Microsoft Says Vista Service Pack 2 Coming Soon

In a Wednesday blog post, Microsoft's Update Product Team said Vista and Server 2008 SP2 will soon be available through the Download Center as well as through Windows Update and Windows Server Update Services (WSUS).

Microsoft recently said it's not sure if PC makers will be able to sell machines with Vista after Windows 7 arrives, which could possibly happen as early as August. Microsoft will offer mainstream support for business versions of Vista until 2012, but given the market's revulsion for all things Vista, it's likely that SP2 will be the final service pack for the beleaguered operating system.

While Vista SP1 was a comprehensive update that fixed the now well-known performance- and device-driver compatibility issues that early Vista users faced, Vista SP2 fine-tunes performance and adds support for new types of hardware and emerging standards.

In addition to rolling up all of the fixes that Microsoft has released since Vista SP1's launch, Vista and Server 2008 SP2 includes Windows Search 4.0, which speeds indexing and query response times; the Bluetooth 2.1 Feature Pack, which includes the technology's most recent specification; and Windows Connect Now, which makes it easier to set up Wi-Fi connections.