Hiren (Expert): : Q[1] Hi, has this chat started?

A: Yes,just a few moments please.

Abhishek Baxi(Moderator): Welcome to today’s chat. Our topic today is Changes in Windows Vista Service Pack 1

Abhishek Baxi(Moderator): I'm Abhishek (www.baxiabhishek.info), your moderator for today's chat.

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Abhishek Baxi(Moderator): We are pleased to welcome our Expert for today’s chat. I will have him introduce himself now.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [2] I am need of an emulator/simulator which can emulate/simulate the below mentioned environment:

Processor -> P3

Ram -> 64MB

Color -> 16bit

 Does VPC 2007 spport?

A: Hello there.The topic for the current chat series is Windows Vista service pack 1 and therefore,unfortunately,this question's answer is out of scope of the current session.However,I will be glad to assist you in this matter after the chat is over.

Abhishek Baxi(Moderator): Let’s begin the chat. We welcome you to begin submitting your questions for our Experts. It's all yours, Hiren.

Hiren (Expert): Hello there.I am Hiren Mehta ,a past MVP (April 2007 to March 2008) in Windows Desktop Experience and currently an engineering student.

Hiren (Expert): In this chat session,I would like to draw upon a sample of the changes which have beem made in Windows Vista service pack 1.

Hiren (Expert): During the course of the chat,you are most welcome to ask any questions on the changes made in Windows Vista service pack 1(SP1).

Hiren (Expert):

Q: [3] Thanks Hiren.

A: My pleasure.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [4] I am currently using Business. After applying the SP1, my Hybernation feature went out. After I went to the sites, I found justifications of now having Hybernation feature rather than how to get it ON. Why does it behave like that?

A: For troubleshooting questions,please attend the third session in this series,which takes place after a week.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [5] found justifications of now = found justications of NOT

A: O.k.

Hiren (Expert): The updates which together make up SP1 can be broadly divided into three categories

Hiren (Expert): (1)Performance,reliability and security improvements,which include previously released updates until about the beginning of calendar year 2008.

Hiren (Expert): (2)Compatibility updates,so as to add support for certain upcoming standards and new hardware.

Hiren (Expert): (3)Infrastructure optimisation updates,which are aimed to help businesses make more efficient use of their IT resources.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [6] Based on your point (1),  if I install Vista in a new machine and just apply SP1, that should be enough and I do not require to apply any patches and updates of 2007

A: Yes,you can stay rest assured about that AS FAR AS updates for the operating system are concerned.For other applications which you use you still need to update them.

Hiren (Expert): I will first start with a sample of the updates made in the performance,reliability and security

Hiren (Expert): These updates make up the largest part of SP1 and obviousy have the greatest effect on the experience of the end-users.

Hiren (Expert): SP1 makes using Vista more reliable by giving you a more consistent experience.

Hiren (Expert): In the area of disaster recovery,it helps to prevent data loss by minimising the possible loss of data which may take place when you remove NTFS-formatted removable media such as external hard drives.It also improves the existing backup feature of Vista so that files in the EFS (Encrypting file system ) partitions can now be included in backups.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [7] When I used to revoke my laptop from Hibernation, most of the time, it used to freeze and not come up at all. After SP1, I have NOT had this problem. Was this also one of the features which was tackled by SP1 or is it something else which resolved this.

A: Good point.I am coming to exactly the same one

Hiren (Expert): SP1 increases the reliability and performance of Vista RTM not only while resuming from sleep but also while entering the same.

Hiren (Expert): Network connections are now more reliable.Using SP1 decreases the failure rate of temporary wireless connections made on an ad-hoc basis,as well as that of peer-to-peer connections made using Windows Meeting space or remote assistance applications.

Hiren (Expert): This is true even if both the computers are behind symettric firewalls.

Hiren (Expert): Now coming to performance

Hiren (Expert): The most talked about updates made in Vista SP1 are those of file handling.

Hiren (Expert): In Vista RTM,users had frequently complained about poor performance in file handling,both locally and across the netwrok.

Hiren (Expert): To address this feedback,Microsoft has made browsing network file shares faster and occupy less bandwidth.

Hiren (Expert): Locally,file copying has been made faster.

Hiren (Expert): For best results,when copying files across the network,it is advisable that both computers have SP1 installed in order to take advantage of the networking improvements.

Hiren (Expert): Users have also said that the delay of the OS in guessing the remaining time for copying files is highly irritating.

Hiren (Expert):

Q: [8] I think the file copying improvement is largely because of BITS(Background Intelligent Transfer Service )

A: Yes,if you are talking about network-wide file transfers.However,this is a beginner-level webchat series,so cannot delve into the details as to what exactly has been modified to achieve this.

Hiren (Expert): The file-copy time estimate delay has been addressed.SP1 improves this progress estimation when copying files using Windows Explorer so that the estimate appears within two seconds.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [9] The resource utilization factor in windows vista(eats up lots of resource like ram) has been a problem because of which many users still prefer using Windows XP.So has it taken care of ?

A: Besides the need for hard-disk space to install SP1,there are no system requirement changes for SP1.Initially,after using Windows Vista,you may feel a slight drop in your computer's responsiveness.It is because SP1 will remove the SuperFetch settings for your applications.However,many cases have been seen when,over a period of time,users using SP1 have slowly got their systems to use lesser resources and be more responsive.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [9] The resource utilization factor in windows vista(eats up lots of resource like ram) has been a problem because of which many users still prefer using Windows XP.So has it taken care of ?

A: ...and over a period of time,the SuperFetch settings will be re-created again.

Hiren (Expert): Compressed file handling has been improved.Now,adding files to and extracting files from compressed folders is faster.

Hiren (Expert): In power management,SP1 improves the performance of power state transitions and also improves battery life on some computers by reducing CPU use and re-drawing the screen less often than in RTM.

Hiren (Expert): SP1 also reduces the time delay when returning to the user session after using the Photo screensaver as well as the delay between pressing Ctrl+Alt+Delte and the password prompt actually appearing,at log-on time.

Hiren (Expert): Coming to security updates now.

Hiren (Expert): BitLocker has been greatly improved.Now all local volumes (and not just drive C) can be encrypted.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [10] From all the points which are mentioned above, dont u think, these should have been already there in Vista as part of any good OS...

A: SP1 was designed in ORDER TO cater to the feedback that Microsoft received from users taking part in the error reporting as well as customer experience improvement program.The need as to why Microsoft had to introduce this service pack was covered in the first chat session in this series.You are welcome to have a look at the chat transcript,at  http://www.microsoft.com/india/communities/chat/53.aspx

Hiren (Expert): Support for several new security protocols,such as FIPS,eID and suite B-compliant cryptography has been included.

Hiren (Expert): SP1 also makes using smart cards more secure now.

Hiren (Expert): We can now use biometric authentication in smart cards,so that the inherent disadvantages of using PINs are eliminated.

Hiren (Expert): In case one still wishes to use PINs for authorisation,collecting PINs from the smart card has been made more secure now and less vulnerable to attacks that would take place using an external PIN reader.

Hiren (Expert): Coming to new hardware and standards.

Hiren (Expert): 64-bit support has been greatly enhanced,particularly for systems using EFI or UEFI to boot.

Hiren (Expert): New storage technologies,such as the exFAT file system and SD-ADMA transfer mechanism,have been introduced.

Hiren (Expert): High-definition storage has been improved.

Hiren (Expert): New icons and labels that identify Blu-ray and HD-DVDs have been introduced.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [11] Windows Vista still not able to allocate more than 4GB RAM ...any fixes

A: Ya,in 32-bit PCs,that

Hiren (Expert): A: *that's the limit.

Hiren (Expert): Q: [11] Windows Vista still not able to allocate more than 4GB RAM ...any fixes

A: I can probably discuss this with you after the chat.We are running short of time.

Hiren (Expert): Gaming,display and multi-media improvements include Direct3D 10.1 support,new features in Windows Media Center and easier use of network projectors.

Hiren (Expert): SP1 has full support for the most recent draft of IEEE 802.11n wireless networking standard.It also adds support for SSTP,

Hiren (Expert): Coming to the last category of updates:infrastructure optimisation.

Hiren (Expert): Several improvements have been made to help organisations better deploy updates for Vista .

Hiren (Expert): Q: [12] I have noticed, SP1 fixes some activation cracks !! but there are still some options...as well as Reduced Functionality Mode can be bypassed too..so should we wait for SP2

A: Answering this question would be equivalent to discussing the internal architecture of the OS and therefore,I can make no comments on the same

Hiren (Expert): Q: [13] I have heard that Windows 7 .i.e. codename Viena is going to be out soon. So, what will be the use of Microsoft Vista SP2 ?

A: Nothing about SP2 has been stated so far.

Hiren (Expert): It also improves use of the Windows Pre-installation environment (WinPE) as a deployment platform for Widows Vista.

Hiren (Expert): The network diagnostics tool can be improved.System admins can now control which volumes to de-fragment.Network properties can now be configured using group policy.

Hiren (Expert):  That brings me to the end of today's chat.

Hiren (Expert): There is far more to SP1 than the updates which I have discussed.

Hiren (Expert): Thank you everyone for taking the time to attend today's webchat.

Hiren (Expert): Be sure to attend the next session to know more about obtaining SP1,installation,availability,deployment and troubleshooting issues.

Hiren (Expert): I would like to mention that the next session takes place after a week,i.e. July 4.Please do attend it.

Hiren (Expert): Details about all upcoming India community web-chats can be had from http://www.microsoft.com/india/communities/chat/

Hiren (Expert): Once again,thank you everyone for taking interest in today's webchat.It was a pleasure to have you all here.