It lives! Windows Vista Service Pack 1 lives! Just because it falls under the immutable Windows Omerta over at Microsoft it does not mean that the first service pack for Windows Vista is not real. In fact Microsoft itself has provided proof, and excellent proof, of the Vista SP1's existence.

Microsoft has been muted when it comes to delivering any details of the availability of Vista SP1 or the service pack's contents. Microsoft's Stephen Toulouse, senior program manager for the Trustworthy Computing Group revealed to Softpedia even as back as February 2007 that the service packs for Vista are less relevant than traditional SP releases due to the Windows update infrastructure.

Toulouse added that Windows Vista SP1 will be nothing more than a standard release and not a relevant milestone such as Windows XP SP2. But in general, Microsoft has stirred clear of the SP1 subject altogether. This strategy is designed to dispel the consumer myth that upgrades should be implemented after the availability of the first service pack for the operating system. But even without SP1 Windows Vista is performing excellently having sold approximately 40 million licenses in its first 100 days of availability.

However, Microsoft is dogfooding the first service pack for Vista. As you can see from the image integrated at the top "Windows Build 6001 Service Pack 1, v113" is running on a Microsoft computer at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC) in Los Angeles this week.

So, if you needed palpable proof of the existence of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 now you have it. The only aspect of the release that is still ambiguous is the release date. Microsoft has pointed to the second half of 2007, simultaneously with the RTM of Windows Server 2008, formerly code-named Longhorn.