It Lives! Windows Vista Service Pack 1 - First Download Available

Microsoft managed to break the Windows Omerta set in place by Steven Sinofsky, the senior vice president for the Windows and Windows Live Engineering Group and is providing one of the first official references to the first service pack for Windows Vista. Now, the fact of the matter is that Microsoft has never actually denied the existence of Vista SP1, the Redmond Company has just scraped the release under the carpet and became mute. And while Microsoft continues to gag any references to Vista SP1, the Microsoft Download Center doesn't see eye-to-eye with the rest of the company in this respect.

In mid May 2007, the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) 2007 in Los Angeles, was the stage where Microsoft unveiled a preview of Windows Vista SP1. Windows Build 6001 Service Pack 1, v113 is nothing more and nothing less than a prime example of the fact that Microsoft is dogfooding Windows Vista SP1. In the screenshot at the bottom you will be able to see the location of the first download associated with Vista SP1.

Windows Automated Installation Kit Documentation (Windows Server code named "Longhorn" & Windows Vista SP1 Beta 3) went live on June 6, 2007 and it weighs in at 2.6 MB. "Documentation update for the Windows Automated Installation Kit and Unattended Setup Reference. The Windows Automated Installation Kit (Windows AIK) is designed to help Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), system builders, and corporate IT professionals deploy Windows onto new hardware. The Windows AIK is a new set of deployment tools supporting the latest release of Windows. This guide describes the current methods, tools, and requirements for deploying Windows," reads the description accompanying the download.

Windows Server code named "Longhorn" is of course none other than Windows Server 2008. But the second reference is incorrect. This is the third Beta for the Windows Automated Installation Kit Documentation and not for Windows Vista SP1. The documentation also contains a reference to February 2007. This means that Microsoft has begun the development process for Vista's first service pack immediately after the operating system was made available. Additionally, the documentation offers yet another clue about Microsoft's plans to launch Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista SP1 together by the end of 2007.