Yes, Virginia, There Is a Vista SP1

As I predicted back in June, there will be no Vista SP1 released this year. Microsoft is on a slower delivery track, even though the service pack includes search changes coming under court oversight that is scheduled to end before the update's release.

Microsoft plans to release the first Vista service pack beta to 10,000 to 15,000 select testers in just a few weeks. Microsoft also plans to release Windows XP Service Pack 3 beta to testers about the same time.

What's uncertain is the next step. With Windows XP Service Pack 2, Microsoft made a beta broadly available. Vista SP1 may be different.

"We may not" have a public beta, David Zipkin, Windows client senior product manager, said in response to one of my questions. "We do plan to go very broad through MSDN and TechNet at a later point."

When that "later point" will be is uncertain. What is more certain, but not definite, is the release of final—or RTM—code sometime in first quarter of 2008.

Timing makes loads of sense. Windows Server and Windows client share a common code base. Typically, desktop development closely tracks with that of server software. Microsoft plans to launch Windows Server 2008 in February. In November 2006, Bob Muglia, Microsoft's senior vice president for server and tools, told my eWEEK colleague Peter Galli that Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1 would ship "simultaneously."

"We're certainly aligned with Windows Server ... but we are separate products," Zipkin said.

Many businesses are holding back network and infrastructure upgrades until the release of Windows Server 2008, in what some analysts call the "Big Bang" theory. If true, many enterprises would closely follow Windows Server 2008 deployments with Office 2007 and Windows Vista Service Pack 1. Close release of the server software and Vista update would facilitate these deployments. The timing is crucial for Microsoft and its customers and partners.

Incidentally, Windows XP SP3 is scheduled for release in first half of 2008, or after Microsoft makes available Vista SP1.

Compatibility and Bug Fixes, but No New Features
Microsoft plans to add no major additional Vista features in the service pack, although there will be support for new or emerging technology standards like exFAT (Extended File Allocation Table) and EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface) for 64-bit systems.

"The vehicle for new features is a new version of Windows," Zipkin said. That's good news for enterprises, for which new features can introduce new compatibility troubles.

Service Pack 1 will not include the oft-rumored Vista Media Center update.

Irksome for some users will be yet another revision of the Windows EULA (end-user license agreement). End users receiving Vista Service Pack 1 via Windows Update will have to go through the unusual step of accepting a new EULA. Windows XP Service Pack 2 also introduced a new EULA.

"We use service packs as opportunity to modify the EULA," Zipkin said. But he couldn't say what those changes will be. Windows end users should ask. Microsoft could modify virtualization rights or make other changes through the new EULA.

Changes Demanded by Competitors
Two feature changes are worth noting: Vista search and Security Center.

A new Microsoft white paper on Vista Service Pack 1 says that the update "does not provide a new search user interface." While the UI won't change, the plumbing will, a little. Responding to a Google legal complaint, Microsoft is slightly modifying Vista search, such that end users can choose a default product; in addition, Microsoft is providing links to the default desktop search software from the Start Menu and to Explorer Windows.

Microsoft promised the DC Circuit Court search changes would be made by mid-November as part of the Vista SP1 beta. That's when I would expect a broader beta release, by the way. The November date is crucial, and it may not be soon enough for Google. Microsoft's antitrust consent decree mostly expires on Nov. 12; the search changes would fall under court supervision but come after the consent decree mostly ends, based on Microsoft's timeline. Google had asked U.S. Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly to extend government oversight of Microsoft. Next status hearing for government oversight is Sept. 11 and opportunity for Google to renew its request to be heard by the court and for extension of the consent decree.

By the way, if the search modifications are such a big concession by Microsoft, where is the developer and customer documentation? Microsoft's Vista white paper goes through lots of Vista changes, but not the search modifications.

Microsoft doesn't offer up much in the white paper on Security Center changes, which perhaps underscores the ongoing spat between the company and former partners like McAfee and Symantec. Security developers have raised ire over Vista Security Center and how it interacts with their software. Microsoft will change the interaction.

Zipkin claims Microsoft is making changes because it agrees with security software developers that complained the "channel" for communicating between Security Center and their software isn't secure enough.

Microsoft's solution: "Introduction of a more secure channel," Zipkin said. Two channels will operate "side by side" for several months, and then the older one "will just turn off," he said.

What does that really mean? No doubt, security software developers will say what they think over the coming days and weeks.

Related Posts:

• Don't Have a WOW, Man, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 28, 2007
• You're Not Genuine Enough, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 25, 2007
• If Not Vista Enterprise, Then What?, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 21, 2007
• Broken Windows, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 9, 2007
• Were Vista Capable Stickers Incapable?, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 8, 2007
• Why Can't Vista Do This?, Microsoft Watch, Aug. 1, 2007
• Why 'Seven' and Not SP1?, Microsoft Watch, July 24, 2007
• Microsoft: No Rush to Vista SP1, Microsoft Watch, July 19, 2007
• Google This!, Microsoft Watch, June 25, 2007
• Uh-Oh! No Vista SP1 This Year?, Microsoft Watch, June 20, 2007
• Microsoft Will Modify Vista Search, Microsoft Watch, June 20, 2007
• Google Complaint Targets Vista Search, Microsoft Watch, June 9, 2007
• The 'Big Bang' Is When?, Microsoft Watch, April 26, 2007
• The Trouble with Vista Capable, Microsoft Watch, April 4, 2007