Windows Vista product manager Nick White made the official announcement on the Windows Vista's blog. Earlier today Amazon.com has announced that is ready to take pre-orders for boxed copies of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and according to its website it would start shipping tomorrow.

“We released SP1 in these 5 languages: English, French, Spanish, German, and Japanese. If you have any other language installed, SP1 will not yet be offered to you,” Nick White wrote.

Also, White acknowledged that there were problems with a previous release candidate of Windows Vista SP1, but Microsoft has worked around the clock to solve them.

“We've completed our analysis and are happy to report that many of these issues were fixed between the release candidate (RC) and the final version.  We identified a small number of device drivers that may be problematic after an update from Windows Vista to Windows Vista SP1.  Check out the list here; we'll keep it updated with any additional drivers that we identify”, White wrote.

Microsoft hopes that the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 will boost the adoption of its latest OS in the enterprise environment.

According to Microsoft, Windows Vista SP1 will not add new features, but instead it will address key feedback received from its customers. Also the company insisted that the SP1 will not affect any applications that are currently running on Windows Vista.

As Microsoft explained, the updates packed in Windows Vista SP 1 fall into three categories: Quality improvements, improvements to the administration experience and support for emerging hardware and standards.

Amongst other things Vista SP1 will enhance BitLocker Drive Encryption (BDE) by offering an additional multifactor authentication method that combines a key protected by the Trusted Platform Module (TPM) with a Startup key stored on a USB storage device and a user-generated personal identification number (PIN).

In addition, the update will add support for upcoming standards and hardware, such as Direct3D 10.1, Secure Sockets Tunneling Protocol (SSTP), Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI), and the Extended File Allocation Table (exFAT), a file system for Flash drives.

The service pack will include support for Secure Digital (SD) Advanced Direct Memory Access (DMA), which will be on compliant SD host controllers soon, to improve transfer performance and decrease CPU utilization.

Many of the changes in Windows Vista SP1 will address also the administration Experience. Administratos will surely appreciate the improvements to Group Policy management.

In the SP1 timeframe, administrators can download an out-of-band release that will give them the ability to add comments to Group Policy Objects (GPOs) or individual settings and search for specific settings.

The new update will help the users to install their legal copy of Windows Vista without having the same problems as before. In case they have an illegal copy of Windows Vista users will get pop up messages, which notify them about the status of the software along with information about how to make the software legal.

As Microsoft announced, Windows Vista SP1 will start downloading to PCs automatically beginning in mid-April for those customers who have Windows Update configured to download updates automatically. The update will not be automatically installed.

Microsoft launched the consumer version of its Windows Vista operating system on January 30 this year and it’s considered the most expensive software programme in the world which took five years and 7 billion dollars to develop.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced major price cuts for Windows Vista. The price of its Windows Vista Ultimate, the fully-featured version of the OS, is now $319 instead of $399.

Also, those who already owns a copy of Windows XP or a version of Windows Vista will pay to upgrade to Ultimate only $219 and not $259.

Microsoft also cut the prices for upgrade versions of Vista Home Premium, its mainstream product, to $129 from $159.