14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has reportedly produced the Escrow Build of the first Release Candidate for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and provided the bits for testing to a select pool of testers.
Following the release of Windows 7 SP1 Beta in July 2010, the software giant has been less chatty about the first upgrade for the latest iteration of the Windows client.
No plans for the development process were made public for example, but despite this, Microsoft has been hard at work on the service pack which some still believe will be finalized and offered to users by the end of 2010.
The Redmond company has yet to confirm the availability of Windows 7 SP1 RC Escrow officially, and with the information coming from a third-party source, users need to take it with a grain of salt.
Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows and Windows Live Division was present at the Beauty of the Web event in San Francisco in mid-September, but he wasn’t talking Windows, whether it was Windows 7 SP1 or Windows 8.
According to the report, Microsoft has already provided Windows 7 SP1 RC Escrow to its partners as well as additional testers very close to the company.
It appears that the software giant is also offering more localized versions of the upgrade to Beta testers, on top of the languages for the Beta.
Early adopters that received the bits for Windows 7 SP1 RC got to play with the Wave 0 and Wave 1 languages. Windows 7 SP1 Beta was released in English, French, German, Japanese and Spanish (Wave 0 languages).
Provided that Windows 7 SP1 RC Escrow indeed shipped outside of Redmond, confirmation from additional sources is bound to follow soon enough. Also, the Escrow Build indicates that the full RC is very close.
However, for the time being, the public can continue to access Windows 7 SP1 Beta Build 6.1.7601.16562 from Microsoft.
The first upgrade for Windows 7 is slated for availability in the first half of 2011, most probably in the first quarter of the coming year, although, as I’ve already said, there are voices claiming that Microsoft will sign-off on the RTM Build by the end of 2010.
Update: Windows 7 SP1 Release Candidate (RC) is apparently Build 7601.17104.
Update: It appears that Build 7601.17104 is only the Escrow for Windows 7 SP1 RC, and not the full Release Candidate.
Update: The fact that Windows 7 SP1 is in Escrow means that Microsoft is polishing the Build for the full RC release, looking for any regression issues. This means that the RC will be offered soon, provided that there are no problems to postpone the launch.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta are available for download here.