Windows Vista SP2 Coming In April?

Sadly, Vista isn’t all it was hyped up to be. Microsoft released its first service pack last March, which helped some in terms of improving the OS’s performance, but Microsoft still hasn’t been able to change the negative perceptions of many. In hopes of improvements, some are looking ahead to Service Pack 2. With any luck, this service pack will ship in April, according to TechARP:

A confidential source has revealed that Microsoft will deliver a Release Candidate in February 2009 with the final SP2 binary scheduled for RTM (Release To Manufacturing) in April 2009.

Even if Microsoft hits this target date, it’s important to remember that RTM status doesn’t mean the rest of us will get the service pack right away. Instead, the actual public release will likely be sometime after April.

According to TechARP, Service Pack 2 will update both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. It will also include support for new types of hardware and several emerging standards.

New features within the Windows Vista service pack include:

• Adds Windows Search 4.0 for faster and improved relevancy in searches.
• Contains the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack supporting the most recent specification for Bluetooth Technology.
• Ability to record data on to Blu-Ray media natively in Windows Vista.
• Adds Windows Connect Now (WCN) to simplify Wi-Fi Configuration.
• Enables the exFAT file system to support Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) timestamps, which allows correct file synchronization across time zones.

For Windows Server 2008, new features include:

• Adds Microsoft Hyper-V Server release to manufacturing (RTM).

• Power profile changes yielded a 10% improvement.

TechARP has a good history of providing accurate information regarding Microsoft service packs, so let’s hope they’re right again…. And that Microsoft doesn’t fall behind schedule.