As I was saying when talking about the Vista search changes Service Pack 1 was supposed to be released later on this year (somewhere in October). Or at least this is what the general opinion was at the beginning of 2007. But things seem to have changed, and let’s see why and how.

So Microsoft was predicting that SP1 will be released in the last quarter of this year but soon afterwards they seem to have changed their opinion and stated there is no release date on SP1 ( thus suggesting Vista is so good it doesn’t need a SP that soon). Along with that Microsoft has tried to emphasis it’s trust in the Auto Update system to provide regular updates, instead of one, big SP (though I’m not sure users would agree).

On the other hand is the need to include in the upcoming SP all the required updated and modifications (such as the new Vista search requirements ). This could create some serious delays but the Redmond giant can’t afford to wait for too long. Serious buyers such as companies prefer to update after the first major update is released (SP1 in this case) in order to avoid any trouble with unready software.

Given the many factors that gravitate around Service Pack 1 no one can say for sure when will it be released, but a handy clue might be the release date of Windows Server 2008, as the release dates on the two were related.