Rob has been reporting on his experiences with installing SP1 on the Dell Latitude XT Tablet PC most of the evening. Seems like things went relatively smooth. I'm now downloading the service pack on  the Lenovo ThinkPad X61 Tablet PC. It didn't show under Windows Update initially, but after running the Lenovo Update software twice it did manage to show up. BTW I despise Lenovo's software updater. It always seems to have to update itself before checking for new software. SP1 is taking awhile to download so I'll report after the process is over in the morning.

Please remember, if you're going to install SP1, make sure you backup and/or image your system. Just in case.

UPDATE 1: Download complete. But guess what? I get a Windows Activation message saying the system needs to be reactivated due to a change in hardware. I'm sure that has something to do with some of the Lenovo updates, although I don't recall a BIOS update. But, I'll just say this, (and it has been said many times before) updating Windows Vista and the hardware it runs on is like going to the dentist for multiple root canals. I think that should be printed on every sticker on every machine.

UPDATE 2: Things seem to have gone well. The install completed before I turned in for the night. I left things up and running over night knowing full well that Vista has some sorting out to do after an update like this. I can't say I'm seeing any significant or noticeable improvements this morning, but there still seems to be quite a bit of things sorting out as evidenced by some continued disk thrashing this morning. More as it comes.

Assuming your system has been cleared for take-off by the Vista SP 1 process, here are the steps (with pictures) to get Vista SP 1 going.

1. Go to Windows Update and check for any updates.
2. Download and install any that are there
3. Reboot when prompted
4. Go to Windows Update again and click Check For Updates
5. When Vista SP 1 displays, download it and begin the install process

Here are the screen shots and pictures I took of the entire process after downloading Vista SP 1 via Windows Update. It took less than an hour. My download for the Dell Latitude XT was about 66 MB.

By the way, I used TechSmith's SnagIt to grab all the screenshots, except for the Stage 1 - 3 shots when the OS wasn't booted up.

Thanks to a heads up from Steve Seto, I went to Windows Update just a little while ago and installed 7 miscellaneous updates and rebooted. I then did a Check Updates in Windows Update, and boom - Vista SP 1 was there. I'm installing it right now.

Anyone else installing Vista SP 1? What was your experience like? Have you noticed any benefits?

UPDATE: The process went smooth as silk and took less than an hour. I have screen shots of the step by step process that I'll post up in a bit. Something strange though - Vista recognized new hardware and wanted to refresh the experience index. I remember the numbers from before SP 1 installed and the base was 3.5. I ran the Experience Index tool and the number dropped by 1.2!

UPDATE 2: According to forum member Ch00k, the change in Experience Index actually occured when installing the ATI Video Card update just prior to Vista SP 1. Very odd.

By the way, there is a new BIOS update at the Dell Support Site for the Dell Latitude XT.

Talk about the Vista SP 1 update for the Dell Latitude XT here in our forums.

Talk about the Experience Index change here.

After SP 1 update and running the Experience Index refresh

When operating a Tablet PC in slate / portrait mode, sometimes you have to think a little differently to do tasks that are second-nature with the keyboard.  One of those items is multi-selects. With a keyboard it is easy: click on the first item, then hold down the shift key and click on the last item. Or, hold down the Ctrl key, and select each individual item with your mouse.

What about the pen? Here are several tips to accomplish the same productivity shortcuts with a pen:

Shift Multi-Selects

Emails in Outlook

1. Move your pen to the left of the email icon
2. You'll see the pen cursor change from left-pointing cursor to a right-pointing cursor
3. Move your pen to the screen and then drag down to select the emails you want to move / delete

Building off of Craig's great Vista Tablet PC post, another option is to modify one of the Pen Flick edit gestures to toggle the Shift key, thus using a gesture to activate the Shift key.

You can also assign the shift key to an onscreen press / hold button in the Tablet PC settings.

Ctrl Multi-Selects

For Ctrl individual multi-selects ( selecting multiple individual items in a list ) I've assigned a press and hold button to the Ctrl key. You can do this in the Tablet PC settings found in the Control Panel. You'll want to use the Press and Hold option because you have to hold down the Ctrl key while selecting each of the items with your pen, which mimics what you do with the keyboard.

I experimented with a Ctrl gesture for individual multi-selects, but it doesn't work right since there is no way to mimic holding down the Ctrl key with a gesture. Once the gesture is activated, the key stroke activates then deactivates. The press / hold onscreen button is the best solution I've found for Ctrl individual multi-selects.

Ed Bott has a great article on ZDNet on dealing with some of the headaches that get blamed on Vista when the root cause may in fact be CRAPWARE or lack of up-to-date drivers. He chronicles his experience in helping out a friend start from scratch on a new Sony Vaio that had been relegated to closet after the performance lagged beyond frustration. Ed walks through a number of steps he took along the way and the lessons learned along the way and the article is well worth a read.

Of course it raises the inevitable questions about CRAPWARE and OOBE. Sure, I realize that installing Trialware and such helps OEMs cut the price on new machines, but at what cost to the end user? And as the thesis of Ed’s article points to, it also takes a very, very high toll on Vista and Microsoft’s reputation as well. You’d think somewhere along the line, someone would see this and begin to restore some sanity to the madness, instead of backing users into restoring a new machine from scratch.

This is billed as a “Stupid Internal Microsoft Vista SP1 Video.” Whether it is internal or not, (gosh, I hope not) it is pretty darn funny and worth a few laughs on a Monday night. Srpingstein fans, try not to wretch too much.

Via spiderwebwoman on Twitter.

We all know that one of the best reasons to puchase / upgrade to Vista is the much improved Tablet PC experience. During our meetings with Windows Tablet PC reco team this past week, the issue of getting the best results from recognition came up.

What they are observing is that new users think printed script will give them the best results. In fact, the opposite is true. To get the best handwriting recognition results, write in cursive. This is because the recognizer sees the letters as a continuous block rather than individual blocks. When seen as a continuous block, the recognizer does a better job of narrowing down the possibilities.

In addition to writing in cursive, turn on the personalized recognizer and Use Automatic Learning.

If you were one of the ones who ran into trouble installing the pre-requiste updates that are required to install the Vista SP1 update, it looks like Microsoft may have solved the issue. From the Microsoft Update Product Team Blog comes this:

So what caused the problem?  Well, the SSU has special code to check whether there are any pending reboots or other updates to install.  If it sees either of these circumstances, it prevents the install from starting.  During our investigation, we discovered that there were a few unknown and rare events during the middle of the installation of the update that could cause the update to think it needed a reboot to complete the installation. If this happened, the system entered a repeating reboot loop.

To address this problem for people who have not already installed the SSU, we are releasing a fix tomorrow which will install prior to the SP1 Servicing Stack Update.  This pre-SSU update helps to ensure a smooth install of the SSU by working to prevent the system from rebooting during the SP1 SSU installation.  We also made additional changes to the SSU installer code, so that it checks for and requires the pre-SSU (KB949939) before it will install. 

Check out the full post here.

I was reading Windows Secret's latest article on how to save $100 on  Vista by purchasing the upgrade cd and then doing a full install. He's right - the loophole is there, but it is intended to aid users in doing clean installs when upgrading without requiring that the previous OS be installed first.

Ed Bott has it totally right - just because the loophole is there, it doesn't mean that everyone can take exploit it and stay within Microsoft's licensing agreement. Ed argues the point much better than I could, so I invite you to head over there and read it.

I wrote about this way back in February 2007, when the same sources issued the same breathless reports. Nothing has changed since then. If you qualify for an upgrade license, this technique allows you to do a clean install, legally. If you don’t qualify for an upgrade license, then doing a clean install with this technique is technically possible but violates the terms of the license agreement. Tha distinction seems to be lost on the folks who are dredging up this old story. So allow me to explain, again.

Microsoft announced today that June 30 is indeed the final cut-off for manufacturers to make Windows XP a pre-load option on PCs, with an exception being made for those now popular low cost portables, like the Asus Eee, Intel Classmate, and others. Those low cost portables will still be allowed to ship with Windows XP Home Edition through June 30, 2010 or one year after the general availability of the next version of Windows.

In familiar Microsoft fashion, they've also come up with a name for those low cost, XP Home Edition sporting portables: the Ultra Low-Cost PC. Now, don't get those confused with their more powerful brethen, the Ultra-Mobile PC, ok?

Here is Michael Dix, General Manager of Windows Client Group Product Management explaining what a Ultra Low-Cost PC is:

PressPass: What are ultra-low-cost personal computers (ULCPCs)?

Dix: ULCPCs are a new and growing class of mobile computers designed for first-time PC buyers and customers interested in complementing their primary Windows-based PCs with companion devices with limited hardware capabilities.  These machines vary, but they typically have smaller screen sizes and lower-powered processors than more expensive mobile PCs. While originally intended for students and other first-time PC customers in emerging markets, we’re now seeing interest in these affordable devices in developed countries as well.

One thing we’ve heard loud and clear, from both our customers and our partners, is the desire for Windows on this new class of devices. We are enthusiastic about this category because it enables us to bring the benefits of Windows to more customers. ( emphasis mine )

If memory serves me right, wasn't one of the major goals of the Ultra-Mobile PC / Origami initiative to be in the $500 range, which is where these Ultra Low-Cost PCs are currently priced? Wasn't it also designed to be a companion device that also had limited hardware capabilities?

That Q & A reads just like what the Ultra-Mobile PC / Origami space was after and targeting several years ago, but apparently lost its way. Now, the industry and consumer has let Microsoft know what it wants and the type of low impact software it wants to run, and Microsoft is wisely listening. This little tidbit bodes well for mobile devices - running Windows on devices with less than 4 GB of flash-based storage:

We are also taking a number of steps to enable our partners to support this growing class of computers, such as publishing formal design guidelines to the Web to enable manufacturers to build Windows-based flash-based machines with even greater hardware limitations (e.g., under 4GB flash-based storage).  We believe these guidelines will enable PC makers to build more reliable, low-cost and easy-to-maintain ULCPCs for customers. 

This makes me wonder, though - where does this all leave the Ultra-Mobile PC? Could we start to see a shift in to the ULCPC area? By the way, thanks for muddying up an already muddied up space with the new name.

via Mary Jo Foley

I’ve been meaning to link to this for awhile, but it kept passing me by. So, with apologies to Ed Bott and Media Center Show Podcast host, Ian Dixon, here’s a link to a great chat between the two on what to expect (and not expect) in Vista Service Pack 1. Well worth a listen to if you haven’t made the jump to SP1 yet.

By the way, I haven’t made that jump yet. I’ve been just too busy of late to make the commitment.

Microsoft's Nick White let us all know today that Vista SP 1 is now available for download via Windows Update. Nick has some good info on how you get begin the download process now, rather than wait until mid-April for it to automatically download.

If in running Windows Update you do not see Windows Vista SP1 listed, there are a number of good reasons for this (Eight in fact, see the whole list). Below are a few of the most common reasons why you might not see SP1 on Windows Update:

   * You have not yet installed all the prerequisite packages you need for Windows Vista SP1. To install them, visit the Windows Update control panel and click on "check for updates."

    * You have a pre-release version of SP1 and need to uninstall it before installing SP1
    * You already have it. To determine if you already have SP1 installed, Open the Start Menu, right click on Computer and left click on Properties.
    * We released SP1 in these 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. If you have any other language installed, SP1 will not yet be offered to you. (You might not even know if you have an additional language installed! Check the Language control panel to see what languages you have installed)
    * Back in February we announced that we'd be using Windows Update to help make the update as seamless as possible for our users. Windows Update will detect drivers that we know may be problematic when updating to SP1 and will not offer the service pack until an update has been installed.

But I cheated....

If you have been following the site, you know I have bee having a HECK of a time trying to get Vista SP1 installed on my Lenovo x61 Tablet PC.  Well, with my last effort this weekend, I have it installed.

I did everything I could to get things to work - I had some e-mails, some forum posts even used my own experience - Nothing worked.  The last step I made was to uninstall everything off my machine - even uninstalled drivers as well - like the video, network...  back to the windows generic/default - Still didn't work.

What did I do?  I gave up!  Friday night I did the almost 3 GIG download of Vista with SP1 included - THAT installed just fine.  Unfortunately after 6-7 tries to do the upgrade I just couldn't take it any more.  So, I am now running SP1 and all is fine, except for the time it's taken me to reinstall everything back on this machine.....

James Kendrick over at jkOnTheRun has been posting his experiences on his new Fujitsu P1620. As a P1610 owner, I've been interested to read about the similarities and differences in the platforms. James ran into a problem on the P1620 with the touch screen going dead and unresponsive. After realizing that the P1620 uses a USB touch screen digitizer, he went into the device properties and disabled "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power." As he rightly acknowledges, there is no reason why the touch screen should ever be allowed to turn off. That's just silly. Uncheck the box, and voila - problem solved. Read James' post for the full details.

I have run into this same problem with other USB based devices in systems, so if you have a feature that seems to die intermittently, check to see if it has this setting in the device properties in Device Manager.

via jkOnTheRun

Vista Capable became a phrase in flux with the release of Microsoft’s new operating system last year. Lack of drivers, graphics issues, things that didn’t work, and all sorts of headaches were cropping up daily. I criticized Asus and Microsoft for sticking a Vista Capable sticker on the Asus R2H at the time.

Well, now there is a class action lawsuit afoot that is challenging the entire Vista Capable designation on behalf of consumers. The lawsuit has been given sanction and is going forward. It turns out there are some pretty damaging emails from Microsoft employees about this. The New York Times is running a story on this today that contains some of the info, and also points to the internal Microsoft squabbling that occured in the run up to the difficulties. Most damaging are emails that make it look like Microsoft fudged things to help Intel meet some earnings targets with the decidely not Vista Capable 915 chipset.

Who knows how this will play out, but it ain’t gonna be pretty.

Huh? Microsoft has pulled an unprecedented move by dropping the prices on a couple of variants of the Vista operating system. Vista Ultimate will drop from $399 to $319. The Vista Ultimate upgrade drops from $259 to $219. Vista Home Premium upgrade will drop from $159 to $129. Given that there really has been no real “ultimate” in Vista Ultimate, I guess on some level this makes some sense to somebody, but in the end retail customers will get an opportunity to save some money.

Just when you thought it was over with program issues on Vista...  with the install of SP1, there are more issues with application compatibility.  I know companies are working hard to get OS upgrades in place when SP1 is released, but is this going to change the game some?  It might, but I would guess that many of the companies have time to get things worked out before the service pack is released to the public.

"Windows Vista Service Pack 1 contains many security, reliability, and feature updates for Windows Vista," the company said. "A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1. However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you install Windows Vista SP1."

Head on over to a list provided by Microsoft of applications that are currently known to not work.

Looks like maybe my troubles are being felt around other places as well...  Glad I am not the only one with issues.  And it also looks like Microsoft has pulled one of the Hotfixes for now as well...  I think I'll try again once all this is worked out!

"We've received reports that some customers may be experiencing an unusual reboot cycle after installing KB937287, the servicing stack update we released last week. To prevent further instances of this issue, we temporarily stopped automatic distribution of the update and are investigating solutions to the problem. We believe this problem only impacts a small number of customers. We are working to identify possible solutions and will resume automatic distribution again after we address the issue."

I might not have been having the reboot problem, but I did have the same 'no boot' part happen as mentioned in the article.

One of the most requested features over the past five years has been the ability to ink on the desktop. So, when Microsoft released the Ink Desktop as part of Experience Pack for XP, there was much rejoicing. Then folks started using it, and frustrations ensued - erasing slowness, resizing problems, rotation issues, etc.

When Vista came out and Microsoft released Ink Desktop 2 ( and Experience Pack for Vista ), there was hope that the above issues would be fixed. However, many of the same problems surfaced and continued to frustrate users. Because of the practical use of writing on the desktop, many folks like me want to like it and use it, but eventually turn it off due to the problems.

GBM reader FeralBoy has a great discussion thread going in our forums talking about the need of a good solution for inking on the desktop, the issues with Ink Desktop 2, and hoping Microsoft or some talented developer will catch the dream and code a great solution for us.

FeralBoy on his latest struggles with Ink Desktop:

Today my desktop notes died. Well, they're still there, but they've been shrunk one too many times and refuse to resize themselves to a usable, non-blurry state, so I will have to delete them and start over.
Sigh.

Head over and check it out - it is a fascinating discussion.

Yesterday we alerted our readers via a story from Tech ARP about Vista SP 1 being RTM'd today. Official word from Microsoft has now been released confirming RTM, but indicating that SP 1 will not be available for download until March.

You can now stop visiting Windows Update every 30 minutes!