Windows 7 SP1 Release Date Announced

Yesterday Microsoft announced the release dates of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 in a Windows Team Blog Post. Whilst beta and RC builds of SP1 are already out in the wild, the first few customers are going to start seeing the RTM Service Pack 1 today, February 16th. However, the February 16th date is exclusive to MSDN and TechNet subscribers, as well as Volume License customers.

As far as general availability goes, Microsoft will be pushing SP1 to all users starting on February 22nd, only about a week from now. After that, SP1 should be in the update queue as well as a download from the MS site. What exactly is special about Service Pack 1?

As with all previous versions of Windows, Service Pack 1 has been the release of the refined final OS, with MS bundling all previous updates as well as quashing further bugs and often adding features. Not only does this ease the burden of updating new installs and of course enhance the Windows experience, more importantly it often serves as the green light for many companies to begin adopting the new version of Windows, as the release of the first service pack generally means that the major bugs have been stamped out and the new OS is now a fully stable piece of software. Companies, as opposed to general consumers, are often slow to adopt a new OS that might still have important bugs needing fixing.

SP1 for Windows 7 is, for the most part, just all previous security/bug fix updates rolled into one with a couple new ones tossed in. The only major feature added is an updated remote desktop client capable of taking advantage of Microsoft's new RemoteFX technology. Not particularly useful to home users, and notably absent are bundled USB 3.0 drivers and the rumored Bluetooth/Wi-Fi stack update. Hopefully at least USB 3 support will come around sooner rather than later.