14 DAY TRIAL // The first service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 would reach Beta stage in July 2010, Microsoft confirmed officially earlier this month. However, the Redmond company did not provide a specific availability deadline, leaving early adopters to guess as to when exactly they would be able to get their hands on the Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Beta bits. According to Matt Hester, Microsoft IT pro evangelist, Windows 7 SP1 will only be released to the public late in the second half of July 2010.
Hester noted that Microsoft offered an “announcement around the availability of the public beta for SP1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, hopefully sometime around the end of July. They also talked a little bit more about the two great features in SP1 around Dynamic Memory and Remote FX.” (emphasis added)
In a sense, Service Pack 1 will be a disappointment to customers running the latest iteration of the Windows client. The Redmond company made it clear that SP1 would not deliver any new features to Windows 7 RTM, but that, instead, it would simply be a package of fixes. Windows Server 2008 R2 users are a tad luckier, since SP1 for them will actually bring new features.
“Dynamic Memory with Hyper-V allows the allocation of a range of memory (min and max) to individual VMs, enabling the system to dynamically adjust the VM’s memory usage based on demand. This provides more consistency in system performance enabling better manageability for administrators. This is a great way to work with extending the capacity of Virtualization hosts,” Hester added.
Enterprise customers will have the chance to close the gap between physical and virtual desktops with RemoteFX in Windows Server 2008 R2. With RemoteFX, remote virtual desktops will support 3D content and even offer Windows Aero, via virtualized graphics resources and codecs, designed to offer the same experience as with hardware-assisted graphics acceleration.
“This allows for a local-like, remote experience from Windows Server 2008 R2 Remote Desktop Services. In addition to those experiences, they also announced RemoteFX will have generic USB redirection. This will allow you to redirect virtually any USB device transparently over RDP, this provides several benefits: support for more devices than previously; support for USB devices with thin clients; no client drivers necessary; applications are transparent to redirected devices. Only one session can use USB device at a time,” Hester said.