Vista SP1 refresh made public

by Obi-Akpere | January 16, 2008 at 07:52 am

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Last week Microsoft released an updated build of Windows Vista SP1 to a private testers group via Microsoft Connect. A couple of days later the release was extended to the general public via Windows Update, which means it’s not available as a full, self-contained install package.

The new build doesn’t contain any new features, but rather a number of fixes for bugs encountered by beta testers in previous beta SP1 builds.

For users who have already installed the previous public release of Vista SP1, this will need to be uninstalled before the SP1 Refresh can be made available. In addition, the Vista machine will need to be patched with the following updates:

* KB935509 This updates is only required on Windows Vista Enterprise and Windows Vista Ultimate editions (which have Bitlocker capabilities). This update is required prior to installing KB938371, the second prerequisite update and is required to prevent potential loss of data on Bitlocker encrypted systems during updating

* KB938371 This update consists of fixes for several components (including the TrustedInstaller), increases the success rate for installing the service pack and enables the service pack to be uninstalled successfully

* KB937287 This is an update to the “Servicing Stack” or the Windows Vista component installer technologies built into Windows Vista. This update enables the built-in installer to properly and successfully install the service pack

Users interested in installing SP1 Refresh need to download the executable from Microsoft (available here), and then extract the RCRefreshSP1betaprogramsRK.cmd script. Right-click the file in Windows Explorer and select “Run as administrator”. Then go into Windows Update and check for new updates. The system will be updated appropriately, then after a short space of time (10-15 minutes) SP1 Refresh is made available.

Naturally, SP1 should only be installed on testing systems. Installing it on a live or production system isn’t recommended and is done at the user’s own risk.