Vista SP1 being readied ?

Word is that Microsoft is set to drop the beta of SP1, something whose existence was denied by top level officials for some time now… The beta is expected the week of July 16. A partial list of fixes has been obtained.

• Performance tweaks lessening the amount of time it takes to copy files and shut down Vista machines
• Improved transfer performance and decreased CPU utilization via support for SD Advanced Direct Memory Access (DMA)
• Support for ExFat, the Windows file format for flash memory storage and other consumer devices
• Improvements to BitLocker Drive Encryption to allow not just encryption of the whole Vista volume, but also locally created data volumes
• The ability to boot Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) on an x64 machine
• Improved success rate for firewalled MeetingSpace and Remote Assistance connections

Interesting note: no mention of Explorer 8 coming with this SP…

Based on this beta, the full release would be expected in November. This is in advance of when most of us expected the SP would drop. Well done MS. You know, if you view releasing fixes to your software (that you tout as the greatest ever) sooner, rather than later as a good thing. Sadly, that is where we are at.