Microsoft now says its Vista Service Pack 1 will become available to some business users before the end of this month — an about-face from the software giant’s earlier announcement of a delay of up to six weeks to fix a performance issue.
Many subscribers to Microsoft’s TechNet support service indicated they were unhappy with the delay, with one calling it “a major slap in the face for loyal subscribers who pay good money each year to have early access to this technology.” Another asked how he was supposed to test potential issues if SP1 was held back. Additional comments called into question “the usefulness of having a TechNet subscription.”
Saying Microsoft had “heard the feedback,” Windows Product Management Group spokesperson Mike Nash said Vista SP1 will be made available to at least some users beginning later this month.
“For broad availability, we are still planning to release in mid-March, as we want to be sure that everyone has the smoothest experience possible,” Nash wrote in a blog.
Device Driver Issue
Earlier this month, Nash announced the discovery of a performance issue posed by a small set of hardware devices that might not function properly after a Windows Vista-based PC was 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,” Nash explained. “For new PCs with Windows Vista SP1 preinstalled, this is not an issue.”
In a telephone interview last week, Gartner Client Computing Vice President Michael Silver noted that the device-driver issue should not pose a problem for tech-savvy users. “They should have enough smarts to take SP1, along with some guidance from Microsoft on where the problems lie, and at least do their testing with it,” he said.
In his latest blog comments, Nash agreed…