Γνήσιο πλεονέκτημα παραθύρων, σύστημα αυτήν την περίοδο σε ισχύ Vista παραθύρων. Υπάρχουν πραγματικά δύο διαφορετικά σενάρια σε ισχύ, ο πρώτος καλείται μειωμένο τρόπο λειτουργίας που Vista θα αρχίσει εάν ο χρήστης δεν ενεργοποιεί το προϊόν εγκαίρως. Ο δεύτερος είναι εάν ένας έλεγχος WGA αποτύχει που θα κάνει Vista να τρέξει στον μη-γνήσιο τρόπο. Και οι δύο τρόποι επιβάλλουν ορισμένες ποινικές ρήτρες επάνω στο χρήστη όπως να καταγράψουν τον μακριά μετά από μια ώρα ή να θέσουν εκτός λειτουργίας των χαρακτηριστικών γνωρισμάτων όπως Aero ή Readyboost.

Οι καλές ειδήσεις είναι ότι και τους δύο τρόπους που περιγράφονται ανωτέρω πηγαίνουν. Οι χρήστες αυτόματα άλλο που είναι μεγάλο. Η Microsoft εντούτοις αποφάσισε να αλλάξει την τακτική και nag το χρήστη στο θάνατο - εγγραφή/ενεργοποίηση EH - αντ' αυτού. Users will experience the following if their Vista installation fails the WGA check or if they fail to activate Vista in time.

“A nag screen to activate at logon that cannot be dismissed for 15 seconds.
Every hour the desktop background is switched to black (it can be changed back, but after an hour it’s set to black again).
Activation dialogs and balloon dialogs appear regularly.
Optional Windows Updates aren’t delivered.“

You can also get a list of changes…

Vista fans, yup here is it! Long awaited Service Pack 1 in RTM version released .What RTM - “Release To Manufacturing” does stands for? Well, in short it’s exact same version which will appear in March aka final version.The leak is some kind of a standalone executable and has the build 6001.18000.080126-2040. Another leak has it as 080118_1840, but its a pretty early timestamp (18-01-2008) which suggests that its a fake. These builds are probably escrow and candidate for the final RTM.
Check wiki for more details about RTM. Keep in mind that this is only Service Pack 1 itself, it’s not Vista SP1 ISO! So, you can download it and install on any (32bit) Vista edition. Also make sure to READ NFO for more details & explanation. For those ones who have pirated copy of Vista (well, who doesn’t?), I’m not sure will this work with that popular OEM BIOS emulation crack by PARADOX (Microsoft’s states something like - No way dude).

You might want to take a look here too RTM Build 6001.18000

Leading up to next week’s public beta-test release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, Microsoft today has published a 17-page document outlining in fine detail exactly what difference SP1 makes to Vista.

Some of the contents has been shared in bits in the past, but this is so far the most comprehensive “changelog” we’ve ever seen and probably will see as the final version is not expected to differ much from the RC, with the exception of WGA modifications as described below. I’ve highlighted some of the most interesting changes which you may or may not already know.

This document describes many of the notable changes in Windows Vista SP1, with the exception of some updates to the Windows Genuine Advantage experience which we are still developing for our customers and will be released in a later build.

Read More Here

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…

Microsoft have by released Vista SP1 to manufacturing, but users won’t be able to actually download it until mid-March at the earliest, company officials said Monday. During beta testing for Vista SP1, Microsoft found that some device drivers were causing problems on systems with SP1 installed. Although the issues can be fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers, Microsoft decided this would be too complicated for most users. As a result, Microsoft will spend the next month hunting for additional problematic device drivers, said David Zipkin, senior product manager in Windows Client Group.”With drivers, we wanted to make sure when folks upgrade to Vista that they have a smooth experience,” Zipkin said.
In mid-March, Microsoft plans to release Vista SP1 in 5 languages — English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese — through Windows Update and the Download Center, Zipkin said, adding that Microsoft will ensure that SP1 isn’t pushed out to PCs that have the aforementioned drivers installed. In April, Microsoft will begin auto updates of Vista SP1 to users who’ve chosen this option, and will also release the rest of the language specific versions of Vista SP1, Zipkin…