Windows Vista SP1 RC Released

Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate was released to the 15,000 beta testers on Microsoft Connect on Wednesday 5 December 2007.

On Thursday 6 December (Yesterday) the RC was made available to MSDN and TechNet subscribers for download. I've just checked, it's on there ready for download.

Windows Vista SP1 RTM is targeted for release sometime in Q1 2008.

SP1 is going to be released in two waves. The initial release of SP1 will include 5 languages (English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese). The second release containing all 36 basic languages will occur afterwards.

Windows Vista SP1 will provide key improvements around security, performance and reliability, especially around scenarios that are most important to end users and businesses including:

1. All previously released updates since RTM.
2. Performance and reliability improvements in core scenarios such as file copy, network browsing, and improved response time to resume from sleep.
3. The installation experience is improved as compared to the beta. This is evidenced by higher install reliability rates, smaller standalone installer size, less disk space required for install and reduced install time.
4. There are improvements to the administration experience. One of the most important changes being made is that BitLocker now supports encrypting for multiple volumes.
   

If you are thinking on running a Vista pilot, you might find this link useful: http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/library/a825cf2a-5248-4aa7-b8f5-a074339c729c1033.mspx