So I jumped through hoop after hoop to even get the Service Pack to show up in Windows Update.  I installed everything, rebooted, installed the new updates that showed up, rebooted, and finally, I was able to select Service Pack 1.  I did so, and it started downloading.  Yay!  Stability!  Performance gains!  It too can be mine, if the stars are aligned.

Sadly, it appears that they are not.

I get the SP1 dialog, congratulating me for installing it or some such thing, warning me that it's going to take an age and require reboots (rebootS?  plural?  Hmmm...), it's a beta, yada yada yada, I click the button to get it going.  I turn my attention away to other things, and I notice my laptop eventually reboots.  No big deal, I CTRL-ALT-DEL, log back in under the same account, and expect something to happen.

Nothing.  Start->Run->Winver... maybe it's done?  Nope, still just "Windows Vista Business", no mention of Service Pack anything.  So, I fire up Windows Update again, and lo, Service Pack 1 is available, indeed recommended, and it thinks I should install it.  I'm sensing a glitch in the matrix here, but I figure <famousLastWords>what could go wrong</famousLastWords>, and tell it to install again - figuring maybe it'll kick into the 2nd part of whatever it needed to do.

Nope. Same SP1 dialog.  I tell this one to run as well.  My laptop chugs along for a while, and reboots.  CTRL-ALT-DEL, login, and... nothing.  Winver?  Same.  Windows Update?  Same.  Sigh.  No SP1 for me I guess, unless I can find a way to download it apart from Windows Update - I did always like the full download "Network Install" versions anyway - one less variable in the equation.

I guess I'll file this under "Yep, it's a beta", and wait for the RTW build. 

I think the microchip Microsoft implanted in my brain when I accepted my job offer there has finally blown a circuit. In the last month, I downgraded my Vista machine to XP, lived with that for a while, and was quickly reminded of all the old stuff that used to drive me crazy. So, I finally broke down, and bought a Mac.. a Mini, to be precise.

It's going to be the email/web/music PC^H^H computer for my wife & I - so my wife can finally have at least one computer in the house she can count on not being junked up with beta stuff, and reinstalled every 6 months.

So far so good, though I imagine the way I feel now is about the same way my father feels when he tries to use a PC. Relearning the keyboard shortcuts is proving the most time-consuming, for reasons not the least of which is the fact that my keyboard is still Windows-centric, and I'm forced to mentally translate between Windows/Alt and Command/Option, never mind that the Delete key does nothing, and the Enter key doesn't do much good either. Maybe I should just bite the bullet and pick up a Mac keyboard.

Hell isn't freezing over quite yet though - I do have a new Windows Server 2008 box running, and my Vista laptop is still here, and going to be my main development box now - we'll see how that goes. So, if all else fails, I'll have the latest trials and tribulations to blog about.

At least iTunes will know how to synchronize my iPhone's contacts and calendar correctly now.