After a prolonged gestation period, and a wait of well over a year since the operating system itself was launched, Windows Vista's first service pack has been released by Microsoft.

Those running Automatic Updates under Windows Vista will already, no doubt, have started downloading it, and a standalone installer is also being made available by Microsoft through its site.

It's not a dramatic overhaul of the operating system in any sense, though, instead being more a collection of bug fixes and small improvements. Key issues that have been addressed are stability, and the speed at which Windows Vista works.

That also means that copying files, thankfully, will be a lot faster. Anyone who has seen the progress bar measured in days while trying to copy material - and that's no exaggeration - will no doubt be pleased to hear the news.