Security of Windows Vista SP1

Microsoft Windows vista Service Pack 1 As noted, improvements in security define SP1. First—and particularly important if you're a group administrator—the Group Management Policy Console (GMPC) has disappeared, and the Group Policy editor (GPEdit) focuses on local instead of global policy. The goal is to leave strategic group policy decisions in the hands of systems administrators rather than individual users.

Second, with SP1 on 64-bit vista, third-party anti-malware programs gain access to new application programming interfaces that let them directly extend the Windows kernel to provide lower-level detection of malicious code. That gives them a better chance at blocking or deleting such code. Another enhancement affects almost exclusively those who've purchased computers that shipped with vista installed. BitLocker, built into the original vista so that you could encrypt an entire drive, originally functioned only with the drive the OS boots from. To encrypt other drives (or folders), you had to use vista's Encrypting File System. With SP1, you can use BitLocker to encrypt any drive, even USB devices, and any partition, not just bootable volumes—an obvious improvement. But if your motherboard doesn't already contain a TPM (Trusted Platform Module chip), you can't use BitLocker unless you're willing to do some serious system configuration.

SP1 also allows Remote Desktop files to be signed, providing increased security across the connection established between machines using the Remote Desktop Protocol. Larger organizations will also be happy on at least two counts: vista PCs on a domain will no longer have difficulty working off-line; and SP1 adds the Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol, allowing for more secure access to VPNs.

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