Even though it has released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, Microsoft is in fact serving nothing but crumbs from the Vista SP1 feast. And to make matters worse, the Redmond company has even pulled the plug on existing Vista SP1 downloads, even tough general users have yet to get a full taste of Vista SP1 RTM. This of course because following the last publicly available build of Vista SP1, namely Release Candidate Refresh 1 which dropped in early January 2008, Vista SP1 RC Refresh 2 and RTM versions were only privately made available.

"I support our product groups and senior leadership decisions. If Microsoft chooses not to release some software when you think it should be released, we usually have a darn good reason for the decision. I am not privy to all of the details of those decisions so when I offer an opinion back to our senior leadership, I can't get away with the type of comments I've seen posted on a variety of blogs and websites this week. I have to be a lot more diplomatic. Diplomatic doesn't mean I can't be direct, and I'm known for being direct," explained Keith Combs, Microsoft IT Pro Evangelist, as he announced a shift in the company's initial Vista SP1 availability plans.

At the beginning of this week, Corporate Vice President of Windows Product Management, Mike Nash revealed that Microsoft had backpedaled in terms of the delivery dates for Vista SP1. Nash explained that all the 15,000 Beta testers as well as the partners involved in the test driving of the service pack, during the development process, were granted access to the gold bits of Vista SP1 starting on Friday 8, 2008, just four days after RTM. By the end of this week, Volume Licensing customers will also be able to grab the final bits for Vista SP1, followed by MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers, by the end of the month. "For broad availability, we are still planning to release in mid-March, since we want to be sure that everyone has the smoothest experience possible," Nash added.

At the same time, Microsoft made the RTM version of Vista SP1 available for download via their OEM website. The location as well as the finalized Vista SP1 were available to all users that bothered to register. The download involved a 1.2 GB ISO image of Vista SP1 RTM featuring both the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the platform.

"Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) is now available for download. Windows Vista SP1 will deliver improvements and enhancements to existing features that significantly impact customers, but it does not deliver substantial new operating system features. Download Windows Vista SP1 here. The download contains Window Vista SP1 for five languages: English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish. Note Additional languages will be available soon. Once you download the Windows Vista SP1 package, you will need to extract the appropriate .exe file for the language you wish to install," read the announcement accompanying the download.

Well, one day later and Microsoft has discontinued the Vista SP1 download entirely. But it will be back around February 22, offering the same possibility of performing a clean install of Windows Vista SP1 RTM. But for now, all that Microsoft has to say is: "Microsoft has removed the Vista SP1 download from their OEM site and posted a message stating SP1 will be available on February 22, 2008."