"As with typical service packs from Microsoft, Virtual Server 2005 Service Pack 1 will be :

• primarily a rollup of fixes we have seen since the product was released to improve performance and increase scalability.

In addition, with Service Pack 1,

• Virtual Server 2005 will have host support for Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 x64 Edition (note that this does not include IA64),
• provide PXE support,
• qualify Windows XP SP2 and Windows 2003 SP1as a host and as a guest,
• and include the Virtual Disk Precompactor, a utility that is designed to "zero out" — that is, overwrite with zeros — any available blank space on a virtual hard disk.

A public beta is slated for the end of first quarter 2005, with product release planned for the second half of calendar year 2005."