Windows Vista SP1 Release Candidate Preview

Users of Microsoft Windows Vista can rejoice in the fact that Microsoft just released a preview of the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate! This build was made available to about 15,000 invitation-only testers.

This preview build is the lead-up to the actual Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate, which will be made available to even more testers at a later date. Once the actual Release Candidate is out, you can be sure that Microsoft will release the final Windows Vista Service Pack 1 very soon.

Right now, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 looks like it's on track for a Q1, 2008 release. However, Microsoft did announce that they will offer a pre-release build of Service Pack 1 to all users before the final build is launched.

What's New?

Because this is a preview build, the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate Preview will not include DirectX 10.1. That will probably be included only in the actual Release Candidate or final build.

This preview build consists mainly of all previously-released hot fixes and security patches for Windows Vista. Basically, everything you can download and update right now, but conveniently rolled into a single update. Currently, this build covers 17 security updates and 462 hot fixes.

This Release Candidate Preview build also includes updates that have not been released online as updates, or only made available to specific Microsoft customers and partners. These updates are now part of the build. Therefore, this build is more than just a collection of previously-released hot fixes and security patches.

Where Can You Get It?

This build is not a public build and has only been released to about 15,000 testers. However, we would not be surprised to see a few copies floating around in Bittorrent and other P2P networks. Be careful what you download though. Some will inevitably be corrupted or infected with spyware or malware.

Here are some critical statistics on the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate Preview. Double-check the copy you downloaded to make sure you got the right file.

File Name : Windows6.0-KB936330-X86_wave0_SPInstaller.exe

File Size : 455,962,568 bytes

CRC : 467e5574

MD5 : a5c37745b7a2331c05d226a413411967

The file name is not important as that's often changed to something logical like Vista_SP1_RC_Preview.exe or Windows_Vista_SP1_Release_Candidate_Preview.exe. However, the file size should be exactly 455,962,568 bytes. If you want to be safe, make sure the CRC and MD5 values are exactly the same as what we posted above.