Beta Version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Coming Next Week

Microsoft will release the Beta 1 version of the Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista operating system next week, while the final version will be delivered most likely in November 2007, according to Mary Jo Foley’s Blog.

“Microsoft is expected to emphasize that SP1 is more about fixes than new features. Most of the elements of SP1 are expected to enhance or supplment features that are already part of Vista”, Mary Jo Foley’s sources said.

Along with altered operating system’s desktop-search functionality “seemingly to head off another potential antitrust suit”, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will include performance tweaks for faster files copying and shut down operation. The Vista’s SP1 will also bring improved transfer performance and decreased CPU utilization via support for SD Advanced Direct Memory Access (DMA); support for ExFat Windows file format for flash memory and other consumer devices; improvements to BitLocker Drive Encryption; the ability to boot Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) on an x64 machine; and improved success rate for firewalled MeetingSpace and Remote Assistance connections.

There is no word on any tweaks related to controversial support for Intel’s Turbo Memory, commonly used in newer notebook computers.

Source

[...] Although it was expected that Microsoft will release the Beta version of the Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista operating system this week, the software maker issued a statement instead, claiming that SP1 Beta will be made available “sometime this year”. [...]