patches

So far I have installed XP Service pack 3 as follows:

Brand New XP installation P4 1GB Ram - Went really fast and no errors

Virtual Machine - went real slow but no errors

Existing machine P4 1GB Ram - extremely slow - no errors

Existing machine P3 512MB Ram - extremely slow - 1 error - couldn't copy atapi.sys from c:\windows\system32\drivers. After a bit of research I simply deleted the atapi.sys file and closed daemon tools.

Not mine fortunately, though I have one laptop that I haven't been able to install the Service Pack on at all yet - will look at why later. (Update - I uninstalled the non supported language packs and then SP1 installed correctly.)

The point of this article is to provide a resource in one place of as many issues and resolutions for Vista Service Pack 1 installation problems as possible in one place. Note I will continue to add to this page as I get more information. It might pay to book mark this one using delicious or stumbleupon.

Microsoft Pages for Vista SP1

As reported previously I was unable to get the live office connection to work for me. However after checking out the Live Workspaces Forum today I found some help - installing an update to Vista worked for me.

I will post all the instructions provided as they cannot be linked to specifically and will get lost in a long forum thread.

This was posted by Kavitha R

Sorry to hear that you are having trouble with the Office Live Add-in. Here are a few things to try to resolve the issues:

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HP Laptop nx6320 1GB RAM 1hr 50 mins - cleanup reclaimed ~800mb - running Vista Business

3 pcs all P4 2GB RAM ran in just under an hour - didn't check the cleanup savings - all running Vista Business.

1 laptop running Vista Ultimate refused to run the service pack as it said it didn't have right language pack (English) installed - which is bollocks but there ya go - cant argue with that. I will troubleshoot it later.

Vista 64 box not installed yet, the download of the service pack failed half way through - trying again now.

I haven't yet upgraded my main work machine - that's a job for this afternoon.

Links for reading

Windows Vista Blog - release notes

What to do when SP1 doesn't come down through automatic updates

Vista Service Pack 1 is out. I will blog about my experience with it as we go about installing later.

Update from my previous post about Vista SP1 - SP1 is now available for some Technet Subscribers

The gloves are off! The user forums and blog comments are running hot. The press is having a field day.

Microsoft officially announced Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) was released to market (RTM) last week. However they have since decided to delay the distribution to MSDN and Technet subscribers. These are the people who need to get it first. Partners like myself should also be able to get it but we have also been relegated to the same category as the general public. I assume that means that I will be cautiously testing it as the same time my customers will be gleefully (more likely completely unknowingly) downloading it from Windows Update with no backups or way of recovering if it screws up. Who pays for that? Ultimately the customer does, because I have to support it and I charge them for it. Makes it hard to support something that you can't test.

The Windows Help (WinHlp32.exe) program that has been included in Microsoft since Microsoft Windows 3.1. WinHlp32.exe is a requirement for users who want to view 32-bit Help files that have the .hlp file name extension. Unfortunately because the Help Program hasn't had a major update for awhile it no longer meets standards, because of this Microsoft has decided to no longer include this Help program as a part of Windows. For those more advanced readers who want to, download WinHlp32 here.