Service Pack 1 was designed from the get go to tackle the big Windows Vista RTM performance issues, revealed Brad Marrs, senior program manager Windows client performance team (video here via Edge). In this regard, SP1 was not built as a global evolution of the latest Windows client in terms of performance, but was set up to address the most pressing problems reported to Microsoft. Without a doubt, Vista managed to hit a few speed bumps since it hit the shelves on January 30, 2007, and SP1 came to soften the rough corners of the RTM product. Microsoft focused on resolving the big problems associated with Vista RTM in SP1 rather than delivering a repeat of what SP2 was to Windows XP. Performance was one of them.

"One of the things that we did when Vista RTM was released (...) was to look at the big hitters, the big issues that people had, and then come up with what it was that we needed to fix, specifically for SP1," Marrs stated offering the work done on "file copying" as an example. The result of the efforts poured into improving performance in Vista SP1 concluded into what Marrs referred to as "huge improvements into certain scenarios."

Microsoft essentially focused on delivering the evolution of Vista performance with SP1, but at the same time, the company worked to enhance the perception of speed for the operating system during file copy and network copy i/O processes. With over 180 million copies of Windows Vista sold since the start of 2007, it is clear that Microsoft's latest Windows client is selling, despite the public perception of the various "handicapped" aspects of the platform.

"There are a lot of features that we added in Vista. ReadyBoost technology helps a lot, there's ReadyDrive with the new hybrid hard drives and Intel's technology, there are several things that people can do to improve start times, shut down times, all sorts of things to help improve performance. But the key thing is to understand what's going on with the system before you jump to come up with a solution," Marrs added exemplifying a few tools and features designed to enhance Vista performance on top of what SP1 is offering.