As with Microsoft’s guidelines a service pack generally doesn’t feature any new technologies; just fixes and updates rolled together with any other tidbits previously released.  A full rundown of changes can be viewed here.  Notable changes include:

• one service pack for Vista and Server 2008
• ability to record data to Blu-Ray media
• integrates and improves on Vista Feature Pack for Wireless
• Integrates Hyper-V for Server 2008
• Includes Service Pack Clean-up Tool

This last one is interesting: it removes old files that were part of previous updates, including SP 1, that are no longer needed.  Would be nice if this is part of every major update; who doesn’t want old crap cleaned out and space given back?

Everything started fine but after the first reboot I would hit a Blue Screen Of Death that would reboot the machine: it flashed by so quickly I couldn’t read it.  Selecting Safe Mode showed the system loaded up to crcdisk.sys but then would reboot.

I tried different hard drives and removed half my 8 GB of RAM but to no avail.  Upgraded my BIOS to the latest version; didn’t know eVGA offered BIOS updates in ISO format.

Back to Google on my secondary PC and a search brought me to TechNet and Dziki Polak’s solution: have 2 GB or less of RAM for a Vista 64 bit install.  He was even using the same motherboard.  I left one 2 GB DIMM in the system and it completed the installation without a hitch.  Ran all the updates and added the full 8 GB of RAM back into the system: everything was running smooth.

Take away lessons here: after every service pack release for a Microsoft Operating System update your installation media.  I didn’t even have to go through the trouble of slipstreaming: I just downloaded Vista 64 bit with Service Pack 1 via my TechNet Plus Direct subscription.  And when in trouble don’t beat your head against the PC case: go to Google and track down a solution.

I have two partitions on my hard drive: one Windows XP Professional and one Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit.  I hardly use the XP install anymore since Vista has worked out it’s kinks, or enough so it doesn’t bother me.

I hooked up the new drive and booted Drive Image from it’s two 3.5″ floppies: this program is ancient and works great, but not this time with my Vista 64 bit partition.  A trip to Download Squad provided a list of options: I tried XXClone and Shadow Copy but they were dead ends.  PING and Gparted weren’t able to work for me either.

Since both drives were Seagate models I downloaded Seagate DiscWizard and used that to copy: it’s actually from Acronis and it did copy the contents without any errors but I couldn’t boot either OS so now I was worse off then before I started.

Since I was running Windows Home Server I decided to do a system restore to my new hard drive.  I found the System Restore disk and booted from it (initial boot is agonizingly slow) but it didn’t like my Vista 64 bit partition either: I realized WHS didn’t support it until it’s Power Pack 1 release.  I went to another PC and burned a System Restore Power Pack 1 CD and then rebooted.

It got a little funny here.  WHS wouldn’t restore to a blank disk: it needs to have partitions already there so it provides the option to launch Disk Management which is nice and handy.  I launched Disk Management and my PC crashed to a Blue Screen Of Death with the irq_not_less_than_equal error.  Rebooting and trying again gave the same issue.

I booted from Gparted and created the two partitions I wanted: one 114 GB and one 356 GB (that pesky 1 GB=how many bytes).  Booting back to System Restore it saw both partitions and restored them.  I was then able to finally have my old system on the new hard drive.  And it only took five hours!

Lessons learned: Vista 64 bit is new and so I need to work with what supports it and not try and rely on old ways and old utilities.  Windows Home Server and it’s system restore worked very well once I worked around it’s problems.  I didn’t plan ahead and could have been caught in a real bind but I had an additional PC to burn CDs with and get what I needed to my ailing system.

Let me start by confirming I am still dual booting, but mainly because Vista x64 isn’t supported by the Connector software from Windows Home Server.  If I want my PC backed up I have to go into a 32 bit operating system to get it done.  A 64 bit version of this was to be available this month but the Windows Home Server team is furiously working on the data corruption bug, which (knock wood) hasn’t affected me.  Every few days I boot into XP and let it back up.

The second reason I boot back into Windows XP is because of Nvidia’s Vista x64 drivers.  I have a Geforce 8800GTX graphics card, which was top of the line until a few weeks ago.  After a few hours of game playing (mostly Company Of Heroes) the graphics driver crashes, the game screen goes black and Vista tells me the graphics driver has crashed but Vista has recovered.  Everything else works fine but I have to close the game.   If I want to play anything after that I have to reboot, and at that point I’m frustrated with Vista so I boot into XP and play games for days without a hiccup.

The last drivers for Vista from Nvidia for the 8800 series were released December 20th 2007.  I realize the 9000 series of cards are now out but I’d still like to see a quarterly driver update!

Service pack 1 installed and on restart gave me a BSOD: I rebooted and everything has been fine since.  Can’t say I see any improvement, but nothing negative has popped up either.

Power saving and power features in Vista are far superior to XP: I have my PC go to standby after ten minutes and it works flawlessly every time, and I’ve never had an issue coming out of standby.  I like leaving my machine on all the time but have been feeling guilty about the power usage so this is my compromise for the time being.

Everything else about Vista x64 just works.  I don’t do a lot on the machine other than email, web browsing and game playing, but isn’t that what home computers are for?

With even a passing interest in computing you would be hard pressed to have not only heard and shown interest in Microsoft Vista but also the deluge of bad press it’s received. Slower than Windows XP! User Account Control a failure! Version confusion! And so it continues. Whatever your feeling, Microsoft has the leading market share for an operating system and has moved to the Vista platform, with XP to go the way of the dinosaur over the next few months.

Of course XP will live on through your old PCs and their hardware that doesn’t really support Vista, just as that old doorstop in the attic has Windows 98 SE. My day job is as an IT manager for a large company that still has thousands of PCs running Windows 2000 very efficiently, but that’s an aside we won’t pursue.

Microsoft invited me to the Vista launch and gave me a copy of Vista to use. It languished on my shelf for months until I did a large upgrade on my main system and boosted my RAM to 4 GB, since DD2 is so cheap right now. Booting into XP after the upgrade showed a little under 3 GB of RAM, which meant the overhead of a 32 bit operating system, my 768 MB video card and other tidbits conspired to work against me.

To access all that lovely PC-6400 DDR2 memory would require a 64 bit operating system. Basically (very) with a 64 bit environment your system can access more than 4 GB of RAM and work faster with current 64 bit CPUs, which really means any current CPU. Requirements are a 64 bit CPU and 64 bit drivers for your hardware. Of course verify all your applications will work as well. For a bit more information check out what Microsoft has to say. Until now no one would worry about more than 2 GB or RAM in their system outside of a server environment, but with cheap as chips pricing on RAM and decent CPUs it’s very doable.

Since this was a major upgrade and having heard so much bad press I decided to get proper Vista 64 bit drivers for all my hardware before doing anything. Drivers for 64 bit Vista must be digitally signed, and since that’s costs companies money it’s one of the hindrances of their release. As well the vast majority of people are using 32 bit Vista so that’s where the priority goes.

I would need drivers for the following: Nvidia 680i motherboard, Nvidia 8800GTX video card, Creative X-FI Xtreme Gamer sound card, Creative Web Cam. I never bothered to install the software for my keyboard and mouse so I didn’t care, and figured my Dell 24” LCD monitor would be fine. Trolling the web snagged drivers for everything but the web cam, which was a $1 after rebate deal that I replaced with a Logitech $0 after rebate deal that supported Vista 64 bit: nice job Logitech. I had SLI going with two Nvidia 7900 GT video cards until my big summer upgrade, and to be fair to Microsoft non-existent SLI support from Nvidia was my main XP holdout.

With full driver support things were going swimmingly. To protect myself against complete Vista hatred I chose to create a new partition on my hard drive and set up my system for dual booting between Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Ultimate 64 bit. Installation was silky smooth and there I was staring at the Vista desktop. Drivers installed without issue for all my hardware.

First blush Vista is very nice looking; visually appealing in that round and futuristic sort of way. Finding things proved slightly difficult because I’m used to XP; certainly not Vista’s fault. I felt the same way as I moved from any other Windows version. As I worked the system I installed my must have applications: AVG Anti-Virus, Daemon Tools, Microsoft Office, 7-Zip. All available in 64 bit versions or working in 64 bit Vista. Failures were SyncToy (now available in a 64 bit beta) and Medal Of Honor Airborne.

My home system does three things: surf the web, check emails and play games (not necessarily in that order). Microsoft has worked up the Games For Windows certification, and one of it’s requirements is 64 bit support. It’s easy to spot since the Games For Windows logo runs along the top of the game’s packaging. Pretty well any current game will be Games For Windows certified, but check first. Vista’s other big gaming plus is DirectX 10, but you’ll need an ATI/AMD 2000 series or Nvidia 8000 series video card to get it’s additional perks.

Let’s talk performance: there wasn’t a perceptible performance hit from moving to Vista. I read the articles and blog posts about the 2-10% hit on games that Vista takes over XP, but I can’t see it with my current system. Once I’m over thirty frames per second I want maximum eye candy, otherwise my 24” monitor is going to waste. Since I’m usually over sixty frames per second with my 8800 GTX and most details on high Vista is working just fine. I can’t do a side by side comparison between 32 and 64 bit versions of Vista, but I’m sure getting my full 4 GB of RAM helps out.

After everything was done I was a bit disappointed: with a 64 bit operating system I was expecting something unusual and dramatic. With proper drivers and applications it looked and operated just like it’s 32 bit siblings while providing the benefits that made me want the 64 bit version of Vista in the first place.

We might as well address the major nag everyone talks about: User Account Control. Basically Vista takes security seriously and prompts you to confirm a lot of system changes, which is slightly annoying but can be turned off. Done, next topic.

Microsoft dropped DirectSound hardware acceleration in Vista, hurting Creative and it’s EAX feature. I have had Sound Blaster sound cards since the beginning, and to their credit Creative released ALchemy to restore this functionality in Vista. It’s free for X-FI users and $10 for Audigy users. It’s meant to get pre-Vista games and shouldn’t be a big concern for Vista 64 bit users since most of those old titles won’t work anyway.

The big wrap up: Vista is good. It’s new and a bit scary, but it’s the future. Vista 64 bit is worth the jump if your hardware and applications are supported. RAM is cheap right now so bulk up if you’re moving to 64 bit. Dual booting XP and Vista 64 bit is a great way to embrace the new while keeping one foot in the old. For application and game incompatibilities it’s great to jump back to XP, but these issues will fade away soon enough. If it’s strictly an application issue install a virtualization product from Microsoft or VMWare: they both offer free products and are worth a look.

Side note: dual booting brings up the boot menu, which features Windows Vista and “earlier version of Windows”. Why couldn’t Microsoft just name it Windows XP, 2000 or 98 SE: they clearly know what “older version” you’re dual booting with.

Microsoft Vista RC1

Microsoft Vista Beta 2