The Travails of Windows Vista SP1

Published: February 27, 2008

by Alex Woodie

Things didn't get any easier for poor old Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) this week when Microsoft posted a Web page filled with the names of applications that don't work on the update. The incompatibility list comes on top of reports of uncontrolled crashes and endless reboots of SP1 several weeks ago, giving Windows Vista SP1 a hard go of it in its short life.

Major problems with Vista SP1 first cropped up a couple weeks ago, following the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Vista SP1. Within days, Microsoft was inundated with a flood of reports from users whose PCs would reboot over and over again, a death spiral of restarts from which few have returned. While the problem was caused by a bad piece of code in Windows Update designed to prepare a PC for Vista SP1, it doesn't change the fact that the Vista SP1 upgrade process has been a downright nasty experience for many.

And the Vista SP1 experience is about to get nastier for some people.

On Monday, Microsoft posted a list of programs that are known to have problems running under Vista SP1.

The list contains several antivirus products, including BitDefender Internet Security, Jiangmin KV10 and KV 2008, and Zone Alarm Security Suite. All of the vendors have posted an update that resolves the problem.

Other programs that have received patches from their vendors to run under Vista SP1 include Xheo Licensing 3.0, Iron Speed Designer 5.0.1, the New York Times Reader, and the Rising Personal Firewall.

Programs that still do not work on Vista SP1 include the Free Allegiance gaming software, Fujitsu's Shock Sensor, and the Novell ZCM Agent.

For more information, visit Microsoft KnowledgeBase Article 935796.

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