ServicePack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 has recently been made available and is also available via Windows Update.
Based on customer feedback, the Windows Vista and Windows Server 2 SP2008 is a collection of updates and a few new features.

 

So what does ServicePack 2 bring and which requirements must be met in order to install it?
Before an extensive update such as a ServicePack installation, many questions arise, a few essential ones we try to answer in this article.

 

 

Requirements for installing the SP2
Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 must be installed on the computer.
It is also mandatory to have Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed, as Service Pack 2 is a cumulative update and Service Pack 1 is already included in Windows Server 2008 from the outset.
This keeps the scope of Service Pack 2 smaller and avoids unnecessarily long downloads and installation times, especially since Service Pack 1 has already been installed on most systems via Windows Update.

 

Everything new or just different?

 

SP2 addresses certain reliability and performance issues and supports new hardware and various new standards and includes all updates provided since SP1.
By and large, the changes take place under the hood and are not immediately apparent.
However, a few new features should be emphasized, such as

 

 

 

Bluray support
The SP2 enables Vista to burn Blu-Ray media as well.
Blu-ray discs can then be formatted, written to and individual files on a Blu-ray disc deleted from Windows Explorer.

 

 

 

Bluetooth 2.1
Support for the Bluetooth standard 2.1 offers, among other things, lower power consumption and improved security options

 

 

 

Windows Connect Now (WCN) Wi-Fi configuration
Simplified wireless device setup.
In addition, the performance of Wi-Fi connections after returning from sleep mode has been improved in SP2.

 

 

 

 

 

 

64-bit CPUs
SP2 added support for VIA Technologies 64-bit processors to include the IDs and vendor strings for new VIA 64-bit processors.

 

RSS feeds gadget

 

Updates to the RSS feeds gadget to improve performance and response.

 

 

 

UTC timestamp
The exFat file system gets support for UTC timestamps, which fixes synchronization errors of data with different time zones.

 

 

 

Integration of Windows Search 4.0
Indexing and search relevance is based on Microsoft's search technology.
The program also supports searching and previewing documents, emails (including signed emails), music files, photos and other items on the computer. The Search engine in Windows Search 4.0 is a Microsoft Windows service that is also used by programs such as Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 and Microsoft Office OneNote 2007. Auto-tuned diagnostics in SP2 now detect current network conditions when implementing Windows scaling. This feature includes full Netsh support.
TCP connections
SP2 adds a registry key that allows changing the maximum number of open TCP connections to increase application compatibility.

 

Service pack cleanup tool
SP2 also includes a service pack cleanup tool (Compcln.exe) that helps restore disk space by continually deleting older versions of the files (RTM and SP1) maintained by SP2.

 

Scope of the download for Windows Vista
This is different, depending on which variant you choose.
As a stand-alone download package is the scope for
32-bit version approx. 302 MB (package with five languages)
64-bit version approx. 508 MB (package with five languages)

 

Via Windows Update
32Bit version approx. 43 MB
64Bit version approx. 60 MB

___________________________________________________
This tip comes from www.win-tipps-tweaks.de
© Copyright Michael Hille

Warning:
Using Registry Editor or its tips incorrectly can cause serious system problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Tampering with the registry files and using the tips is at your own risk.