Topic: First Beta of Windows Vista SP1 Available by the End of 2007

[Amker]

The final release date for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 remains unconfirmed, but Microsoft plans to make the first beta available by the end of 2007. Speculations associating the end of this year and the release of Vista SP1 were never addressed by the Redmond Company, but while Microsoft can afford to keep customers in the dark, it cannot do the same with the United States Justice Department. Microsoft will resolve Google concerns over the default Desktop Search mechanism introduced into Windows Vista with the first service 
pack for the operating  system. The Redmond Company even delivered a timetable for availability.

Although still failing to pin-point the availability of Windows Vista SP1, "Microsoft currently anticipates (that the service pack) will be available in beta form by the end of the year," reveals a fragment of a U.S. Justice Department joint status report on the company's antitrust compliance. Google has succeeded in breaking Microsoft's Windows Omerta. These taken into consideration, the end of 2007 – when the first beta version of Vista SP1 will drop – is nothing more than a preliminary date, and as such, subjected to change. Still, this scenario could possibly push SP1 all the way into early 2008.

Google's impact on the first service pack for Windows Vista is among the aspects that are, up to a certain degree, safeguarded from future alteration. "First, Microsoft will create a mechanism for end users and OEMs to select a default program to handle desktop search. ISVs will be able to register their desktop search products for this default, in the same way that ISVs can register third-party web browsers and media players as the default in Windows today," reads a fragment of the status report.

Moreover, Microsoft will connect Google Desktop, or any other third-party desktop search program introduced into Windows Vista, with every new top-level window that is launched by the user, providing Instant Search type functionality. Windows Vista SP1 will also integrate alternative default desktop search programs into the Start Menu and in Windows Explorer. And as a last detail, the Vista desktop search index will be sent to the background, so as to give up system resources destined to alternative solutions.
Softpedia