Just as Microsoft did last month with Vista SP1 release candidate, the latest build (dubbed SP1 RC Refresh) has been loosed from its privately held shackles and is now available for the public to descend upon. According to ZDNet, Redmond decided to make this iteration publicly available “in the interest of gaining additional tester feedback.” Of note, you will likely be forced to install “two or three updates” before SP1 RC Refresh can be installed, but we know you’re quite unconcerned with all the fine print. Nevertheless, that verbiage (and the download link) is waiting below.

[Via ZDNet]

Notebook manufacturers are claiming that the Vista Aero interface is draining the battery life of portable notebook computers thanks to using the CPU and GPU to deliver the translucent and transparent Aero experience.

A report at CNET says that some of Microsoft’s notebook partners are unhappy that the Aero interface is reportedly shortening the battery life of laptop/notebook portable computers.

As a Vista user myself, running Aero and using two batteries – the main battery and one in the docking bay, I get approximately 5 hours of battery life from both batteries, with, from memory, nearly six hours of life when previously using Windows XP, although I am now thoroughly used to getting 5 hours of life from Vista, and then using a third docking-bay battery for an addition two and a half hours of battery life if needed because I’m on the road or otherwise away from a power point.

This being the case, it would seem anecdotally true that Vista delivers less battery life than XP despite advancements in Vista to more intelligently use less power and use a combined sleep and hibernation mode to conserve power.

The consensus is that if you switch off the Aero graphics settings on your Vista equipped notebook, you will get the same kind of battery life you got under Windows XP – but you naturally miss out on the Aero graphical goodies.

Some manufacturers have resorted to implementing their own power saving schemes, automatically switching off Aero when ‘maximum power’ savings are selected, while Microsoft is promising to do more to enhance battery life through future Vista updates and patches.

Of course, future enhancements to battery technologies will remove this problem, but until then, users will have to decide between slightly less battery life if they wish to preserve Aero graphical niceties, the no-Aero graphics solution, or simply resort to carrying a second or third spare battery with them if they truly need non-stop power for hours.

While on a visit in Romania, where Bill Gates participated in the celebration of 10 years since the Microsoft branch has been running there, and the launch of Vista, Microsoft’s president declared that, with the right amount of administration, the new Vista could run life support systems in hospitals. Here is a fragment from the interview:

Journalist: Let’s imagine a hospital where life support systems are running Vista. Would you trust it with your life?
Bill Gates: Security has been the top priority for Microsoft for quite some time and that’s why I put out a key call for us to focus on that in a very big way over three years ago, and that’s why we’ve made investments like having people from Gecad ( Romanian company ) join on the security action from Microsoft. The answer to your question is that, absolutely, Vista is the most secure operating system we’ve ever done, and if it’s administred properly, absolutely, it can be used to run a hospital or any kind of mission crytical thing. But it’s not as simple as saying “If you use Vista, that happens automatically”. The issues about patient records and who should be able to see them, the issue about setting up a network, so that authorized people can connect up to that hospital network, the issue about having backup power, so that the computer systems can run even if the generators go down. There are a lot of issues to properly set up that system, so that you have the redundancy and the security walls to make sure it fullfils that very crytical function. So we are working with partners to raise their skills to make sure that when get involved in an installation like that they can make it secure. So I feel better about Vista than any other operating system, but there’s a lot of things that need to be done well, and we’re certaintly committed to step up and make sure these security issues are ieasier and better understood.
This could be the truth or it could be one man’s opinion. You can download the above segment of the interview here. (Big thanks to Alex Radescu for the recording)

But the real question that I must ask is this: Would YOU put your life in Vista’s hands? Do you trust it enough?

This would really give a new meaning to the “Blue Screen of Death“