Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 now on microsoft.com

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Windows Vista SP1 and Windows XP SP3 now on microsoft.com

By Martin English | December 14, 2007

Enough with all those registry keys that had to be changed and dozens of restarts before users were able to download the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate 1 or the Windows XP Service Pack 3 Release Candidate 1. This is all a thing of the past because Microsoft finally added both Service Packs as direct downloads on their website.

Please note that those downloads are still Release Candidates and not the real official Service Pack which will come out in 2008.

I would not advise to download and install it unless you really now what you are doing and have backups of your settings in case something goes wrong.

Microsoft has released a document entitled: �Installing Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Things to Know Before you Install� which should be read before upgrading the system. It basically states that users have to uninstall prior installed versions of the Service Pack 1 before installing the new one, that the copy of Windows Vista has to be genuine, that this release is a time limited software which will no longer operate after June 30, 2008 and that it is a pre-release version of the upcoming Service Pack 1.

There’s 4 downloads for the Windows Vista Service Pack 1, depending on the language of your installation and whether you use a 32-bit or 64-bit edition.

There’s only the one download for the Windows XP Service Pack 3 download, which is the English Service Pack.

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