Microsoft says that the first public release of Vista SP1 will be out by the end of 2007 but won’t confirm the status of SP1. Now they do not need to! Microsoft has shipped SP1 to a select pool of testers and that is confirmed by the secret images release by winbeta.

According to the information that can be extracted from the screenshots, Vista SP1 is now at build 6001.16549. In the About Windows image for example the version of the operating system is 6.0, however, the build is 6001 and Service pack 1 is reverenced with v.165. Additional information about the first beta builds of Vista SP1 reveal the fact that Microsoft is not releasing the refresh as an update but as an ISO image. In July Microsoft served SP1 ISO files weighing in at 3.07GB for Vista 32-bit edition and 4.3GB for Vista 64-Bit edition. Vista SP1 beta was delivered in both 6,000 RTM and 6,001 Windows Server 2008 kernel versions.

Still the Microsoft and beta participants are denying the program’s existence, as expected. We’ll have to suffer with our malfunctioning Windows Vista installs for just a tad longer.

[please click on the images to enlarge them]

With Vista not bringing the expected bucks for Microsoft, The Redmond based company is bound to try new ways to “force” people to start thinking about “WOW”! Oh sorry Windows Vista. But sometimes one can really make a mess of things if its too eager to win a prize (even a consolation prize will do at this stage for Microsoft. Read how Bill Gates welcomes Microsoft software piracy in china).

See what (the rich) Microsoft wants you to do. In a new press release yesterday Microsoft wants its Windows Vista buyers to start preparing for Christmas from today itself. They have released a series of laptop options which Windows Vista lovers would love to give out as gifts (for the “SO CLOSE” December Christmas).

And to my surprise nowhere in this press release Microsoft talks about the Vista WOW factor. Instead they give you options to empty your pockets at these hot looking laptops:

Be Memorable:

Dell XPS M1330, from $1,299

Dell Inspiron 1720, from $769

Be Inspired:

Asus Lamborghini VX2, from $2,899

Be Connected

HP tx1000, from $999.99

Be Dynamic

Sony Vaio CR, from $1,140

Sony VGC-LS37E, from $1,899.99

Be Daring

Toshiba R500 Protégé, from $2,149

Wanna go on an “early” shopping, the “cheap” Microsoft style?

With the latest versions of client and server operating systems, Microsoft is delivering nothing short of “dramatic network performance benefits.” This is the conclusion that the Tolly Group has presented following a comparison of two tandems: Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, formerly codenamed Longhorn and Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. The results have been comprised into a study commissioned by Microsoft and performed by the Tolly Group entitled “Enhanced Network Performance with Microsoft Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.” It is clear that with Vista available since November 30, 2006 for businesses and January 30, 2007 for the general consumers, and with Windows Server 2008 scheduled for RTM by the end of 2007, Microsoft is on the offensive with a marketing campaign aimed specifically at the corporate environment.

Here Microsoft is not exclusively interested in the adoption of Windows Vista over Windows XP, but also in the replacement of Windows Server 2003 with Windows Server 2008. With the first service pack for Windows Vista to hit the market simultaneously with Windows Server 2008, businesses will profit to upgrade the client operating system. And Microsoft wants to make sure that it will also be the opportune moment for the swap between Windows Server 2003 and Windows Server 2008. This is why, with the help of the Tolly white paper, Microsoft is connecting the dots between the enhanced TCP/IP networking stack and support and increased network performance and of course added productivity.

“Just upgrading client PCs to Microsoft’s Windows Vista can yield throughput and time-to-completion improvements of up to 2.5X over Windows XP. Complete migration of servers to Windows Server 2008 can yield throughput and time-to-completion improvements of up to 3.5X over Windows XP/Windows Server 2003,” reads a highlighted fragment from the Tolly Group’s study. Just click on the images at the bottom in order to access graphics from the white paper. The Tolly group has addressed both LAN (Local Area Network) and WAN (Wide Area Network) scenarios and the results of the tests are summarized below.

Source: softpedia

Dale un vistazo a Windows Vista y tú también dirás “!Wow!”. Probable more and more people were answering “sí” to “do you want a copy of Windows Vista?”, which led Microsoft to create a dedicated Windows Vista website for Spanish speakers. Similarly as Google’s efforts of creating language specific searches engines has benefited it, Microsoft is also sure to get more and more dedicated customers with this effort.

Furthermore, Microsoft is also taking its own Hispanic employees to the center stage. Literally, because the company will debut a series of seminars designed to educate Hispanic parents in the intricacies of the Windows Vista parental controls.

As of softpedia Miami will be the main location of on-site Spanish-language demonstrations in June, because of the strong local Hispanic community. In addition to Parental Controls, Microsoft will also deliver insight into the Multilanguage User Interface, Windows Aero and Windows Media Center. “As a Hispanic father myself, I’m proud of sharing my technological knowledge with other Hispanic parents who can benefit from it,” said Luis Martinez, Windows Vista developer at Microsoft. “The parental control features built into Windows Vista will help families better manage how the PC is used and will help them protect their children.”

Microsoft is in danger of losing its grip on Windows Vista. Well, in all fairness, the operating system’s base code is a Microsoft intellectual property, but things are not so clear when it comes to the name of the company’s latest Windows platform. Apparently Microsoft does not own the “Vista” name and trademark. A Frenchman, Philippe Gildas claims that he has all the rights on the “Vista” trademark and not Microsoft. Therefore the Redmond Company should abandon using Vista as reference to its operating system.

Gildas revealed that he had registered the Vista trademark four years before Microsoft launched the operating system to the general public. The Frenchman plans to open a media outlet for the elderly under the Vista brand.

“I deposited the mark with the autumn 2003 in all the fields of the intellectual property of ‘entertainment’, and of the media: out of press, in TV, on the Web, etc Indeed, my chain ‘Vista’, that I launch on CanalSat and all the câblo-operators on November 15, is not a project left the hat,” Gildas explained as cited by PC Inpact. “One had already tried the blow four years ago. That loupé because we were not ready, but we had deposited the name”

It is hard to believe that after spending in excess of $500 million on the Windows Vista Wow marketing campaign and associating the three terms for the consumers, Microsoft will just roll over and play nice. Far from it in fact. The Redmond Company will look to silence Gildas as soon as possible, and it will go to court if necessary. Essentially, by the time Gildas could win an intellectual property infringement lawsuit against Microsoft for the use of the Vista trademark, the operating system could already be out of commission.

Gildas is not shy about threatening Microsoft with lawsuit, because the global launch of Windows Vista has interfered with his plans of opening the Vista TV channel. Microsoft has a similar precedent of the Forefront brand and the Redmond Company has failed to indicate signs of amiable settlement on behalf of the plaintiff. And of course that Microsoft can also argue that the operating system is labelled Windows Vista, and as such, trademark infringement would be harder to prove.