14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to the evolution of Windows Vista's successor, Microsoft is as silent as it has always been with the products that haven't been officially unveiled. We're all aware of the work on a soon-to-arrive Service Pack 1 for Windows 7, but the few details emerged on the new flavor of Microsoft's client arrived from third-parties, and not from the software giant itself. Even so, these various sources have pointed not too long ago towards the possibility that the first external test builds of Windows 7 SP1 will be delivered very soon, and it seems that this will pan out earlier than expected.
A recent piece on the Spanish site muywindows.com has unveiled to the world a few more unofficial details on the evolution of Windows 7, along with what seem to be the first screenshots of the first Service Pack for this platform version. According to them, the shots come from a demo copy of a Pre Windows 7 SP1 Build, and this bit should be delivered to selected testers in a matter of weeks.
As pointed out earlier, SP1 for Windows 7 is said once again to include a great amount of critical updates and security patches Microsoft is pushing for the client, 150 in total (important and optional updates also included in the number).
However, it seems that not all of these updates are to be included in the various flavors / stages of SP1 that Microsoft will push out to testers. Yet, one should expect them all to arrive in the final iteration. The Windows 7 SP1 Build number is said to be somewhere between 7600.20500 and .20700 at the moment, with a Beta version expected to land sometime in July, and the final variant set to be delivered to users during the fourth quarter of the ongoing year.
Since previous reports suggested that a preview of Windows 7 SP1 should arrive in June, while the final version was expected in September, it seems that Microsoft might have pushed it back a little. However, since the company is mum on the matter, these remain only in the rumor side for the time being.
