You may have seen reports of Microsoft Windows Vista Service Pack 1 floating on the net by now. I stumbled a couple of links and torrents on several discussion boards but most of them are either RC1 (Refresh 1), Fakes or just plain old Trojans. Surely, a lot of people doesn’t want to wait several days to get a hold of their own copy and install it on there system.
For couple of days, the only people who can get a valid Vista Service Pack 1 are some beta testers and people who have an MSDN accounts. Luckily, several people made this available to the general public, so you don’t need to wait until March to get a hold of Vista Service Pack 1. You have two ways on getting the Service Pack.
Now, the first way is through this “hack” which was actually originated straight from Microsoft. It was given to beta testers on Connect last January 23rd that will allow them to download the Service Pack via Windows update.
According to Jeff DaVos, one of the many Windows Vista SP1 beta program leaders, that this is indeed the same release being used for RTM, and that “What you got is what we’re all running our Vista machines here internally - we definitely RTM’d”.
Windows Vista SP1 build 18000 is indeed the RTM build. We were hoping build 18000 we released to you (WU only) was the final build and as it happens we didn’t have to break the glass, the build didn’t change at all from the time we released it to you and our final sign-off on Monday morning this week.”,
Below is the procedures on downloading Service Pack 1 via Windows Update:
1) Run the .cmd file. It will automatically edit the registry that will enable you to download Vista SP1 via Windows update.
2) Go to Windows update and click Check for Updates. It will report a single file update which is around 4MB. Download and install it. Restart your computer when prompted.
3). Run Windows Update again then click Check for Updates. It will report another single update and this time it will be around 5MB. Do the same thing when you download the first update. Download and install then restart your computer when prompted.
4) Try to run Windows Update again. Windows Update should show the Vista Service Pack 1 (It will be shown as RC1) in the list. If it doesn’t, run Windows Update again after a few minutes. It will show you the file size of SP1 which is between 65MB to 534MB.
5) After downloading the Vista Service Pack 1, the system will start the actual install.
6) Once it finished the thing it needs to do, the PC will restart again. You will get the message below after the restart:
Installing Service Pack 1: Stage 1 of 3: 0%.
Do not turn off your computer.
7) Just wait for the Vista Service Pack 1 to be installed (Be patient). After stage 3, Windows will boot as normal. Check your System’s Properties and it should show the Service Pack 1 is installed.
To those people with doubts thinking that this is not the official RTM, please check the screen shot above. As you can see, the build number is 6.0.6001.180000 which is the same as the RTM build number.
Download: Vista SP1 Registry Updates
The second way is through a direct download and is a “leaked” copy from MSDN. Vista Service Pack 1 downloads are available for both 32-bit and 64-bit version of Windows. I don’t know on how long this will be available, so grab it while its there.
Download: Vista Service Pack 1 32-bit | 434MB | MD5 Checksum: d597866e93bc8f80ecca234c4e9ce5a2
Mirror: Softpedia
Torrent: The Pirates Bay
Download: Vista Service Pack 1 64-bit | 726MB | MD5 Checksum: 983308426e8ee7649f53b41f4e5c42d4
Credits to Windows Vista Forums for the download link