beta release, release candidates, or other test builds for Windows Vista SP1 are end here. Microsoft is pushing the final version of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 out the door. You can download standalone installers for X86 and X64 systems from Microsoft starting today.

Microsoft has also released a series of documents detailing the changes in Service Pack 1. But we’ll save you the trouble. For the most part, you won’t notice any major differences. Service Pack 1 looks and operates a lot like the original version of Windows Vista. Almost all of the tweaks are under the hood, and what you will hopefully notice is that your computer is more reliable (meaning it crashes less often) and works better with all of your peripheral hardware devices and third party software. Microsoft also snuck a bunch of security updates in as well.

The standalone installers weigh in at 450 to 550MB, depending on how many languages are included in the version you download. If you upgrade using Windows Update, you’ll only have to download about 65MB.

If you’re running a pre-release version of Windows Vista SP1, you’ll need to uninstall it before installing the newest version. In fact, if you’re running Vista SP1 RC, you won’t even see Vista SP1 in Windows Update until you uninstall your release candidate and then check for new updates, install the prerequisites, and reboot a few times.

Download: X86 and X64
Website: Here