Vista 'SP 0.5' beta leaked, SP1 coming soon?

With the official word on Windows Vista SP1 being that the service pack is not coming "anytime soon," the following news comes as something of a surprise: apparently a not-quite 1.0 version of the first Vista service pack has leaked to the Internet. The two hot-fixes, which some are dubbing "SP 0.5," were released to Windows Server 2008 beta testers about a week ago, under the moniker "Vista Performance and Reliability Pack." The fixes have since been released into the Internet wilds, allowing Microsoft fans to fully analyze the patches. Especially notable are:

• Increased compatibility with a number of video drivers
• Improved quality of playback for high-def discs on large displays
• Improved IE compatibility with third party toolbars
• Improved reliability for systems that were upgraded from Windows XP
• Improved support for 3D games
• Improved performance for Memory Manager

It remains to be seen whether Microsoft will be delivering these fixes to us as is, or if the company will choose to wait until SP1 for a public release. Since SP1 could still be as far as a year away, let's hope that Vista users get some sort of fix sooner, rather than later.

For more on the leaked service packs:
- see this ZDnet article

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