On Monday (February 4th), we announced the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1).  Overall, people are excited to hear that we have reached this milestone, but some are disappointed they are not able to immediately download it.

In my blog post on the subject, I noted that we were going to make SP1 available to customers in stages to make sure we delivered a great experience.  As I explained, one reason for this is that we are working through an issue with a small set of hardware devices that may not function properly after the Windows Vista-based PC they are installed on is updated to SP1.  This is an issue with the way the device drivers were re-installed during the SP1 update process, not with the drivers themselves — these drivers worked on Windows Vista RTM and they work on Windows Vista SP1.  For new PCs with Windows Vista SP1 pre-installed, this is not an issue. 

We are working with the manufacturers of these devices to get the drivers and their install programs updated, and also working on other solutions we can use to ensure a smooth customer experience when updating to SP1 over Windows Update.

My blog post also noted that when beta testers encountered this issue, the problem was typically corrected by simply uninstalling and reinstalling the driver.  This type of issue can be addressed by our more technical customers since they are comfortable reinstalling drivers.  While most people think that it’s smart that we are releasing SP1 in stages, some people asked why we haven’t made SP1 available to technical customers sooner.

We’ve heard the feedback and I want to update you on our plans and progress for making SP1 available to our beta participants, our Volume Licensing customers, and our MSDN/TechNet Plus subscribers:

• Late Friday we made SP1 RTM available to individuals and companies who participated in the SP1 beta program
• At the end of this week we will be making the English version of Windows Vista SP1 available to Volume Licensing customers.  Other languages will follow soon after
• Later this month, SP1 will be available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers

For broad availability, we are still planning to release in mid-March, since we want to be sure that everyone has the smoothest experience possible.

I want to be super-clear on one point:  Windows Vista SP1 is final.  It has been fully released to manufacturing and we do not plan to make any changes to the SP1 code prior to public availability.  We are confident in the quality of Windows Vista SP1 and know that it will help improve our customers’ experiences with Windows Vista.

Our goal here is to address the needs of our customers while delivering the best experience.  Please keep the comments coming.  We are listening!

- Mike

Hi, Mike Nash here from the Windows Product Management group at Microsoft.  Today we are excited to announce that we have released Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista to manufacturing (RTM) for our first set of languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese).

Service Pack 1 is a very important milestone because it addresses many of the key issues that our customers have identified with Windows Vista over the last year both, directly and through programs like the Customer Experience Improvement Program.  With Service Pack 1, we have made great progress in performance, reliability and compatibility.  One of the great things about my job is that I get to play with the latest builds of our products — I’ve personally been running Windows Vista SP1 pretty exclusively for a few months and I’ve noticed that my systems run faster and more reliably than they did with the “Gold” release of Windows Vista.

When we first released Windows Vista last year, there were lots of customers who had great experiences, but some had issues finding applications that worked well on Windows Vista; others had problems finding the right device drivers for some of the hardware devices that they used.  The reason for these issues is that in order to improve the reliability and security of Windows Vista, we made some important architectural changes to the system.  While this caused some issues in the short term, in the long term we know that these investments will improve both the reliability and security of the customer experience on Windows.  Check out this blog post about the first year of Windows Vista security to see how some of these changes are paying off.

The good news is that this last year has been a great year of progress for Windows Vista in terms of improving application and device compatibility.  For example, 98 out of the top-selling 100 applications have versions available for Windows Vista.  And through the great work of our hardware partners, we now have 78,000 devices and components supported by Windows Update, up from about 34,000 in November 2006.  As a result, we have licensed over 100 million copies of Windows Vista to date.

Service Pack 1 brings new improvements that are based on feedback we heard from our customers.  It further improves the reliability and performance of Windows Vista.  The information we collect thanks to tools like the Customer Experience Improvement Program, Online Crash Analysis, and Windows Error Reporting help us learn about where and when customers are having issues with Windows Vista and the applications that run on it.  Since these issues have a direct impact on our customers’ experiences, we’ve invested time and energy to make this better.  While Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is an important milestone, we will continue to invest in the continuous improvement process.

SP1 also 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.

The key learning over the last year is that when we change the operating system, it takes time to let the ecosystem make sure that the hardware and software that they build works well with Windows Vista.  So as we release Windows Vista SP1 to manufacturing, we are going to be thoughtful about when and how it gets distributed.

With today’s RTM of SP1, a number of processes kick off as we deliver the update to customers.  Our OEM partners will get SP1 and start producing new PCs running Windows Vista with SP1 pre-installed.  We will also start the manufacturing process for retail product of Windows Vista with SP1.  Both will be available in stores for new Windows Vista customers in the coming months.  Today we also start the process to manufacture DVDs for our enterprise customers who get our software via our Volume Licensing program.

As we update our customers to SP1, we want everyone to have a great install experience.  We are going to stage our rollout of SP1 for current Windows Vista users to be approximately concurrent with the availability of Windows Vista SP1 on new PCs and in stores.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  Our beta testing identified an issue with a small set of device drivers.  These drivers do not follow our guidelines for driver installation and as a result, some beta participants who were using Windows Vista and updated to Service Pack 1 reported issues with these devices.  Because the issue was with the way the drivers were installed and not the drivers themselves, the solution was simply to reinstall the drivers.  While this worked fine for our more technical beta testers, we want to deliver a better experience for customers as we make the update broadly available.

While we know that most customers who update from Windows Vista to SP1 will NOT be affected, our approach is to improve the experience for all our customers.  To do this, we will begin making SP1 available through Windows Update in mid-March, giving us time to work with some of our hardware partners to make adjustments to the installation process for the affected drivers.  As SP1 gets delivered through Windows Update, we will only offer it to PCs that we detect don’t have any of the affected device drivers installed.  We’re taking the next month or so to continue our work of identifying as many of these devices as possible.

Here’s the timing for SP1 availability for current Windows Vista users:

• In mid-March, we will release Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Update (in English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese) and to the download center on microsoft.com.  Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install Service Pack 1.  If Windows Update determines that the system has one of the drivers we know to be problematic, then Windows Update will not offer SP1.  Since we know that some customers may want to update to SP1 anyhow, the download center will allow anyone who wants to install SP1 to do so.
• In mid-April, we will begin delivering Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Vista customers who have chosen to have updates downloaded automatically.  That said, 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.
• The remaining languages will RTM in April.

New customers should feel great about buying Windows Vista today, knowing that when everything is ready, SP1 will be available to them via Windows Update.  In the meantime, remember that you can take advantage of the benefits of Windows Vista (including many improvements delivered via Windows Update) even without Service Pack 1.

This is an important milestone for our current and future Windows Vista customers around the world.  I want to take a minute to thank our customers for their feedback on Windows Vista and the beta of Service Pack 1.  I also want to thank our hardware and software partners for their continued efforts to deliver the best experiences on Windows Vista.

-Mike

Introducing Microsoft Assessment and Planning 3.0 

For those of you who are considering the migration of your desktop and server infrastructure to Windows Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008, we have good news for you!

As we’ve announced at TechEd IT Forum 2007 in Barcelona last November, the Microsoft Solution Accelerators team is going to release the expanded version of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment 2.1 called Microsoft Assessment and Planning 3.0 (aka MAP).

In short, MAP is an automated agent-less network-wide inventory and assessment tool that can quickly determine if your organization’s desktops and servers are ready for migration to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

What do I mean by AGENT-LESS inventory?  Simply put, it means that you do not need to launch any software agents on any of those machines you want this tool to inventory and query - so no more security concerns and user interruption!

It offers quick network-wide inventory of machines and generate hardware and device compatibility reports with actionable recommendations in the form of auto-generated proposal documents - perfect documentation for your IT project planning in the new fiscal year!

The best part is that you can use this tool to inventory your environments ONCE and get multiple assessments and reports for not just server and desktop migration, but also various virtualization options from Microsoft (see our Virtualization Day Summit blog post here)! 

How it Works? 

Through the use of a sophisticated, agent-less and network-wide inventory engine, Microsoft Assessment and Planning will be able to discover machines on your network whether they are in workgroups or managed AD environments.  By way of WMI, Win32, SNMP and other protocols, we can then securely collect hardware and device attributes of each machine and auto-generate migration readiness reports in Microsoft Word and Excel for the user. 

What a great way to help you jump-start your planning process when you know your manager is waiting for your IT project plans for the New Year!

What’s New with MAP 3.0? 

• Full incorporation of the features of Windows Vista Hardware Assessment including the generation of reports and proposals in 7 languages including N. American English, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Spanish and Portuguese
• Windows Server 2008 migration hardware assessment
• Windows server virtualization assessment (supports Virtual Server 2005 R2; will also add Hyper-V assessment in later this year)
• Application virtualization infrastructure assessment for Microsoft Application Virtualization (formerly SoftGrid)
• New Graphical User Interface

Check it Out! 

• Download the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Beta Refresh today, give us your feedback, and see how you may get a free copy of Windows Vista software and more!
• Visit the MAP Team Blog to learn more or check out other great Solution Accelerators!
• Subscribe to the Windows Vista Team Blog & MAP Team Blog RSS feeds to make sure you’re the FIRST to know when MAP 3.0 will RTM (target date: February 27, 2008)
• Sign up to join our weekly Live Meetings and chat directly with our development team
• Download the Windows Vista Hardware Assessment - if you can’t wait for MAP RTM version (RTM on Feb 27)

See you next time!

Baldwin Ng - Sr. Product Manager, Microsoft Assessment and Planning + Virtualization Solution Accelerators 

Tomorrow, Tuesday 8 January, we are releasing several non-security update packages via Windows Update.  The updates include the regular monthly Malicious Software Removal Tool and Windows Mail Junk Mail Filter, two updates in our regular series of Windows Vista updates (KB943302 for application compatibility and KB943899 for reliability and performance), and one update of particular notice: KB935509.  Similar to previous updates that enhanced Windows Vista’s performance and reliability, these updates will be distributed automatically through Windows Update.

Tomorrow’s KB935509 release is a little different than past updates.  It is a prerequisite for installing SP1 and is applicable only for Windows Vista Ultimate and Enterprise users, because it only affects versions of Windows Vista supporting BitLocker Drive Encryption.

This update modifies the boot loader to enable successful install or uninstall of the service pack if the PC uses BitLocker encryption.  We’re releasing it now to lay the groundwork for future updates and to eliminate any extra reboots by installing it along with updates that already require a reboot.  For more information on the update, see KB article KB935509 (which will be posted on Tuesday morning).

In addition to KB985509, there are two other updates that will be prerequisites for Windows Vista SP1, for all versions of Windows Vista.  They will be released at a later date and will improve the installation experience and reliability for the service pack as well as for individual update packages.

SP1 development and testing efforts are continuing as expected and we remain on track for its release later this quarter.

We’re making available today the RC release of Windows Vista SP1, found here on MSDN and here on TechNet, with an FAQ here.  I invite you to download, install and use the SP1 RC and let us know about your experience by providing your feedback here.

Before you install SP1 RC, please bear in mind the following points of advice, detailed in this short article:

• If you have a prior version of SP1 Beta installed, you must uninstall it prior to installing RC.
• This is pre-release code and will change before the final release.
• This pre-release software is provided for testing purposes only.  Microsoft does not recommend installing this software on primary or mission-critical systems.
• Microsoft recommends that you backup your data prior to installing any pre-release software.
• Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate is time-limited software.  It will no longer operate after June 30, 2008 and should be uninstalled prior to that date.
• Support is through self-help and peer support via the Windows Vista SP1 forum.  Assisted support (phone, email and online chat) is not available from Microsoft Support for this RC release of SP1.  Support is not available via this blog.
• If you install the Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, it is strongly recommended that you also plan to install the final version of Windows Vista SP1 when it is released in the first quarter of 2008.  To do this, you will be required to uninstall this pre-release code.
• You must have a genuine copy of Windows Vista installed on the computer prior to installing the Windows Vista SP1 update.

Thanks to all of you who’ve expressed interest in testing the RC!

Measuring the performance of an operating system is a tricky thing.  At the same time, it’s the right and necessary thing to do, because performance is one of many criteria important to customers.  Part of the trick of measuring performance is to time testing execution with the product cycle such that the results are as meaningful as possible for customers; this helps them make a better decision by making use of the full array of available information.  As one example, about a year ago we commissioned a firm called Principled Technologies to conduct a study comparing Windows XP SP2 to Windows Vista RTM.  That study found the performance measures of the two operating systems were within the same range for many tasks that home and business users frequently perform under real-world conditions.

My point is that we waited to conduct these benchmarking tests until Windows Vista had reached the RTM milestone in the product cycle, as this allowed us to provide our customers the most meaningful data available at the time — the data most likely to directly affect their decision to upgrade to Windows Vista.  We do a whole range of performance tests at every stage of the OS development process, but, as a general rule, we avoid sharing benchmark tests of software that hasn’t gone RTM (i.e., final code).  This explains why we have not to date published any findings of benchmark tests (nor commissioned anyone to do so) on performance improvements brought about by Windows Vista SP1.  Publishing benchmarks of the performance of Windows Vista SP1 now wouldn’t be a worthwhile exercise for our customers, as the code is still in development and, to the degree that benchmarking tests are involved, remains a moving target.

Aside from that point, let me also emphasize that there are a variety of ways to benchmark the performance of a PC.  Different techniques can yield different results.  Some benchmark techniques simply test PC hardware performance by running a series of tasks at superhuman speed.  Such tests tend to exaggerate small differences between test platforms and consequently are used less frequently nowadays, replaced in favor of benchmarks running tasks at human speeds with realistic waits and data entry.  Benchmarks that run at superhuman speeds often deliver results that don’t tell the whole story.  In fact, we made deliberate choices during the development of Windows Vista to focus on real-world scenarios affecting user experience, rather than focusing on improvement of microsecond operations imperceptible to the user.  In addition, in Windows many operations can require additional processing time for work that is done for reasons that benefit the customer; these can include security, reliability or application compatibility checks conducted when a program launches.  These operations may add microseconds to an individual application’s launch that under real usage isn’t perceivable to the human eye.  When thousands such operations are strung together through automation, those few microseconds can have a cumulative effect on the benchmark result, causing performance to appear much better or worse than expected.

I’ve included below a video we captured depicting a “benchmark test” running a window-open, window-close routine at accelerated speed.  You can see that it isn’t representative of real-world user behavior and hence isn’t an accurate gauge of the actual end-user experience.  Further, tests like these only measure a very small set of Windows capabilities and so aren’t representative of the user’s overall day-to-day experience of working with Windows and running applications.

Video: Windows Vista benchmark testing

Methods like those of Principled Technologies that actually approximate the experience of using the PC, taking an OS through the paces of completing actual tasks at the approximate pace a user might click through them, tend to provide results far more useful to our customers.  The typical Windows customer generally wants to know how his/her actual computing experience will change (read: improve) with an upgrade.  The Principled Technologies tests do that.

For what it’s worth, I can personally attest that I prefer to get my work done on Windows Vista SP1 RC bits.  I run Windows Vista RTM on two production machines and SP1 RC bits on two others; in fact, I’m writing this post on a machine with SP1 RC bits installed.  As a part of our internal SP1 testing program, I know that we continue to develop and improve SP1 every day, in large part based on feedback and bug submissions from external an internal Beta-test program members.  IMO, the perceived gains in performance between SP1 Beta and SP1 RC code are significant.  As I said at the beginning, though, performance is only part of the story — don’t forget that SP1 also brings support for new types of hardware and several emerging standards, and further eases an IT administrator’s deployment and management efforts.

But don’t take my word alone for it.  We’ll broaden the testing pool of SP1 RC bits soon (very soon), so when I post that notice here on the blog, you’ll be able to put Windows Vista SP1 RC through its paces yourself.  I think you’ll find the experience worthwhile and satisfying.