14 DAY TRIAL // I thought that I would point you to the official release notes for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate as a preamble to the public download of the build, coming as early as next week. Microsoft has already dropped the first fully fledged version of Vista SP1 RC via Connect as well as MSDN and TechNet. Still the Microsoft Download Center will also be offering the RC build of Vista SP1 in just a few days. The release notes will provide users with the necessary guidance and information to take them through the process of installing, troubleshooting and uninstalling the Vista SP1 RC.
"These release notes address late-breaking issues and information about this release candidate of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1). Unless otherwise specified, these notes apply to all editions of the Windows Vista operating system with SP1," Microsoft revealed. "If you install Windows Vista and then install this release candidate of SP1 without first activating Windows Vista, you might not be able to uninstall the service pack. Either activate Windows Vista before you install SP1 or activate SP1 before you attempt to uninstall the service pack."
Unlike the release notes for Windows XP Service Pack 3, the documentation for Vista SP1 RC provides actual information referencing the service pack. Vista SP1 is still scheduled to be released to manufacturing in the first quarter of 2008, with Microsoft failing to point to any specific dates at this point in time. The fact of the matter is that the Redmond company has only informed of the public availability of Vista SP1 RC only a few days before the actual release.
"Users looking to install the Windows Vista SP1 RC will need to uninstall any previous version of SP1 prior to the installation of the RC from either Windows Update or the standalone installer. With Windows Update, once SP1 was downloaded, a new series of screens telling me about SP1 appeared. The same series of dialog screens seen in the standalone installer is now launched when installing Windows Vista SP1 via Windows Update. This will be really helpful to the user in installing Windows Vista SP1," explained Microsoft's Brandon LeBlanc.