For those waiting to upgrade to Windows 7 until after the first “service pack” (SP1) is released, the wait is almost over. Microsoft recently unveiled the release candidate of SP1, making it available for download, and the final release of SP1 is expected to be released soon.
So what can you expect from SP1, and should you run out and install the release candidate now? Read on for some answers.
Q: How can I get SP1?
A: If you want to wait until the final release of SP1 later this month, you can simply get the service pack through the Windows Update feature. If you’d like to download the SP1 release candidate, available now, go to http://on-msn.com/dDzWyG.
Q: Is the release candidate of SP1 stable?
A: It is likely very stable because Microsoft has already made available to its Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) subscribers the full release of SP1 integrated into Windows 7 and Windows Server 2001 R2. In other words, Microsoft has already released the official SP1 to selected customers.
Q: What’s new in Windows 7 SP1?
A: The “features” in Service Pack 1 of Windows 7 can be broken down into two categories: bug fixes and optimizations.
Service Pack 1 rolls up all of the “hotfixes,” security patches, and other updates released for Windows 7 up to now. There are well over 700 individual fixes listed in the Hotfixes and Security spreadsheet (http://on-msn.com/f1ItCB) that Microsoft has made available to document the changes in this release, although some of the fixes are specific to Windows Server 2008 R2, since the SP1 of that operating system is being released concurrently.
Even if you haven’t experienced identifiable problems with Windows 7, a host of performance-sapping bugs have been zapped in SP1. These include seemingly unexplainable system delays, compatibility woes when using the 64-bit version of Windows 7, freezes with Windows…