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I made it my mission this weekend to trawl through the registry and file changes in SP1 to find out as best I could exactly what SP1 does.

First up, I can say that there is a very noticeable performance increase. It is obvious that since Microsoft released Vista to manufacturing, it has been optimising the code ever since. (I suspect this revelation will fuel the fires of the people who say Vista was released before it was ready for prime-time.) There’s far less hard drive thrashing and in general the system seems much smoother and more responsive.

Amusingly, the build of SP1 we saw (which in this beta comes fully integrated into a 3.2GB Vista install DVD, rather than as a standalone update) still has Microsoft's internal network shares embedded as the source of the updates. For example:

\\\\winbuilds3\\longhorn_SP1Beta1\\longhorn_SP1Beta1
\\6001.16549.070628-1825\\x86fre\\packages\\ServicePack"

Not that that info is really useful to anyone, but it mildly tickled our curiosity bone (next to the funny bone) to see the file layout of Microsoft's internal distribution shares.



The first noticable change is obviously the version number. Windows Vista has a build number of 6.0.6000, whereas this build is 6.0.6001 (full version number is 6001.16549). This is quite interesting as one of the much-anticipated (and officially acknowledged) changes in SP1 was to bring the Vista kernel up to the same kernel as that used in Windows 2008 (version 6.1). It's possible that this aspect of the service pack is still in development, and not included in this version of the private beta.

Normally, service packs don’t include new features – Windows XP SP2 being the standout exception. By and large this seems to be true of Vista SP1, although there is a new maintenance application called “Create a Recovery Disc”. This isn’t the same thing as creating a backup of the system to DVD – instead this process creates a recovery DVD which you can use with system recovery options if you don’t have an original Windows DVD or you can’t access OEM recovery tools.

At this point in its development, SP1 comes installed with four updates:

* Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330)
* Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB937286)
* Hotfix for Microsoft Windows (KB937287)
* Update for Microsoft Windows (KB938371)

There is a full list of suspected hotfixes that were to be included with Vista SP1 (check them out at www.vistasp1.net), but these four are not on the list. Unfortunately as the beta is not yet public, there’s no publicly-accessible information out there about these updates.

However, some hours of digging around in the registry did uncover quite a bit of information, mostly to do with the package load of each update and the Windows components it influences (bear in mind that this information is current for this particular version of SP1 – it may change in the public beta and in the final release).

Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB936330) contains 133 individual packages and is by far the biggest of the updates, so will probably be the service pack as we think of it. It is applied to the following Vista components:

* AxInstallService
* Backup
* BLB Client
* Branding Ultimate Client
* BRCpl Basic/Premium/Pro & BRCpl Basic/Premium/Pro Language Pack
* Capture Wizard
* Client Features
* ClipsInTheLibrary
* CodecPack Basic Encoder/Package
* Desktop Manager
* DFSR Client Edition
* Disk Diagnosis
* Fax Client (for all versions of Vista)
* Foundation
* Group Policy Client Extensions / Client Tools
* Help Core Client
* IIS WebServer AddOn (38 packages are devoted to this component)
* IIS WebServer (another 18 packages for this component)
* Indexing Service
* Media Center / Media Format / Media Player
* MobilePC Basic/Premium/SideShow
* MovieMaker
* MSMQ Client
* NetFx3 OC
* NFS Client
* Offline Files
* Optical Media
* Parental Controls
* Peer-to-Peer AdHoc Meetings / Full
* Photo Basic/Premium
* Previous Versions
* Printing Foundation / Printing Premium Tools / Printing XP Services
* RDC (Remote Desktop Connection)
* RecDisc
* Remote Assistance
* Removable Storage Management
* Secure Startup
* ServicingBaseline (for all versions of Windows)
* Shell Inbox Games / Premium Inbox Games
* Simple TCP
* SNMP Package
* SUA (Subsystem for UNIX Applications)
* System Restore
* TabletPC OC
* Telnet Client / Telnet Server
* Terminal Services Command Line Tools / Misc Redirection / USB Redirector / WM Provider
* Windows Foundation Language Packs
* WMI SNMP Provider
* WMP Network Sharing Service
* MSSSVC Rules (for all versions of Vista)
* Server Help (for all versions of Vista)

Service Pack for Microsoft Windows (KB937286) contains 28 packages. The bulk of the updates are applied to the Windows Help Core Client, but it also affects client packages for:

* Windows MobilePC (Basic, Premium, SideShow and Help)
* Windows ServicingBaseline (for all versions of Windows Vista)
* Server Help (for all versions of Windows Vista).

Hotfix for Microsoft Windows (KB937287) contains just one package, which is applied to the Servicing Stack, a component used in Vista imaging.

Update for Microsoft Windows (KB938371) contains three packages, which are applied to:

* OS loader
* Windows Task Scheduler Service
* Windows Update Standalone Installer (WUSA)
* Foundation Package
* Common Log
* Delta Package Expander
* OLE Automation
* All Windows Foundation and WindowsPE Language Packs

The services packs are very clearly directed towards backend services rather than frontend features. I pointed the SP1 system to Windows Update to see whether it needed any Vista updates, and it didn’t. So as expected, all Vista updates since Vista was released (and there haven’t been many) have been bundled into SP1.