14 DAY TRIAL // The Release Candidate (RC) of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 continues to be kept under a tight lid in Redmond, but users can get a taste of what the company has in store for them via a few leaked screenshots that made their way into the wild. The software giant might still only be offering Windows 7 SP1 Beta and not talking about the development process, but fact is that the company is hard at work building the first major upgrade for Windows Vista’s successor.
On October 6th, a third party source revealed that the Escrow Build of Windows 7 SP1 RC was handed to Microsoft partners as well as a limited number of testers close to the company.
The same source now shared a few screenshots of Windows 7 SP1 RC-Escrow Build 7601.17104.
Just to be clear, this is not the fully-fledged Release Candidate of Windows 7 SP1, but only a pre-RC build.
Having hit Escrow, the focus with Windows 7 SP1 RC is to wrap up the upcoming release, which means that development is pretty much frozen while the company hunts down for any problems, regressions, etc. which could block the Release Candidate.
Provided that no issues will be identified during the testing period, the software giant is bound to sign off on the first RC of Windows 7.
For the time being, a sneak peek at Windows 7 SP1 RC-Escrow Build 7601.17104 is all that the public gets, and considering that there’s no official confirmation from Microsoft of the validity of the Build, the information leaked needs to be taken with a grain of salt.
The plan is to release Service Pack 1 to Windows 7 RTM users worldwide in the first half of 2011.
Microsoft did not comment on speculation noting that Windows 7 SP1 will hit RTM by the end of 2010. In addition, the Redmond giant offered no details related to the potential availability of Windows 7 SP1 RC.
