Service Pack Beta?
Because I am beta testing Windows Server 2008 (and have been for about a year now) I have had access to Windows Vista SP1 for a while now, but honestly I have been a bit hesitant to make the jump too quickly. When I am on tour I live by my laptop, and the thought of it conking out and needing any amount of work to get it back up frankly put me off it. As well I downloaded the bits at one point and when I realized it was an entire re-install, rather than a patch, I decided to wait.
Well my tour ended and though I am in deep prep for my next tour which kicks off in December I decided to take the plunge. It helped that the RC1 of the release was finally a patch, so on Thursday last week while working on other things I took the plunge.
The install went quite well, or at least I should say uneventfully. It was not a quick process, but what in beta ever is? I was half-expecting to have to reformat my computer when I was done anyways, so anything better than that would be an improvement.
It turns out I did not have to reformat. The install went well, and at the end of the process I was presented with the blessed login screen of 'you didn't pooch everythingdom.' A small victory I suppose, but on Thursday those were the only kinds I had.
I was angry to realize that the computer was not connecting to my office's secure wireless Internet, and started troubleshooting. The certificate was still there and my credentials had not changed, so why was it not working? Working alone in the office that day did not afford me the opportunity to hear anyone else complaining that the wireless network was acting up, so it took me nearly half an hour to realize that it was the router that was acting up and not Vista SP1. This out of the way, I was able to connect successfully… and stably I might add.
All in all I am happy with the performance so far. I have not found any problems with what I have been doing, though to be fair (quite uncharacteristically) I have not used my computer for at least two 24 hour periods in that time.
In the old days a Service Pack was basically a roll-up of previously released patches. Windows XP SP2 was so widely panned because despite its overwhelming success as an operating system, it was much more than just patches. From what I can tell Vista SP1 has gone back to what a service pack should be, and I am happy with that. Now there are some features that were added such as the NAP client that is strictly for Server 2008 environments, and I know they have removed the Group Policy Management Console (I am not sure why) but aside from that it is patches, and I am happy with that. It makes it easier to sell to IT Pros as patches, rather than having to test a whole new set of features and programs before deploying.
Of course this is still the pre-release, and I am looking forward to installing the final build; until then this patch gets my thumbs up, and if you are a power user with access to it I strongly recommend you give it a whirl. If not then the general public won't have to wait too much longer… good things come to those who wait!