Windows 7 SP1 Hitting February 22 (or Feb. 16)

If you've been itching to give your install of Windows 7 a freshening, then you'll get yours in a week's time. Microsoft last week revealed that it has handed off the release to manufacturing build of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1).

See the full details in the blog post below:

Today we officially handed off the final release (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to our OEM partners. On February 16th Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will be available for MSDN and TechNet Subscribers as well as Volume License customers. On February 22nd, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will become generally available for folks to download via the Microsoft Download Center and available on Windows Update. For Windows 7, SP1 will help keep your PCs well supported by delivering ongoing updates, many of which have been made previously available through Windows Update. It also includes client-side support for RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory which are two new virtualization features enabled in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • joytech22
    Will this even benefit us? or does it just provide all the updates for Windows 7 that we already have in a package called SP1?

    I guess if the SP is downloadable like Windows XP's, it would make it easier to instantly update my win 7 machines that haven't been on for a long time.
    Reply
  • Ragnar-Kon
    joytech22Will this even benefit us? or does it just provide all the updates for Windows 7 that we already have in a package called SP1?I've been messing with the various builds of SP1 for awhile now at work.

    For an average home-user, it doesn't seem like it'll do much (from what I can tell) and chances are you already have the vast majority of the updates it contains.

    For Server 2008 R2... it makes my inner-IT happy.
    Reply
  • Benihana
    Cool, I guess... I'm more excited about new things like Portal 2 to care about a bunch of normal updates compiled into one package though.
    Reply
  • saaiello
    Boring wake me up when Windows 8 is ready. Service packs do nothing new for the home user it just makes it easier to put all the updates together for one big update if it is even needed.
    Reply
  • z06psi
    They need to include RDC for premium.
    Reply
  • martel80
    joytech22Will this even benefit us?Well, it adds proper context switching for programs using Intel AVX registers (Sandy Bridge new feature).
    Reply
  • Ciuy
    wtf, i already have SP1 installed . :/
    Reply
  • tripplenipple1224
    This... I don't even..
    Reply
  • Prescott_666
    For those who have Windows 7 installed and have kept it up to date, this will do little or nothing. For those who frequently install or reinstall Windows 7 this will be a time saver.
    Reply
  • Wish I Was Wealthy
    Service Pack updates are just Service Pack updates & whether you donwload the updates or not,it is up to you...
    Reply