Microsoft finishes Vista SP2

Yesterday's rumors were true: Microsoft has released to manufacturing Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 R2.

SP2 hit the torrents on April 28, hours before Microsoft officially announced it was done (via a posting to the Windows Vista Team Blog). It's tough to say exactly when SP2 will be available for sanctioned download. Originally it was expected by the end of April (which still could happen if Microsoft posts the code to one of its download sites by tomorrow). But it also could slip into early May.

All Microsoft is saying is it will start pushing the final Vista SP2 bits to customers via Automatic Update over the next few months. Customers who aren't ready for it can use Microsoft's service-pack blocking tool to postpone the delivery of the SP2 bits from Windows Update and WSUS.

Microsoft also noted in the same Vista Team Blog posting that, as of April 28, it has begun pushing Vista SP1 bits to users who previously had blocked it using the blocking tool.

Microsoft is advising users who are midway through deploying Vista SP1 to proceed with their deployments as planned, rather than to rush to deploy SP2 instead.

As noted previously, Vista SP2 includes security and performance updates, plus a handful of new features, including:

• Windows Search 4.0
• Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack
• Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista
• Windows Connect Now (WCN), which is designed to "simplify Wi-Fi Configuration"
• The addition of support for UTC timestamps in the exFAT file system