14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has announced officially the availability of the first public Beta of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. However, at the time of this article, the actual Windows 7 SP1 Beta downloads from the Redmond company had yet to go live. With the Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2010 having already debuted, Tami Reller, corporate vice president and chief financial officer for the Windows business, also confirmed that the software giant was ready to start testing the first upgrade for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
The public availability of Windows 7 SP1 Beta was announced in June 2010 by the Redmond company, and speculation already indicated that the service pack was planned for delivery at WPC 2010. Service Pack 1 is the first upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, with the two operating systems being updated per the Windows Vista SP1/SP2 and Windows Server 2008 SP1/SP2 model.
Still, earlier this year, Windows 7 RTM customers got a heads-up from Microsoft, which described the service pack as nothing more than a minor upgrade. As far as the latest iteration of the Windows client is concerned, SP1 will only contain fixes and optimizations, but will not introduce any new features. The same is not valid for Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 set up to kick up a notch the deployment and management of virtualized desktop infrastructure, and to offer new features such as RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory.
At the end of June 2010, Windows 7 SP1 Beta Build 7601.16562.100603-1800 became available for download for a select pool of early adopters. Microsoft subsequently promised to broaden the testing process, but not before Build 7601.16562.100603-1800 was leaked in the wild. Microsoft has yet to confirm officially whether Build 7601.16562.100603-1800 is the Windows 7 Beta.
Make sure to check back and I’ll provide updates as soon as additional details are offered by Microsoft.
UPDATE: Windows 7 SP1 Beta is available for download here.