Microsoft released Windows 7 to manufacturing on July 22nd, 2009, and then the operating system to the general public on October 22nd. But this does in no way mean that work on the platform stopped. In fact, as soon as it signed off on the Windows 7 code, the Redmond company moved forward with work on the first major upgrade for the Windows client, Service Pack 1. Wzor indicated that the software giant was planning to finalize the first Beta for Windows 7 SP1 by the end of this year, and to release the service pack to manufacturing in the summer of 2010 (via Neowin).

According to Wzor, Microsoft has been hard at work on Windows 7 SP1 since the end of September 2009. Early adopters that have test-driven Windows 7 ahead of RTM might remember that the Redmond company shipped a few interim pre-final builds of Windows Vista’s successor that already contained Service Pack 1. To this day, Microsoft has offered little explanation as to why it integrated SP1 into Windows 7 before the product was finalized, but all indications point to the fact that the company was simply testing the service-pack delivery and integration mechanism.

According to existing plans, Microsoft looks to finalize Windows 7 Beta 1 ahead of Christmas 2009. At the start of 2010, members of the company’s Technology Adoption Program around Windows 7 will be the first to get access to the SP1 Beta bits. But end users won’t have very much to wait either. The Redmond company will reportedly release a public Beta of Windows 7 SP1 early in January 2010.

As it was the case with Vista, the first service pack for Windows 7 is planned for launch within one year after the general availability of the operating system. Microsoft traditionally had to fight in order to convince business users to migrate to a new Windows release while the platform was at the RTM stage.

SP1 is, in this regard, a catalyst for large-scale upgrades to a new version of Windows, characteristic of corporate customers. Although SP1 is not necessary for Windows 7 migrations to start, it’s in Microsoft’s best interest to deliver the service pack as soon as possible and nudge customers that are waiting for the service pack toward upgrades.

Reports indicate that Microsoft has planned two Beta and a couple of Release Candidate (RC) development milestones for Windows 7 SP1. The general availability of Windows 7 SP1 RTM is apparently planned for autumn 2010, however, the service pack will be finalized much sooner, in mid-2010.