One of the promises made by Microsoft with the delivery of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 was that the next step in the evolution of the platform would soften all the rough edges of the operating system. Vista SP1 was released to manufacturing on February 4, 2008, but general availability was postponed to mid-March, with the company citing driver support and integration issues. Apparently, the sins of Vista have survived successfully into SP1. And to make matters even worse, it seems that lack of proper driver support, an issue for which Microsoft blamed the hardware manufacturers, stating that the way the drivers were built was at fault for poor Vista SP1 implementation, is not the only problem introduced by the service pack.

Vista SP1 was supposed to kill two of the most popular Vista cracks, the OEM BIOS and 2099 Grace Timer exploits. It was only partially successful as some activation workarounds have survived the service pack, but instead SP1 did manage to kill some genuine applications. On February 18, 2008, Microsoft published an extensive list with all the applications that are compatible with Vista, but incompatible with Vista SP1. "Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is an important update for Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains many security, reliability, and feature updates for Windows Vista. A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1. However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you install Windows Vista SP1," the company stated.

Even though most applications will continue to run with Vista SP1, according to Microsoft, the ones that won't be have been grouped under three categories: "Programs that are blocked from starting after you install Windows Vista SP1", "Programs that do not run after you install Windows Vista SP1" and "Programs that have a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1." And these applications are by no means some examples of obscure code, but wide-used software solutions from top developers.

"For reliability reasons, Microsoft blocks these programs from starting after you install Windows Vista SP1: BitDefender AV or Internet Security version 10, Fujitsu Shock Sensor 2.1.0.0; Jiangmin KV Antivirus 10; Jiangmin KV Antivirus 2008; Trend Micro Internet Security 2008; Zone Alarm Security Suite 7.1," the company revealed.

Iron Speed Designer 5.0.1, Xheo Licensing 3.1 and Free Allegiance 2.1 are the three programs that will no longer run in Vista following the deployment of Vista SP1. And Novell ZCM Agent 10.01 together with Rising Personal Firewall 2007 are applications that will experience a loss of functionality.

Also experiencing a loss of functionality, after the installation of Vista SP1, will be the New York Times Reader, a flagship representative of the Windows Presentation Foundation solutions built specifically for Windows Vista. Microsoft has informed that most of these applications already have versions that are supported by Vista SP1 or pending new builds.

Update: Link added to KB935796.