Kevin Remde from Microsoft has posted a very useful FAQ regarding why SP1 cannot be directly slipstreamed into a Vista RTM image. As he points out:
See, there's this important part of the OS known as the "servicing layer" in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. This is the part of the OS that allows for easy update installation with minimal disruptions, allows for an update to be applied to an offline captured image that's within a .wim file, among other things.
Well.. let's say that that servicing layer ALSO needed to be updated? What then?
A solution to this problem might be to first integrate the new servicing components and then integrate the other SP1 bits however Microsoft apparently disabled that option during the development of SP1 and warned users that the image will be corrupted. There are plans to make SP2 directly slipstreamable however Microsoft have made no promises.
So what's Microsoft's current solution?
You are going to have to install your image to a machine. Install the Service Pack. Then re-capture the image.
Note that this is the same method we wrote about in detail back in August in our "Reverse Integration" guide. The new bit of info from Kevin's post is that Microsoft have also been nice enough to give users an additional Re-arm with SP1 meaning you won't lose any of the 3 Re-arms that came with the base Vista RTM install.
Further info is available in the new WAIK documentation and Vista SP1 Deployment Guide or via our "Reverse Integration" guide. Naturally, our recommendation is to obtain the Vista SP1 preintegrated ISOs from MS when they are released as that will solve a lot of headaches and you won't have to deal with the rather complicated alternative method.
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