If you have automatic updating turned on and your Vista PC is behaving normally, the update likely installed just fine on your machine. The faulty update, numbered 937287, was part of Microsoft's mid-February Patch Tuesday downloads. At press time, the the update had been suspended. Microsoft says the problem affects only 'a small number' of the more than 100 million Vista users. However, an update you have to install before installing SP1 has a glitch in it that causes some PCs to restart endlessly. Most affected companies now have updates to fix the problem. Microsoft says a few programs, including The New York Times Reader and Zone Alarm 7.1 security suite, can't start or work properly with Vista SP1. I advise you to get it-but only after the wrinkles are ironed out. SP1 contains a whopping 573 bug fixes and patches that have accumulated since Vista first shipped in early 2007, plus some performance improvements.

Jack Writes: Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is (almost) ready for prime time.

Microsoft windows vista service pack 1