Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) beta has been upgraded from v.652 to SP1 build 6001.17042 v.658, in less than a week since the previous version was released. For those who interested to upgrade to version 658 of SP1, the same registry hack (as shown in commands below) which input the required 37d55f36-65d6-4fe4-9dc7-892fcbe6222b registry key into Windows Vista system still apply to let Windows Update to identify the system as upgrade target.

Windows Vista SP1

The v.685 release of Windows Vista SP1 is claimed to be stable and upgradeable by Mike Walker, who successfully upgrade with zero issues without any problems or glitches. Features that added or enhanced by Vista SP1 include:

  • Secure Sockets Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) allows for easier setup of VPN connections due to the way it works with firewalls, NAT devices etc.
  • Bitlocker Drive Encryption has been enhanced to support encrypting additional volumes besides the current limitation on the C: volume. It will also support three factor authentication (i.e. TPM + Pin + Dongle).
  • Disk Defragmenter has also been improved to give administrators additional control over what and when volumes get defragmented with the scheduler.
  • Support for Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) booting on x64 based machines.
  • Support for the ExFAT file format used in flash memory.
  • Support for SD-Advanced DMA
  • Improved network diagnostics.
  • Performance improvements, in fact, HUGE improvements.

Installing Windows Vista SP1

The registry commands are:

@echo off
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSp1 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d 37d55f36-65d6-4fe4-9dc7-892fcbe6222b /f
reg add HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate\VistaSP1 /v Beta1 /t REG_SZ /d 37d55f36-65d6-4fe4-9dc7-892fcbe6222b /f
echo Vista SP1 registry key has been set. Please check for updates in Windows Update.

The Windows Vista SP1 beta v.658 expires on 16th October 2008.

Update: Office Windows Vista SP1 RC Preview