When asked to confirm the March 18 delivery date for SP1, a Microsoft spokeswoman only repeated the company's earlier statements. "In mid-March, we will release Windows Vista SP1 to Windows Update and the download center on Microsoft.com," she said in an e-mail. "Customers who visit Windows Update can choose to install Service Pack 1. Any system that Windows Update determines has a driver known to not upgrade successfully will not be offered SP1."

It's unclear so far how a February snafu with affect SP1's rollout. Last month, after Microsoft pushed a pair of prerequisite patches to users, some users reported that their machines refused to finish installing one of the fixes, then went into an endless series of reboots. Several days later, Microsoft pulled the update from automatic delivery, said it was working on a solution and promised that it would "make the update available again shortly after we address the issue."

That update was designated No. 937287 and described in a support document with the same number. Microsoft has not re-released it to Windows Update as an automatic download/install.

Asked to explain how users will be able to download and install SP1 this month without the prerequisite, Microsoft's spokespeople said that the endless-reboot problem and the subsequent withdrawal of Update 937287 would not affect SP1's schedule.

"The temporary removal of the prerequisite from automatic updates will not affect the SP1 release schedule -- we are on schedule to release Windows Visa SP1 to Windows Update and the download center in mid-March and to users using Automatic Update in mid-April," different spokeswomen said as recently as last week.

Read more about operating systems in Computerworld's Operating Systems Knowledge Center.

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