I was checking system updates on Tuesday and noticed Service Pack 2 was available for my Vista Ultimate 64 bit PC.  I don’t remember a service pack being released and on the same day being available via Windows Update.
As with Microsoft’s guidelines a service pack generally doesn’t feature any new technologies; just fixes and updates rolled together with any other tidbits previously released.  A full rundown of changes can be viewed here.  Notable changes include:

one service pack for Vista and Server 2008
ability to record data to Blu-Ray media
integrates and improves …

Everything started fine but after the first reboot I would hit a Blue Screen Of Death that would reboot the machine: it flashed by so quickly I couldn’t read it. Selecting Safe Mode showed the system loaded up to crcdisk.sys but then would reboot.

This weekend I upgraded my 250GB hard drive to a 500GB hard drive in my main computer. I’ve done this countless times with little effort but this experience was anything but pleasant.

I’ve just finished six months of dual booting my PC with Windows XP Professional and Windows Vista Ultimate x64 (the 64 bit version of Windows).  Please peruse my initial installation here if you haven’t already before continuing.
Let me start by confirming I am still dual booting, but mainly because Vista x64 isn’t supported by the Connector software from Windows Home Server.  If I want my PC backed up I have to go into a 32 bit operating system to get it done.  A 64 bit version of this was to …

With even a passing interest in computing you would be hard pressed to have not only heard and shown interest in Microsoft Vista but also the deluge of bad press it’s received. Slower than Windows XP! User Account Control a failure! Version confusion! And so it continues. Whatever your feeling, Microsoft has the leading market share for an operating system and has moved to the Vista platform, with XP to go the way of the dinosaur over the next few months.
Of course XP will live on through your old PCs …

Microsoft has made Vista RC1 available for download.  For the curious amongst us, or those who downloaded the beta, for free it’s worth a look.
Microsoft Vista RC1

Wow! Microsoft has now made available Vista Beta 2. This is beta software so use it at your own risk, but at least you’ll see what all the hype is about. You have to login and answer a few questions but it’s not a big deal. You’ll finally get to a download page with a link and your product key.

Microsoft Vista Beta 2