[Osiris]

Windows Vista SP2 Details

Neowin published details about the upcoming Windows Vista Service Pack 2 on their website which was recently released to testers in an early build and quickly leaked to the Internet so that anyone interested could install Windows Vista Service Pack 2. It was an early build with bare to none new feature and came in a surprisingly low size of 290 Megabytes. Taking into consideration that the size of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 was more than 720 Megabytes it is fair to assume that service pack 1 will not be included in service pack 2.
This essentially means that users who want to install Windows Vista Service Pack 2 will have to install Service Pack 1 first before they can do so. Microsoft is aiming for a public release in the first half of 2009 with beta builds going out to selected testers as usual.
Another interesting aspect is that Service Pack 2 will not only be for Windows Vista but also for Windows Server 2008 RTM. Several new features have been confirmed by Microsoft.

• Support for VIA 64-bit CPUs
• Support for Bluetooth 2.1.
• Support for ICCD/CCID smart cards.
• Support for native Blu-Ray media recording.
• Windows Connect Now (WCN), a new tool to assist in connecting to Wi-Fi networks.
• ex-FAT file system, supporting UTC timestamps to ensure correct file synchronization across time zones.
• Windows Search 4.0 integration.
• Improved support for resuming with active Wi-Fi connections.

Nothing spectacular in the list (yet) but probably helpful for some users who are experiencing Wi-Fi connection issues or use hardware that supports Bluetooth 2.1 or run Via 64-but CPUs or Blu-Ray devices.