Testing Windows Vista SP1

Performance
In general, we found that Windows Vista SP1 offered a mixed bag of improvements. For example, Microsoft says that reading and writing files will be much faster within Windows Vista SP1. Tests performed by us on a Dell XPS M1530 laptop showed that performance had mixed results, showing improvement, deterioration or steadiness.

When transferring files from one folder to another on the same drive volume, the transfer time did somewhat improve. However, when reading those same files from an external drive or writing them to the external drive, performance was the same as before or worse.

In our image-processing test using Adobe Photoshop CS3, Vista SP1's performance was moderately quicker than the previous version, clocking a 56-second improvement. We found the update barely beat its predecessor in an encoding test on iTunes, and it registered similar boot and shutdown times to the previous version. We did find that common application tasks performed in Windows Vista improved after installing SP1.

Those looking for enhanced battery life under Windows Vista SP1 will be disappointed. Although Microsoft touts its own internal study showing that in 14 out of 16 randomly chosen laptops battery life did improve, we were unable to support that in our testing. At 2 hours 10 minutes, Vista SP1 only bested its predecessor by one minute on the DVD battery drain test.

Microsoft offers a reasonable amount of support for the SP1 upgrade. For example, before you start there is a link to a Read Me page called "What you should know before installing Service Pack 1" which covers what to do before installing, during and after installation. Also, Microsoft has improved the upgrade process itself so that if the installation of one update fails, it tries another while preparing to rerun the failed update. This should speed installation for most users. But if users do run into trouble, they can always uninstall the upgrade.

Do you need Windows Vista SP1?
Yes and no. It's always good to install the latest (read: patched) code for any operating system. But downloading and installing the update will take some users a few hours without any visible or tangible improvements to their systems.

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