Windows Vista SP1 Offers Mixed Results

Posted by Matthew Heidenreich

February 17, 2008

Windows Vista SP1

The much anticipated Windows Vista SP1 has made its way to customers, and a certain few were given copies before the rest for testing purposes. Microsoft promised that the new and anticipated update would bring performance enhancements and overall a better user experience. But trials at CNET have shown mixed results.

The overall thought is…. your average user won’t notice a change at all if they are someone who keeps up to date with the regular windows updates. The single most important performance change was in file copying. In Windows XP, it used cached I/O mode to improve write times. This was not the case with the previous release of Vista. It used a slower and insufficient method. With the SP1 update, it has now gotten the cached I/O mode which greatly improves performance in that area.

Some got a completely different reaction to the new copying mode. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes claimed that it in fact made it go even slower before with greater performance lost.

The testers have said that Microsoft fixed a lot of bugs, so you don’t have many of the little kinks that you had before. Overall, users opinions vary from tester to tester and you’ll have to make your own assumption once you get a hold of it.

[dailytech]

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