We all know that a large portion of users are waiting for Microsoft to release Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Vista before they migrate to the operating system. This is an idea based on the success of Windows XP's SP1, which made XP a very stable operating system. So Microsoft must be rather smug with the Service Pack's progress. For those of you who are interested leeked versions of both Service Packs can be found, and I have provided links to sites with information at the bottom of this article.
Microsoft looks to be releasing both SP1 for Vista and SP1 for XP by the end of the year; perhaps, looking for a flood of purchases over Christmas and January.Both Service Packs are currently undergoing internal testing.
Obviously, like any operating system, Vista is not perfect. DailyTech reports issues with ReadyBoost, copying/moving large files, resuming from sleep/hibernate and Blu-ray playback on numerous systems. Fixes to these issues will take place in the Service Pack.
The Hotfix is currently hosting a slipstreamed version of Vista's SP1. You will need an account at their forums to view the thread in question. Similarly they also have links to a pre-release version of Windows XP's SP3, v.3180.
Although, it might be too late to fix the 2GB memory limitation for programs. I would not be surprised to see Microsoft combat this particular issue in a separate fix. This problem must be of high priority for Microsoft, as 2GB of RAM is standard for any gamers system. In addition, many games on the horizon, such as Crysis, may require more than 2GB for optimum performance. If this limitation is not fixed, gamers may be faced with a forced migration to the 64-bit edition of Vista, and that will only fix the problem if the games are compiled specially for 64-bit systems. Whilst XP may do the job for current DirectX 9 games -- as it handles memory for games better than Vista, therefore the 2GB barrier is not as problematic -- gamers will lose out on the benefits of DirectX 10 games, which will soon become the norm.
Those links again for anybody who likes to zoom down to the bottom of an article:
Windows XP SP3, v.3180 download
SP1, Build 6001.16549 download
