Microsoft made available for download the first service pack for Windows Vista on March 18, 2008, this even though the bits had been released to manufacturing as early as February 4, 2008. At the same time, the Redmond company has moved to the next step in the evolution of the Windows client, onward to Service Pack 2. And because the Windows client and server releases are joined at the hip, the software giant is not only building Vista Service Pack 2 but also Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2.

A Microsoft representative confirmed to Mary Jo Foley that Vista SP2 is indeed cooking over in Redmond but declined to offer any additional detail. However, an early development milestone of the second service pack for Windows Vista, reportedly a Beta, has already made its way into the hands of a selected pool of customers. Microsoft is obviously following the same model as it did with Windows 7 with the Milestone 1, 2 and 3 releases, delivering testing builds only to its closest software and hardware partners.

On the Microsoft Help and Support website, the “Information about Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2” article went live as of October 2, 2008, although at this point in time the resource offers little information.

“This article discusses a beta release of a Microsoft product. The information in this article is provided as-is and is subject to change without notice. No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this beta product. For information about how to obtain support for a beta release, see the documentation that is included with the beta product files, or check the Web location where you downloaded the release,” reads the first half of KB948465.

“This Microsoft Knowledge Base article will be updated with more information about Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) when the information becomes available. Currently, the product release notes and related information about Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista SP2 are not available” is the introduction of the article.

Details related to either Vista SP2 or Windows Server 2007 SP2 are virtually inexistent at this point in time. Still, Microsoft is reported to gear up for the release of Service Pack 2 for Vista and Windows Server 2008 ahead of the delivery of Windows 7, which would put the availability date sometime in 2009.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Standalone for both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of the operating system is available for download HERE.