Vista Service Pack 1

Performance: Vista is much faster with Service Pack 1

Microsoft still asserts that an 800 MHz PC with 512 MB RAM and a DirectX 9 graphics card should be enough to run the system smoothly. In practice however, it turns out that Vista performs best only on the latest CPUs with dual-core technology and a minimum of 1 GB RAM. Still, there are performance problems even with fast computers: music crackles, power consumption on notebooks is extremely high, and it still takes ages for Vista to launch. Resource sparing, stability and faster operations are still the mainstays of the proven success of Windows XP. Microsoft has, however, improved considerably with the Service Pack.

Copying Faster: The average hard disk could transmit 25 MB of data per second but only if Vista’s brakes were absent. This transfer rate is achieved only in the rarest of the cases because of the sub par programming of Vista. Technicians in Redmond have identified the defect and repaired it, and this happens to be the biggest plus point of Vista SP1.

Incidentally, Microsoft has also rectified the way the copying process works. Until now, the Vista time specification while copying was rather haphazard. With SP1—while few of the time progress bars are still inconsistent with the actual time taken—the display is right most of the time. However, folders containing a cluster of small files still have problems in gauging estimated time.

Windows cleverly divides the CPU time amongst the applications and performance is not lost with Photoshop & Co.

Notebooks hold out longer: Laptop users ought to rejoice with SP1 because the computer battery should now last longer.

Microsoft has also worked on the compatibility of the new power-saving hybrid SSD hard disks (Solid State Disk) with SP1. These disks are equipped with a big cache, which buffers the data.

Security: Better protection against viruses, hackers etc
Vista is relatively safer and some new features have improved the security aspects of SP1. But, these improvements will only benefit corporate customers.
Encrypting data: If you want to use the in-built Windows encryption-function BitLocker, you either require an ‘Ultimate’ or an ‘Enterprise’ version of Vista, both of which are expensive and are seldom installed on any of the PCs available in the consumer market. Users not equipped with either and still wanting to encrypt their operating system will have to resort to programs from third party providers. Until now, the problem with BitLocker was the limitation on the size of system volume. With SP1, users can now also protect additional partitions from strange eyes.

Reliability: Windows does not crash so often with the SP1
The blue screen stll remains to scare users. Crashes haven’t been rampant for quite a while now, but the allegedly robust Vista cannot handle everything. Many errors have been taken care of in SP1.
Lesser data loss: Windows has drilled it into our heads that we must first eject the USB stick from the Windows software before taking it out. Simply removing the USB stick could lead to data loss. Microsoft has improved the cache performance with SP1, especially in the case of NTFS media.
Better Drivers: Crashes are mainly caused due to driver problems and software from third party providers. Compatibility issues have been improved with SP1 and Microsoft has even updated the drivers for radio networks, which promises higher rate of success with WLAN connect.
Support for new hardware: Along with the many bugfixes, this Service Pack also introduces support for future hardware standards. Thus, Vista SP1 can work well with media on the new exFAT file system. This allows the usage of media having larger total capacity and is especially intended for flash memory cards and USB sticks.

Courtesy : Chip