Vista SP1 RTM Now Available On TechNet, MSDN

Subscribers can now download Vista SP1 x86 and x64 versions from the TechNet Subscriptions website, but must install the Akamai Technologies Download Manager Browser add-on to access these files, and also allow pop-ups, wrote Kathy Dixon, senior product manager for TechNet Plus, in a blog post.

MSDN subscribers must follow the same process to download Vista SP1.

"The integrated full install of Vista with SP1 will be available for download prior to the end of the month; we are working through download capacity planning and will make it available as soon as we can," Dixon wrote.

Microsoft, in its monthly patch release on Tuesday, pushed out two of the three prerequisite updates needed to install Vista SP1.

When Microsoft announced the Vista SP1 RTM last week, TechNet and MSDN customers with paid subscriptions raged against the vendor's decision not to release it to tech savvy customers and partners until mid-March, as a result of lingering device driver issues. Earlier this week, Microsoft relented and said TechNet and MSDN subscribers could download Vista SP1 by the end of the month.

While many subscribers welcomed the accelerated release in comments on the MSDN download page, some are apparently not so willing to forgive Microsoft just yet.

"Why does it generally take so long to get RTM's posted for MSDN Subscribers? It seems like after Microsoft announces the RTM of some particular software, it takes days/weeks for it to be available to subscribers," wrote a poster who users the handle 'tzagotta'.