Redmond (WA) – Automatic updates of Microsoft’s Vista Service Pack 1 has begun.  According to the Windows Vista Team Blog, the downloads will be rolled out in phases and will be available in English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese.  Users can still manually download SP1 in 36 other languages through the Windows Update website.

The service pack has been available on Microsoft’s site since March18th, but users had to manually click on the link.  According to Chris Flores, not everyone will get SP1 automatically right away.

“We'll be distributing the service pack slowly so that we can help Windows users have a good experience,” he said.

Some early adopters of SP1 have reported crashes on with popular programs including Microsoft Excel.  On Microsoft’s TechNet support site, the users say Excel either cannot be opened or crashes after some time.  Microsoft reps say this is a known issue and are rushing to fix the problem.