SP2 RC for Vista and Server 2008 goes public

[Slimy]

Microsoft today released the Release Candidate build of Service Pack 2 (6002.16670.090130) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 to the public. You can grab the standalone installer package from the Microsoft Download Center for 32-bit five languages and 32-bit all languages, 64-bit five languages and 64-bit all languages, as well as Itanium five languages and Itanium all languages. If you have Vista in English, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish, download the five languages package, otherwise get the larger "all language" version. There is also a five language and an all language.iso image available, as well as a patch that will allow you to get it via Windows Update. While this is a public release, it is still a Release Candidate, and Microsoft is recommending that the average customer "wait until the final release prior to installing this service pack" and reminding testers that "a Service Pack is not a feature release—we are not looking for new feature suggestions, only SP2 regressions, crashes, and confirmation of fixes we've made will be considered for this milestone."

Full Story: http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/03/sp2-rc-for-vista-and-server-2008-goes-public.ars

 

[jfar]

Thanks for the news,well done.

 

[win7]

Had this installed for alittle while now, seems to be working well, install took ages though.

And you must have sp1 installed first, was this the case in xp service packs?

 

[Slimy]

^ No it was not.

 

[win7]

Yeah i thought so, was a right pain as i downloaded sp2 and first tried using on v6000 before realizing i needed to download sp1 also.. in all honesty after using 7 i am far from impressed with this, seems very bloated.

 

[petrossa]

the rc download from the ms site gives build number 16497, whilst my current rc build number is 16670.

What gives?

 

[win7]

Same here, i didn't download from ms though, got this about a week ago.

 

[Jacee]

Mine is 16670 v.286 ... downloaded it from my dashboard 2 days ago.

 

[win7]

Still the only up side i can see over 7 is compatability.

 

[Jacee]

Guess I don't know what you're saying win7.

I'm beta testing this SP2 release on Vista Business which is working just fine.

 

[Chappy]

That's odd, MS usually releases SP's that are a Cumulative Rollup package that incorporates all patch releases up to that date. Wonder why they didn't go that route with Vista's SP2?

 

[Slimy]

That's odd, MS usually releases SP's that are a Cumulative Rollup package that incorporates all patch releases up to that date. Wonder why they didn't go that route with Vista's SP2?

It helps to read the article

 

[bloke]

but the big question is, is it worth updating vista or just wait till 7 is finalized? sure 7 has some issues but its beta (for the moment)

 

[Slimy]

When SP2 is released, I'm upgrading all my main machines to it. My test machine (this laptop) will still be used with Windows 7 builds.

 

[Mark]

As much as I love Windows 7, I would still like to see Vista become what it should have been and personally I have always liked Vista and without it we would not be where we are now, without Vista Windows 7 could not have been and Windows 7 would have been looked down upon just as Vista was because it was so different and unique, for me Vista is a very young OS and still has long way to go before maturity.

Just because it was misunderstood and feared doesn't mean it should not have a place as one of the great OS's that changed the way we look at windows and our expectations. If you want to blame anyone for Vista's failure, blame all the software companies that did not want to support it.

 

[bloke]

As much as I love Windows 7, I would still like to see Vista become what it should have been and personally I have always liked Vista and without it we would not be where we are now, without Vista Windows 7 could not have been and Windows 7 would have been looked down upon just as Vista was because it was so different and unique, for me Vista is a very young OS and still has long way to go before maturity.

Just because it was misunderstood and feared doesn't mean it should not have a place as one of the great OS's that changed the way we look at windows and our expectations. If you want to blame anyone for Vista's failure, blame all the software companies that did not want to support it.

im all with ya on that 1, ive always liked vista until i got hold of beta7000, i didnt care what ppl said about vista, i had it running like a charm (still do on my old acer travelmate) its a shame they couldnt just do an update that has all the windows 7 features for vista (that would be a big d/l i imagine) but then you wouldnt need a new o/s at all. and they sure did take their time creating the vista drivers, i was on a holiday shopping in hongkong wondering what all these vista logo's were at the "Golden centre" just before australia had even heard about vista. i was one of these ppl that wernt shocked about the new o/s, but baffled of how far they had come compared to the plain XP, then i had all the fun of customizing and tinkering, windows 7 just doesnt have that same 'new' feel, but a more impressive upgrade.

 

[petrossa]

crosspost to http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/4881-reflections.html#post44716

post #4

 

[win7]

Guess I don't know what you're saying win7.

I'm beta testing this SP2 release on Vista Business which is working just fine.

All im saying is that on my low end machines the only advantage of running this os is better driver support at present, on my laptop it feels very bloated compared to windows 7, though you may not notice this with your machines as they have better cpu/ram than me.

Bear in mind i have not really used vista before, i only decided to try it when the sp2 came out. So my comments are a bit more general and not just regarding the service pack but whole os.

Im using the ultimate version but prehaps should of gone for home premium.

 

[bloke]

All im saying is that on my low end machines the only advantage of running this os is better driver support at present, on my laptop it feels very bloated compared to windows 7, though you may not notice this with your machines as they have better cpu/ram than me.

Bear in mind i have not really used vista before, i only decided to try it when the sp2 came out. So my comments are a bit more general and not just regarding the service pack but whole os.

Im using the ultimate version but prehaps should of gone for home premium.

mine running vista ult 32bit sp1 is a acer travelmate 2140, 1.73ghz celeron, 2gb 667 ram, onboard intel graphics accelerator, audio, wifi, 50gb ata hdd, cdrw dvd rom combo.

is yours slower specs than that? cos mine runs pretty smooth apart from the slow boot time. plus it has some bad sectors on the drive, but i dont see any problems.

 

[Slimy]

^ 2GB of RAM is plenty for Vista