Well I did promise to keep you up to date about the availability of Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista. Although Visual Studio 2005 SP1 (includes SP1 updates for Standard, Professional, and Team Editions of Visual Studio 2005), Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server SP1 and Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions SP1 have been available for download since December 14, 2006, Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta has only been released by Microsoft yesterday, December 19, 2006.

“The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Windows Vista enhancements,” informed Microsoft, adding that the service pack designed for Vista requires the existence of a licensed copy of either VS 2005 or VS 2005 SP1. In order to install it, you must first download the service pack and then right-click on the file and select “Run as Administrator.”

“During the development of Windows Vista, several key investments were made to vastly improve overall quality, security, and reliability from previous versions of Windows. While we have made tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backwards compatibility, some of the system enhancements, such as User Account Control, changes to the networking stack, and the new graphics model, make Windows Vista behave differently from previous versions of Windows. These investments impact Visual Studio 2005. The Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta addresses areas of Visual Studio impacted by Vista enhancements,” added Microsoft.

Here is a list of the Visual Studio SKUs that will work with Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta:

- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office
- Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition
- Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition
- Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition
- Microsoft Visual J# 2005 Express Edition
- Microsoft Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Premier Partner Edition
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Architects
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Testers
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite
- Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Agent
- Visual Studio 2005 Team Test Load Controller
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Code Profiler
- Visual Studio 2005 Team Explorer

Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Update for Windows Vista Beta has been tested by Softpedia as being 100% Clean and is available for download here.