14 DAY TRIAL // With Microsoft having released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Released Candidate via Connect, MSDN and TechNet, and a public build on the horizon any day now, you have to stare the truth in the face and start preparing for the deployment of the service pack. The same is valid for the third and final service pack for Windows XP. Chances are that if you are a home user, SP1 is the best news for Windows Vista you've got in a long time. The first Service Pack for Vista is designed to soften all the rough edges of the operating system, by increasing reliability, performance, support and security. But, there are certain scenarios where SP1, although a welcomed addition to the platform has to be kept on a short leash, especially in corporate environments. In this context, Microsoft is offering the possibility to block Vista SP1.
"When SP1 is complete and we reach our release to manufacturing (RTM) milestone, then shortly after the standalone installer will be released to the Web in two waves. The first wave will consist of the standalone installer (x86 and x64) for the 5 initial languages -- English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese. These languages will be deployed shortly after the RTM milestone. The second wave will launch 8-12 weeks after the first and will consist of all remaining languages, for both chip architectures (x86 and x64). For administrators managing Windows Vista PCs configured to use Windows Update but not wishing to deploy SP1 upon its release, we have a 'blocker patch' that will prevent installation of SP1", explained Nick White, Microsoft product Manager.
The Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit is a patch that can be applied to Vista, in order to postpone the implementation of SP1 while served via Windows Update. The move is just temporary and will block not only Vista SP1 for the first year since availability, but also Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 until March 2008, and Windows XP Service Pack 3, also for a year. "This toolkit contains three components. All of them function primarily to set or clear a specific registry key that is used to detect and block download of Service Packs from Windows Update. You only need to use the component which best serves your organization�s computer management infrastructure, from a Microsoft-signed executable; a script and an ADM template", Microsoft added.
Windows Service Pack Blocker Tool Kit can be downloaded from here.