Early Trouble with Vista Service Pack 1 Update

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 may already be headed for some trouble. A "prerequisite update," which is required to be installed before SP1 can be installed, has been pulled off of Microsoft's website. Why? It's been causing a "small" number of computers to get stuck in endless reboot, or make them unable to boot at all.

The update, code number 937287, was available for manual download and was being pushed automatically to machines as part of the SP1 rollout, which will begin next month. Whether or not your computer has the update, if your PC is still booting normally, you have nothing to worry about. But if you have a Vista machine that won't boot, you're best off using the Vista startup repair utility to roll back the change (though this may not fix the problem in all cases).

Microsoft has pulled the update from distribution until the kinks can be worked out, so there's no worry of it being automatically installed on your computer through Windows Update for the time being.

It's a minor problem but still a bad omen for SP1, which many are hoping addresses some of Vista's most troubling flaws, but which so far has met with only middling reviews. My advice on the subject is to wait a few weeks until after its release before you install the SP1 update for yourself, so problems like this can be worked out without forcing you to become an unwilling beta tester.