Download Windows Vista 32 Bit Service Pack 2 \/\/FREE\\\\
Angelo Dearring
Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows Vista and for Windows Server 2008 supports new kinds of hardware and emerging hardware standards. This service pack includes all the updates that have been delivered since Service Pack 1, and it simplifies deployment for consumers, for developers, and for IT professionals.
Note This article also applies to Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Standard and to Windows Essential Business Server 2008 Premium.
Until the service pack is released, use the Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and for Windows Server 2008 TechNet forum to discuss issues that concern both the service packs. To do this, visit the following Microsoft Web site:
The prerelease version of SP2 is time-limited software. You must remove the prerelease version of the service pack before you install the final version of the service pack. Also, this software will no longer operate after May 1, 2010. You must remove the prerelease version of SP2 before that date.
To remove the prerelease version of SP2 for Windows Vista and for Windows Server 2008, follow these steps:
For more information about how to troubleshoot installation issues that concern service packs for Windows Vista or for Windows Server 2008, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
947366 Error message when you try to install the stand-alone package for Windows Vista Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 or for Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2: "Installation was not successful" or "An internal error occurred while installing the service pack"
Some antivirus software might prevent SP2 from installing, or might slow down the installation. You can try temporarily disabling your antivirus software. If you do so, be sure that you're aware of the risks involved, and be sure to enable it after the service pack is installed.
If you have problems obtaining the service pack from Windows Update, you can download SP2 as a standalone installation package from the Microsoft Download Center website, and then install SP2 manually.
To install SP2 immediately, click Open or Run, and then follow the instructions on your screen. To install SP2 later, click Save to copy the installation file to your computer. When you're ready to install the service pack, open the file you copied to your computer.
As part of the redesign of the network stack, Windows Firewall has been upgraded, with new support for filtering both incoming and outgoing traffic. Advanced packet filter rules can be created that can grant or deny communications to specific services.
Some notable Windows XP features and components have been replaced or removed in Windows Vista, including several shell and Windows Explorer features, multimedia features, networking related functionality, Windows Messenger, NTBackup, the network Windows Messenger service, HyperTerminal, MSN Explorer, Active Desktop, and the replacement of NetMeeting with Windows Meeting Space. As a result, BOOTMGR in Windows Vista and later versions replaces the functions performed by NTLDR in all Windows NT versions up to Windows XP and directly executes winload.exe, the system loader used to continue the Windows boot process. Windows Vista also does not include the Windows XP "Luna" visual theme, or most of the classic color schemes that have been part of Windows since the Windows 3.x era. The "Hardware profiles" startup feature has also been removed, along with support for older motherboard technologies like the EISA bus, APM and game port support (though on the 32-bit version game port support can be enabled by applying an older driver).[100] IP over FireWire (TCP/IP over IEEE 1394) has been removed as well.[101] The IPX/SPX protocol has also been removed, although it can be enabled by a third-party plug-in.[102]
Support for the original release of Windows Vista (without a service pack) ended on April 13, 2010.[103] Service Pack 1 reached end of support on July 12, 2011, over three years after its general availability.[104]
Microsoft in 2020 announced that it would disable the Windows Update service for SHA-1 endpoints and since Windows Vista did not get an update for SHA-2, Windows Update Services are no longer available on the OS as of late July 2020.[105] However, as of April 2021, the old updates for Windows Vista are still available on the Microsoft Update Catalog.[106]
A white paper, published by Microsoft on August 29, 2007, outlined the scope and intent of the service pack, identifying three major areas of improvement: reliability and performance, administration experience, and support for newer hardware and standards.[134]
Two areas have seen changes in SP1 that have come as the result of concerns from software vendors. One of these is desktop search; users will be able to change the default desktop search program to one provided by a third party instead of the Microsoft desktop search program that comes with Windows Vista, and desktop search programs will be able to seamlessly tie in their services into the operating system.[132] These changes come in part due to complaints from Google, whose Google Desktop Search application was hindered by the presence of Vista's built-in desktop search. In June 2007, Google claimed that the changes being introduced for SP1 "are a step in the right direction, but they should be improved further to give consumers greater access to alternate desktop search providers".[140] The other area of note is a set of new security APIs being introduced for the benefit of antivirus software that currently relies on the unsupported practice of patching the kernel (see Kernel Patch Protection).[141][142]
The Group Policy Management Console (GPMC) was replaced by the Group Policy Object Editor. An updated downloadable version of the Group Policy Management Console was released soon after the service pack.
Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 share a single service pack binary, reflecting the fact that their code bases were joined with the release of Server 2008.[147] Service Pack 2 is not a cumulative update meaning that Service Pack 1 must be installed first.
Windows Vista supports additional forms of DRM restrictions. One aspect of this is the Protected Video Path, which is designed so that "premium content" from HD DVD or Blu-ray Discs may mandate that the connections between PC components be encrypted. Depending on what the content demands, the devices may not pass premium content over non-encrypted outputs, or they must artificially degrade the quality of the signal on such outputs or not display it at all. Drivers for such hardware must be approved by Microsoft; a revocation mechanism is also included, which allows Microsoft to disable drivers of devices in end-user PCs over the Internet.[203] Peter Gutmann, security researcher and author of the open source cryptlib library, claims that these mechanisms violate fundamental rights of the user (such as fair use), unnecessarily increase the cost of hardware, and make systems less reliable (the "tilt bit" being a particular worry; if triggered, the entire graphic subsystem performs a reset) and vulnerable to denial-of-service attacks.[204] However, despite several requests[205] for evidence supporting such claims Peter Gutmann has never supported his claims with any researched evidence. Proponents have claimed that Microsoft had no choice but to follow the demands of the movie studios, and that the technology will not actually be enabled until after 2010;[206][207] Microsoft also noted that content protection mechanisms have existed in Windows as far back as Windows ME, and that the new protections will not apply to any existing content, only future content.[208]
PS: don't install your service in any of the Windows systems folder. They should be regarded as Windows private folders. Unless you have very, very good reasons to write there (i.e. drivers), you should never install software there. Install it in your application folders.
In addition to the accepted answer I'd just like to make it easier for people to use Luigi Sandon's service library (thank you very much!). After downloading the script you'll need to add a [Code] section similar to the following to your setup script:
Unfortunately I couldn't figure out if there was a way to use the # VarName emit syntax in the [Code] section, which is why I declared the service name etc. as constants there as well as #define's at the top of the file. The answers here are useful if the constant you want is one of the [Setup] section's settings, but as you can't arbitrarily add things to that section this doesn't work for all things you might want to define constants for.
The customer advised that they had chosen to disable Offline Files on all of their Vista machines. I looked at Control Panel and Offline Files was set to Disabled. I then looked at Services.msc and the Offline Files service was disabled. Looks good, right?
In my case, the customer's driver was set to "System" even though the Offline Files GUI and the Offline Files service were both disabled. Offline Files on her Vista machines was in a halfway enabled state. No synchronization with the file server was taking place, but Explorer.exe was still directed to look at the CSC database because the kernel driver was loaded.
When the customer disabled Offline Files on the Vista machines, she manually disabled the Offline Files service on each machine, and she never made any change to the Offline Files GUI in Control Panel. I found that when you only disable the service, the Offline Files GUI does get updated and shows "Disabled", but it leaves the kernel driver startup mode set to "System". If you disable Offline Files via the Control Panel GUI, the service is disabled and the kernel driver is disabled as well. When Offline Files is disabled via the Control Panel GUI, you will be prompted to reboot the machine for this to take effect (so that the kernel driver can be unloaded).
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