Download Windows 7 SP1 Beta in July 2010, No New Features

With the various leaked pre-Beta testing releases of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1), users that jumped the gun and installed the unofficial bits struggled to find changes as far as the latest iteration of the Windows client was concerned. However, they had no success in clearly identifying what was new in Windows 7. And the reason for this is rather simple. Microsoft confirmed today that there were no new features in Windows 7 SP1. Early adopters will get palpable proof of this next month, when the Redmond company releases the public Beta development milestone for the first upgrade to Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

“We are pleased to announce that by the end of July we will be releasing the public beta of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7,” Gavriella Schuster, senior director, Product Management for Windows Client, revealed.

Just the past week, at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch US Technology Conference, Tami Reller, corporate vice president and chief financial officer, Windows & Windows Live Division, underlined that SP1 was considered a very small event for Windows 7, and that customers should deploy the OS as the service pack would not make any difference. Microsoft is, in this regard, breaking the mold with the first service pack for Windows, and effectively providing customers, especially enterprises, with an operating system ready for roll-out straight from RTM.

“While the new features for Windows Server 2008 R2 benefit Windows 7 by providing a richer VDI experience, SP1 will not contain any new features that are specific to Windows 7 itself. For Windows 7, SP1 will simply be the combination of updates already available through Windows Update and additional hotfixes based on feedback by our customers and partners. In other words, customers can feel confident about deploying Windows 7 now!” Schuster added. (emphasis added)