Microsoft releases Vista SP1, Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing

Microsoft announced Monday that it has completed development of two major products, Windows Server 2008 and the Service Pack 1 update to Windows Vista, and has released the updates for its Windows Vista operating system and Windows Server OS to manufacturing (RTM).

"Both products have released to manufacturing today, which is good news," CEO Steve Ballmer yesterday told financial analysts. However, general public won't be able to actually download it until mid-March at the earliest, the company official said.

Vista SP1 is Microsoft’s first major update for the latest operating system, Windows Vista, which is the highly touted operating system from Microsoft. It will eventually replace Windows XP. Vista SP1 features security upgrades, improved performance, and support for emerging hardware and standards.

Currently wrapped up in five languages-English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese-the Vista SP1 includes a wide range of updates to the original version of Vista, which debuted a year ago. The update fixes several issues related to performance, reliability and compatibility.

The service pack includes more than 300 fixes for various types of glitches, including a problem in which optical disks turn blank after being formatted with Vista's Live File System and a glitch that generates an error message when large files are copied from one Vista-based computer to another over a network. In addition, it includes an update that is designed to improve Vista's speed when it's operating on a computer linked to a virtual private network.

Vista SP1 will be available through Microsoft's online Windows Update service and through the Download Center on Microsoft.com in mid-March, and will be made available in other languages in April.

Besides the first service pack for Vista, Microsoft has also released its next-generation server software Windows Server 2008 to manufacturing.

The new server platform, which will be available for purchase on March 1, is supposed to deliver upgraded security and Web development features. And, as Vista and Windows Server 2008 are closely aligned and are both very similar from an engineering point of view so it is designed to work particularly well with Vista, with which it shares 95 percent code base.

The Windows Server 2008 includes the Network Access Protection feature, which is required to work with the NAP features in Vista. The main attraction for the server will be the Hyper-V virtualization component.

Hyper-V is the next-generation hypervisor-based server virtualization technology in Windows Server 2008 that enables a single computer function like multiple machines, allowing IT organizations to spend less on equipment and energy in its data centers. It also helps companies improve server utilization and create a more-dynamic IT infrastructure and improve server availability. The technology won't be available until later this year.