CrunchGear

Are you looking to try out the Vista Service Pack 1 Release Candidate but you’re not quite sure where to start? It’s not as straightforward as you might have thought, huh?

Just follow this simple ten step guide and you’ll be good to go before you know it.

1. Go to this page or type the address into your browser over your lunch break.

2. Click the "Download" button and go do something interesting for fifteen minutes. If and when the dialog box hasn’t popped up by the time you get back, click this direct link instead or type it — actually, don’t attempt to type this one yourself.

3. Double click the downloaded executable file and watch in amazement as the files get uncompressed into a temp folder on your computer that you’ll never be able to find.

4. Use a program like Winrar or Winzip to uncompress the files onto your desktop after looking for them in vain for a half hour.

5. Open the folder containing the files and wonder what to do for a few minutes since there’s nothing in there except three files, two of which have extensions you’ve never seen before.

6. Find the file with the ".doc" extension and hope to hell you have Microsoft Word installed, otherwise you won’t be able to view it. If you don’t have Word, drive to your nearest CompUSA and then turn around and drive home empty-handed since all the stores are closing.

7. Right click the SP1cppRK.cmd file and choose "Run as administrator" — doi. Obviously.

8. Go to Windows Update in Control Panel and check for updates. Install whatever’s there and restart your computer when you’re told to do so. You’ll have to do this two or three times in order for the service pack to completely install.

9. Go back to Windows Update after you’ve installed the initial round of updates and check for new updates. See this error message…

10. Give up. You may optionally wonder if you’ve actually installed everything correctly or not, notice that your computer doesn’t seem any faster or more stable, and then give up.