Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 2: 3rd Time’s a Charm??
Earlier this week, Microsoft released the second revision to its largely dissapointing Windows Vista. While the original release was nearly suicide inducing, Service Pack 1 (SP1) upgraded the user experience by inducing merely homicidal rage (better better others die, right??).
Um…what’s a service pack?
Unless you buy a new computer every year, t’s likely that you’ve installed a Windows service pack. Service Packs are large bundle of patches, new features, and performance upgrades. This means that if you have fallen behind on your Windows updates, this will bring you current and give you some nice extras.
What differences will I notice?
Some of the new features in SP2 include upgraded hardware support for various devices, the new Windows Search 4.0 (for file searching), exFAT file system support, Bluetooth stuff, yadda, yadda, yadda, more nerd stuff.
The most notable changes for the average user are 1) the promise of improved performance and 2) native Blu-Ray burning support.
Sweet! I can burn Blu-Ray Discs for free??!!
Um…no. You still need to have a Blu-Ray burner, but third-party software won’t be require.
Oook…if I’m not a nerd, what CAN I expect?
Bottom line, the promise of a performance boost and increased stability are the highlight since Vista has thus far been a broken operating system.
Should I get it?
This is not a required upgrade and will not be pushed through to the automatic update for a few months yet. Unless you’re a tech-head, I never recommend newly released software. On the other hand, how much worse could Vista get?
I have just installed the 64 bit version on my laptop and will be using it for my every day tasks, as opposed to Linux or XP. I’ll be reporting my experiences once I get an idea of how SP2 stacks up to SP1. I can say that my first impression is that everything appears to be less glitchy. This may be a placebo effect of sorts (or maybe it’s because I’m writing this at the butt-crack of night), but time will tell if it does in fact address the markets issues.
The truth is, I hope that this is the patch we’ve all been waiting for.
Where can I get it?
32-bit Vista: here
64-bit Vista: here
How do I know if I have a 32-bit or 64-bit system?
Simpl right click on your desktop “Computer” or “My Computer” icon…
…and in the resulting popup, it will be listed along with your computer specs.
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