Finally Windows Vista SP1 will be available in 36 Languages on April 9th and will be a Forced Update

Windows Vista SP1 will eventually be made available in 36 Languages on April 9.

Though all languages of Windows Vista SP1 has been published to technical personnels(read TechNet and MSDN subscribers), but the releases for general public through Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center haven't come through. On March 18, 2008, Microsoft finally published English and other 4 benchmark languages editions of Windows Vista SP1, generally called “Wave 0″ in Microsoft Internal naming, and it supports English (US), French, German, Japanese, and Spanish (Traditional).

According to Microsoft’s plan, the “Wave 1″ of Windows Vista SP1 will be published on April 9, 2008. The second, and final release of Windows Vista SP1, is all set to offer general public official download links to Windows Vista SP1 setup installer that supports all 36 languages of Windows Vista editions, including those converted with MUI language packs. The release I am sure will likely be distributed via both Windows Update and Microsoft Download Center.

The 36 languages of Windows Vista SP1 are Danish, German, English, Spanish, Finnish, French, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Dutch, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Swedish, Chinese (simplified), Chinese (Hong Kong S.A.R.), Arabic, Bulgarian, Czech, Greek, Estonian, Hebrew, Croatian, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Latvian, Polish, Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Serbian (Latin), Thai, Turkish and Ukrainian.

Windows Vista SP1 is also set to come as a "Force Install" on Windows Update - marked as ‘Critical’ from April 18(Now that's going to stir up some comments in forums).

Windows Vista SP1 provides much needed improvement, enhancements and bug fixes to Windows Vista since official RTM release in early 2007, such as system startup time, faster file copying operation speed and general improvement to system compatibility, performance and stability. In other words, the first service pack for Windows Vista is a must for all Vista system, and clearly Microsoft does think so too!!

According to an internal source from a related corporation which is probably very close to Microsoft, Windows Vista SP1 will be made a forced install through Windows Update and Automatic Updates from April 18, 2008. The type of the Windows Vista SP1 (KB936330) will also be set as “Critical”, which will enable users on Automatic Updates to automatically download and install the service pack in the background, and all Windows Vista clients connecting to Windows Update will receive an announcement that the Windows Vista SP1 update will download and installation has been initiated.

Other points of the email includes the following instruction to the Windows Vista users:

As with any operating system modification, feel free to back up your data. Remain connected to AC power and hard wired to the corporate network during the installation.

For the corporates, there is an easy method of update:

Update the system via Windows Update, which may take a cool time of 1 to 2 hours, depending of system configuration and network connection status. Else, wait for System Center Configuration Manager (SCCM) to automatically deploy Windows Vista SP1.

Also, the schedule for the Windows Vista deployment is as below.

Windows Vista Deployment Schedule

Current Status:
All updates have been published to Windows Update, and mandatory installation package has been published to Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

April 1, 2008:
Deployment starts, by April 5, the system should receive all updates.

April 16, 2008:
The dateline to force install Windows Vista SP1 through SCCM.

April 18, 2008:
The type of Windows Vista SP1 update in Widows Update notification will be change to “Critical”. All Windows Vista clients connecting to Windows Update will receive an announcement that the Windows Vista SP1 update download and installation has been initiated.

Microsoft has published Windows Vista SP1 for 5 core languages in wave 1, and SP1 for the rest of the 36 languages is scheduled to release early April, making the roll out schedule above looks realistic.