Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh Now Public

Just a couple of days after sending the Vista SP1 Release Candidate (RC )Refresh to their private beta testers, Microsoft on Friday made an RC Refresh available to the public. Just as with the earlier public RC, the download is small, making a change to the registry to allow you to download the RC Refresh from Windows Update.

Before installing the refresh, you have to uninstall any older versions of SP1. Here are the instructions, including something you really need to pay attention to:

To uninstall previous version of Windows Vista SP1

1. Open the Programs and Features control panel and select View installed updates. In the Microsoft Windows section, right-click Service Pack for Windows (936330) and select Uninstall.
2. Your system will now uninstall the previous version of Windows Vista SP1 Beta and may reboot multiple times.
3. Please wait one hour after uninstalling a previous version of Windows Vista SP1 before installing Windows Vista SP1 RC Refresh. The installer service needs to clean up and complete the uninstall prior to installing the RC. Failing to do this can result in installation errors when installing the RC version.

"Please wait one hour." Whaat. Now that's a new one. The installer service needs to clean up for an hour? Wow. I'm not sure what I think about that.

At any rate, I personally will continue to wait for the SP1 release. All this uninstall / reinstall is far too much trouble for me. Plus, I prefer not to install beta software if I can avoid it.

If you'd like to try it, here's the page.