Well earlier on in February, full subscribers to TechNet [£300+] and/or MSDN [£600+] were able to get their hand on the first service pack for Vista [SP1] before any other Vista users. Unless you count in all those who got an accidental release from Microsoft or the ones who hacked Windows Update in order to get it.
Well anyways, it seems as though these rich subscribers yet again get the upper hand as now not only can they get the Update, but they can get the SlipStream version allowing them to make their very own Vista SP1 DVD’s.
For those of you who do not know what this is, let me explain.
When updating to a new SP, some people prefer reinstalling the whole of their OS and then installing the SP as it seems to be a much ‘cleaner’ process. However, it is a little bit long winded if they have to reinstall their OS [clean install] and then download the update and then install that. What slipstreaming allows people to do is rip their Vista DVD onto their computer and then with the Slipstream download, they can install the upgrade into the folder where they ripped Vista in the first place. Once this is done, they can burn the patched version of the ripped vista onto another DVD and there you have it, your very own slipstreamed Vista SP1.
Coming back to the initial point, we regular folks have to wait until the public slipstreamed image is available, which might me another couple weeks or so. =[
