14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft started preparing for the next releases of the Windows client as the latest iteration of the operating system was still in development. The Redmond-based company already debuted work to ensure the servicing readiness for Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and started planning for Windows 8, the successor of Windows 7. The information comes from the profile of Ahmed Badruddin, a Microsoft Software Design Engineer in Test II since September 2008 until present day. Badruddin was one of the people that labored to define and execute the testing strategy associated with improving Windows 7 Service Pack experience quality. (via MSFTKitchen)
“Efforts lead to an unprecedented state of servicing readiness for Windows. Windows 7 Service Pack technologies, processes & builds were ready over a year before release compared to Vista and previous OSes which did not reach that state of servicing readiness and quality for months after release. Planning servicing quality goals, metrics, processes, and tools & technologies for Windows 8,” reads an excerpt from Badruddin’s CV.
Users that were running Windows Vista RTM at the start of 2008 surely remember the glitches that Microsoft hit with the deployment of Service Pack 1. The Redmond-based company ended up postponing the delivery of Vista SP1 until it managed to release updates designed to get Vista RTM operating systems ready for the implementation of SP1. It appears that the software giant is looking to avoid similar hassles with the release of Windows 7 SP1 and beyond, with Windows 8.
This is why Badruddin, along with additional Microsoft employees “spearheaded initiatives and projects to drive up the quality of Windows 7 (Microsoft’s next operating system) Service Pack experience. Collaborated with teams across Windows organization to mitigate risks to Windows 7 Service Pack 1.”
Back in the first half of June 2009, Windows 7 Build 7227 was leaked in the wild. Build 7227 was unlike any other pre-release Windows 7 development milestone, as a version check revealed that it already featured SP1. I speculated at the time that Windows 7 Build 7227 with SP1 was nothing more than the result of Microsoft testing serviceability for the first major upgrade of the OS, and it looks like I was right.