(Nice short name!) SQL Server Compact 4.0 SP1 CTP1 is now available for download: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=29037 – is is also installed with Visual Studio 11 Ultimate beta. Installing this .MSI will replace your current SQL Server Compact 4.0 binaries in Program Files, and change the version to 4.0.8854.1.
No blog post or KB article yet, I will update this post when they become available. I the meantime, I have skimmed though the code in the ADO.NET provider, which reveals the following changes (all is just guesses, and it is beta software, of course):
New connection string keyword: “File Access Retry Timeout” – will reattempt connection open from 0 – 30 seconds, with a default value of 0.
Improved local C++ runtime verification.
SqlCeConnection.GetSchema bug fixes
SqlCeParameter.Add(String parameterName, Object value) has been deprecated. Use AddWithValue(String parameterName, Object value) instead.
According to this thread, this bug has been fixed: Getting exception "The data area passed to a system call is too small." in SQL Server Compact 4
