Fix Windows Vista Errors

Microsoft today released the remaining 31 language editions of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) to Windows Update.

Microsoft released SP1 last month in English, Spanish, German, French and Japanese. Now it’s available in lots more languages. Users can manually install SP1 (x86 and x64) versions of SP1 either manually via Windows Update or by downloading the standalone installer from the Microsoft Download Center.

On top of English, Spanish, German, French, and Japanese, users can now install Vista SP1 in 31 additional languages: Danish, Finnish, Italian, Korean, Norwegian, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Swedish, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (Hong Kong S.A.R.), Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Estonian, Hebrew, Croatian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian (Latin), Thai, Turkish, and Ukrainian.

The company also plans to release Service Pack 3 (SP3) for Windows XP in two waves defined by language support, according to a report last month. That account listed Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Spanish versions as in the first wave.

A petition to “Save Windows XP” has drawn more than 111,000 supporters — and continued shots across the Microsoft XP vs. Vista bow, a battle that began with Vista’s release last year.

“Millions of us have grown comfortable with XP and don’t see a need to change to Vista. It’s like having a comfortable apartment that you’ve enjoyed coming home to for years, only to get an eviction notice,” the petition reads.

Despite Microsoft’s efforts to persuade customers to embrace Vista, the company’s latest operating system, many users are still reluctant to make the switch, citing Vista’s hardware requirements, sub-par performance, annoying security pop-up windows and sporadic  incompatibility with other programs.

Microsoft has stated that they have fixed a major bug in Windows Vista Service Pack 1. The Vista SP1 bug caused computers to go into a never-ending reboot cycle.

The fix applies to Microsoft’s Servicing Stack Update for Vista SP1. Users need to install the update before downloading SP1. “This fixes an issue that a small number of customers experienced when we first issued the SSU in February,” said a Microsoft spokesman.

An update for the SSU will stop this annoying little behavior from happening for Vista customers, to allow them to proceed with the Vista SP1 installation via Windows Update. Vista users who opt for the standalone download of Vista SP1 will avoid the whole SSU prerequisite check entirely.

In the first month following the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008, Microsoft is already serving up a number of fixes for both operating systems, as it has issued eight security bulletins covering a total of 10 vulnerabilities.

The critical fixes remediated flaws in Microsoft Office, Windows and Internet Explorer (IE) that could allow remote attackers to install malicious code on a user’s machine.

Regarding the Windows desktop and server platforms, the critical vulnerability involving GDI — MS08-021 — will affect Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, Windows XP Professional x64 SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1 and 2 plus the x64-bit edition, Vista and Vista SP1, plus Windows Server 2008.

Alongside the security related patches, Microsoft also released Service Pack 1 for the US and UK versions of Office Accounting 2008, and updates for Microsoft Office Genuine Advantage Notifications, the Outlook 2003 and 2007 junk email filters, Office 2007 (to fix an issue that could arise when installing SP1), and Windows Live Writer.