursively, and if boot-critical drivers are present, Windows PE will
load them.)
Management
Windows Vista has many new and improved management and troubleshooting
features designed to diagnose problems more efficiently, reducing the cost and
complexity of desktop support and configuration. Here is a sample of the
improvements that SP1 includes:
- The Network Diagnostics tool helps customers solve the most common
file-sharing problems in addition to the basic problems that it already
diagnoses.
- Administrators can control the volumes on which to run Disk
Defragmenter.
- Network Access Protection (NAP) is a policy-enforcement platform built
in to Windows Vista and Windows Server® 2008. After installing SP1,
administrators can configure NAP clients to:
- Allow the help desk to establish IPsec connections from healthy
computers to unhealthy computers, improving the supportability of NAP by
allowing help desk technicians with health-compliant computers to
establish connections to help resolve issues.
- Allow administrators to configure Windows Vista NAP to receive
updates from Windows Update or Microsoft Update, define the time that a
client computer has to retrieve and submit statements of health, and use
Domain Name System (DNS) server records to discover Health Registration
Authority (HRA) servers when no HRAs are configured locally or through
Group Policy.
- A Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface replaces the
MoveUser.exe tool, which was removed from Windows Vista. This interface
allows customers to remap an existing workgroup or domain user account
profile to a new domain user account profile.
- Administrators can configure network properties, such as name, and
deploy the changes network-wide by using Group Policy.
- Allows the Key Management Service (KMS) to run within a virtual machine
(VM).
- Enables flexible computing models:
- Addresses problems with printing to local printers from a Windows
Server 2008 Terminal Services session.
- Improves the security of running Terminal Services RemoteApp™ (TS
RemoteApp) programs and desktops by allowing Remote Desktop Protocol
(RDP) files to be signed. Customers can differentiate experiences based
on publisher identity.
When you install Windows Vista SP1, the installer removes the Group Policy
Management Console (GPMC) from the computer. You can download an updated version
as part of the Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT) from
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108134 shortly after the release of
Windows Server 2008. To continue managing Group Policy from a client computer in
the meantime, you can use a computer running Windows Vista without SP1 or
connect remotely to a computer running GPMC by using Remote Desktop.
1 Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Volume 4 at
http://www.microsoft.com/security/portal/SIR.aspx
2 NPD Group Data
3 Microsoft internal testing
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Some product features are only available in certain
editions of Windows Vista and may require advanced or additional hardware.