The much anticipated Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), RTM and final 6001.18000 build, has been officially released on Microsoft Download Center for public download on March 18th 2008. This marks the end of the need for Windows Vista users to download via torrent or from file sharing and hosting sites the ‘unauthorized’ version of SP1, which may be tampered with. The first service pack for Windows Vista has released to Microsoft OEM Partners and MSDN and Technet subscribers since month ago.

Windows Vista SP1

Only wave 0 of the Vista SP1 has been released on Microsoft Download Center, which officially called Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone version. Wave0 supports and can be installed on systems with the following 5 languages: English (US), French, German, Japanese, or Spanish (Traditional). Other languages will still need to wait.

Microsoft Download Center pages for Knowledge Based Article 936630 (KB936630 – article ID for Vista SP1) can be viewed here (for 32-bit SP1) or here (for 64-bit SP1). The direct download links to download a licensed copy of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 from Microsoft Download Center server, the only authorized web source for downloading, are below.

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone for x32-based Systems (KB936330): Windows6.0-KB936330-X86-wave0.exe (434.5 MB)

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Five Language Standalone for x64-based Systems (KB936330): Windows6.0-KB936330-X64-wave0.exe (726.5 MB)

The service pack can be installed on all editions of Windows Vista: Ultimate, Business, Enterprise, Home Premium and Home Basic.

is rumored to release on early April.

Update 2: Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 SP2 for 5 Languages and subsequently, for all languages, has been released.

Update 1: 36 languages version of Windows Vista SP1 has been released.