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.