14 DAY TRIAL // With the Release Candidate Build already available for download to the general public, Windows 7 Service Pack 1 is heading to the next development milestone, namely RTM (released to manufacturing). Of course, Microsoft has yet to confirm any actual details about the RTM of Windows 7 SP1, but the upgrade is cooking over in Redmond, have no doubt about this.
Rich Reynolds, general manager of Windows Commercial Product Marketing at Microsoft revealed at the start of this month that Windows 7 SP1 RTM will be available to customers no later than March 31st, 2010.
I recently had the chance to sit down with Rich for a face-to-face, but unfortunately he had nothing more to add regarding the RTM and general Availability milestones for Windows 7 SP1.
Additional Microsoft employees that I’ve talked to this month have also not been able to shed any light on whether Windows 7 SP1 will be released to manufacturing by the end of 2010, as some reports indicate.
But in all fairness, expect Rich, the other Microsoft employees had very little to do with the Windows division, and I wasn’t expecting very much from them.
According to a third-party source that was right before on the evolution of Windows 7, SP1 is now up to Build 7601.17508.101104-1835. The same source indicates that Build 7601.17508.101104-1835 superseded Build 7601.17511.101114-0029.
Both releases are reportedly part of the Windows 7 SP1 RTM branch, but neither has been confirmed by the software giant, officially or otherwise. If it turns out to be genuine, Windows 7 SP1 Build 7601.17508.101104-1835 is a pre-RTM release which was signed off on November 4th, 2010.
While speculation indicates that Windows 7 SP1 will hit RTM by the end of this year, Microsoft has not provided any confirmation of this.
In addition to estimating that Windows 7 will be wrapped up by the end of 2010, some sources also note that the Redmond company is actually aiming for a March 2011 release for Service Pack 1.
Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate (RC) Build 7601.17105.100929-1730 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Release Candidate (RC) Build 7601.17105.100929-1730 are available for download here.