Earlier in April I chose to install Windows Vista SP1 on a spare machine to gauge how robust Vista is based on a SP1 clean install.

Well 16 days have passed without incident, I have only been able to use this test machine about 1 hour per day but the general feeling is that SP1 is very resilient.

So I am now ready to reformat my main machine (Dell XPS M1210 Laptop) and start using SP1 day in day out.

My Laptop dual boots Windows XP Pro and Vista. I saw no reason to change this. I just backed up my Windows Vista data, deleted the Vista partition and started all over.

Driver Support

Interestingly enough the only hardware device that was not installed by default was the Logitech webcam installed in the M1210. Every other component was automatically detected and installed including sound, video, modem and the two network cards (wired and wireless).

I am going to run with these drivers for a bit, but at the first sign of trouble I will update them from the XPS M1210 software repository on www.support.dell.com.

I then installed the usual

Office 2007 + SP1

Winzip, CutePDF, Nod 32 Business Edition, Windows Live Writer and Filezilla.

The only change I have made was to substitute Foxit Reader as my PDF reader and ditch Adobe Acrobat all together.

What issues I encounter in the next month will determine my plans to roll out Windows Vista to my clients.

I would say I am fairly positive about SP1 in a clean install but time will tell.

I can’t help but feeling the Windows Vista that was released to manufacturing in November 2006 and then to public in January 2007 was one big unofficial and unintentional beta test and only now are things settling down.

I suppose its true what they say “wait for the 1st service pack”.

If you are interested in my Windows Vista SP1 coverage bookmark the link below.

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