The Microsoft Surface hardware-software bundle representing the Redmond company's first commercial example of surface computing managed in no way to steer clear of the tradition involving major updates via service packs. In fact, on May 11, 2009, Microsoft Surface got its very first service pack. SP1 for Surface was officially released on the opening day of Microsoft Tech•Ed North America 2009, with the tabletop computer upgraded with the latest refreshes being featured at the conference. Service Pack 1 is obviously addressed at current owners and developers running Microsoft Surface.

“Here at Microsoft Surface we've been actively engaged with our Community of customers and nearly 180 Microsoft Surface Partners in 11 countries. And in response to the feedback we received, we developed Service Pack 1 to allow for faster and easier development of innovative, natural experiences on the Microsoft Surface platform. The SDK supports development on any .NET framework and is optimized for WPF and XNA,” explained Eric Havir, Sr. manager, Digital Communications at Microsoft/Surface.

Microsoft has introduced a variety of improvements to Surface with the delivery of SP1. According to Havir, focus was placed on enhancing the application development process for developers, delivering new platform capabilities and taking the user interface to the next level. For example, developers will be able to benefit from a stress testing tool for Surface designed to identify issues with their applications. Microsoft Surface SP1 also delivers evolved APIs, aWFP library in conjunction with menu controls as well as 128-big identity tag resources. End users will receive feedback from Surface when they touch the tabletop computer via new visualizations implemented by Microsoft.

Havir informed that with SP1 for Surface Microsoft is “enabling users to quickly switch between applications using tagged object routing, [and take advantage of] background service application support.” He also enumerated the following improvements: “Localized end-user and administrative interface in available counties. New calibration guides removing need for external display during configuration. Microsoft Update integration. Microsoft Management Pack support.”