Microsoft have just ended support for Windows XP SP2 at long last, and now they’ve announced the availability of a the beta release of Windows 7 SP1 for businesses. As we know, the first service pack for Windows 7 probably won’t be released until much later this year, and it doesn’t include any ground breaking new features. It’s mainly composed of some minor tweaks and bug fixes, since there’s not a whole lot wrong with Windows 7 as it stands.
Back in June Microsoft said that they would begin releasing beta releases of it’s first Windows 7 service pack this month, and it appears they’re sticking to their word.
According to Microsoft’s TechNet site targeting IT professionals, “This early release of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta is not available for home users. The SP1 Beta does not provide new end-user features, and installation is not supported by Microsoft.” This has been the case with most recent service packs, which are mainly just composed of updates that are automatically delivered via the Windows Update center.
The service pack for the Windows 2008 R2 server has a bit more in it than the update for Windows 7. The two new big capabilities Service Pack 1 offers Windows Server both involve virtualization improvements: Dynamic Memory, and RemoteFX. The first allows Hyper-V virtualization servers to “pool available memory on a physical host and then dynamically dole that memory out to virtual machines running on the host, based on current workload needs,” according to the Windows Server 2008 R2 page
RemoteFX allows remote virtual desktops in Windows 7 SP1 to take advantage of 3D graphics such as Windows Aero, Video, Flash along with Silverlight and other 3D applications.
The trial versions of Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 are now available for download for Technet subscribers.
