On new systems, Service Pack 1 (SP1) will ship as part of Windows Vista when it becomes available. Users already running the new OS will find SP1 (once Microsoft finalizes it in March) as a download from Windows Update (WU). If you don't have WU configured to notify you automatically about available updates, open Control Panel and launch Windows Update from there, clicking on Check for Updates if SP1 doesn't appear automatically in the updates list. If you see other critical updates but not SP1, install those (which can take a while if you haven't been doing so regularly) and keep checking until SP1 shows itself.
On the same desktop PC but a separate hard drive, I installed the full package—Windows Vista Ultimate with SP1 included—which Microsoft made available. The process took 81 minutes in total, with the same four reboots. The speed was actually noteworthy, given that installing the RTM of the original Vista Ultimate on the same machine took more than twice as long. Clearly, Microsoft has been working to reduce the time required for clean installs—a good thing for anyone who needs to install from scratch. In all three cases, when the installation was complete Vista gave me the standard log-on screen, the standard Windows Sidebar, and the standard Aero interface. In fact, before closer inspection, everything looked exactly the same as before. If you're looking for an eye-grabbing aesthetic upgrade, SP1 isn't the way to go. Then again, dramatic visual upgrades aren't the function of service packs.
To prepare this review, I performed several SP1 installs. Because I'm a registered beta tester, I was able to install the final release candidate, which was very close to the original Vista RTM (released to manufacturing) code, as a download from Windows Update. The download took about 15 minutes; your speed will vary depending on your Internet connection and how busy the Windows Update servers happen to be. Installation took 58 minutes, including four reboots. Finally, I installed the full Windows Vista Ultimate + SP1 package on my Gateway notebook, forcing a clean install by wiping the hard drive in the process. Total time: over 2.5 hours, but that's been my experience with installing Windows on laptops over the years. It just takes much longer than on desktops
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