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Microsoft releases Vista SP2 to manufacturing

Hyper-V included for Server 2008

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Microsoft has blog-announced the release to manufacturing of Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008.

SP2 includes all the delivered updates since SP1 and support for new types of hardware and hardware standards. The essential features are faster and more relevant Search 4.0, support for the latest Bluetooth 2.1 specification, the ability to write direct to Blu-ray optical disks, Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify WiFi configuration, and the support of UTC timestamps in the exFAT file system, to provide correct file synchronization across time zones.

There is now a single installer for Vista and Server 2008. The Windows Vista SP1 Service Pack Blocker Tool is being removed and, for those customers who previously had the blocker tool in place, Windows Vista SP1 will now be offered to them via Windows Update. A prerequisite for the installation of SP2 is that SP1 is installed.

SP2 also provides the Hyper-V virtualisation environment as a fully integrated feature of Windows Server 2008. There are more SP2 details here.

SP2 should be available later this quarter. ®

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