Work on Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been completed, and it will be available for download on Feb. 22 from Windows Update, says Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). In a TechNet blog on Wednesday, Micheal Kleef, senior technical product manager with the Windows Server and Cloud division announced that Windows 7 has reached the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone for the first service pack for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2.

Unlike some other updates in the past, SP1 for Windows 7 will essentially consist of security updates that have been previously released, and an updated Remote Desktop client. Having the pertinent patches in one update is invaluable to system administrators setting up a new system, and can greatly speed up the deployment of new systems--especially so for companies migrating to Windows 7.

Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 will come with a new feature called Dynamic Memory, which is a sophisticated capability that moves Windows Server's Hyper-V virtualization capabilities up a notch. With the on-the-fly ability to shuffle memory between virtual machines (VM), Microsoft says that tests it conducted showed a startling 40 percent increase in the density of Windows 7 guest VMs merely by transiting from Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM to SP1 alone.

TechNet and MSDN (Microsoft Software Developer Network) subscribers will be able to download Windows 7 SP1 a little earlier on Feb. 16. Current customers under the Volume License program will also get it on that day.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at TechNet
- check out this article at Maximum PC
- check out this article at eChannelLine
- check out this article at Computerworld

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