As many of the internet user knows that Windows 7 Service pack 1 has been leaked to Torrent sites. The leaked Windows 7 SP1 release has the build number 7601.16562.100603-1800 and it was originally distributed to select beta testers, and will expire in-between April – July 2011.

Users, who don’t like to download the leaked Service Pack 1 beta (7601.16562.100603-1800) from torrents and other file sharing sites, can now  officially download Service Pack 1 directly from “Softpedia”.

Links :

• Notable changes in Service pack 1
• Windows 7 / Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 KB list
• Download Windows 7 Service pack 1, Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta build 6.1.7601.16562 (Softpedia)

]]> http://winspark.net/2010/06/27/dwonload-windows-7-windows-server-2008-r2-service-pack-1-beta-build-6-1-7601-16562/feed/ 0 http://winspark.net/2010/06/09/public-beta-version-of-windows-7-service-pack-1-availability-announced/ http://winspark.net/2010/06/09/public-beta-version-of-windows-7-service-pack-1-availability-announced/#comments Wed, 09 Jun 2010 06:04:45 +0000 Mr. Spark (admin) http://winspark.net/?p=1694

Now no more wait, Microsoft has announced the imminent availability of public beta version of Service pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 at TechEd 2010 annual conference held in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA (June 7-10 2010).

” Today, at TechEd, we are pleased to announce that by the end of July we will be releasing the public beta of Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. ” - Microsoft Corporation

According to them expectation seems that we will be having SP1 Public Beta in the next one or two weeks.

Current assembly build tag for Windows 7/ Server 2008 R2 SP1 as follows :
6.1.7601.16562.win7sp1_beta.100603-1800 – actual build in win7sp1_beta branch
6.1.7601.16561.win7sp1_beta.100527-1447 – previous build
6.1.7601.16560.win7sp1_beta.100524-1800 – previous build
6.1.7601.16559.win7sp1_beta.100506-1349 – previous build

According to my previous post, SP1 includes all previously released updates for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 which contains the update patches for certain components of operating System.

Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 represents Microsoft’s continuing commitment to quality. While many of the updates contained in SP1 are available as individual downloads, the integration of these updates in SP1 enhances the ease of deployment for IT administrators. This functionality coupled with advanced new virtualization features such as Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX, demonstrates how SP1 continues to provide ongoing improvements that organizations have grown to expect from Microsoft.

Changes Specific to Windows 7 SP1

• Additional support for communication with third-party federation services.

Additional support has been added to allow Windows 7 clients to effectively communicate with third-party identity federation services (those supporting the WS-Federation passive profile protocol). This change enhances platform interoperability, and improves the ability to communicate identity and authentication information between organizations.

• Improved HDMI audio device performance.

A small percentage of users have reported issues in which the connection between a computer running Windows 7 an HDMI audio device is lost after a system reboot. Updates have been incorporated into SP1 to ensure that connections between Windows 7 computers and HDMI audio devices are consistently maintained.

• Corrected behavior when printing mixed-orientation XPS documents.

Prior to the release of SP1, some customers have reported difficulty when printing mixed-orientation XPS documents (documents containing pages in both portrait and landscape orientation) using the XPS Viewer, resulting in all pages being printed entirely in either portrait or landscape mode. This issue has been addressed in SP1, allowing users to correctly print mixed-orientation documents using the XPS Viewer.

Changes Specific to Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1

• Dynamic Memory
• RemoteFX
• Enhancements to scalability and high availability when using DirectAccess.

DirectAccess is a new feature in the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 operating systems that gives users the experience of being seamlessly connected to their corporate network any time they have Internet access. In Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, improvements have been made to enhance scalability and high availability when using DirectAccess, through the addition of support for 6to4 and ISATAP addresses when using DirectAccess in conjunction with Network Load Balancing (NLB).

• Support for Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) in secure branch office scenarios

SP1 enables enhanced support for managed service accounts (MSAs) to be used on domain-member services located in perimeter networks (also known as DMZs or extranets).

• Support for increased volume of authentication traffic on domain controllers connected to high-latency networks.

As a greater volume of IT infrastructure migrates to cloud-based services, there is a need for higher thresholds of authentication traffic to domain controllers located on high-latency networks (such as the public Internet). SP1 allows for more granular control of the maximum number of possible concurrent connections to a domain controller, enabling a greater degree of performance tuning for service providers.

Changes Common to both Client and Server Platform

• More efficient power consumption

SP1 introduces functionality that enables user-mode use of the invariant Time Stamp Counter (TSC). When utilized by application workloads such as SQL Server, the invariant-TSC provides a high resolution multimedia timer (necessary for functionality such as OLTP, data warehouse processing, and so on) at far greater power efficiency than previously available alternatives.

• Change to behavior of “Restore previous folders at logon” functionality

SP1 changes the behavior of the “Restore previous folders at logon” function available in the Folder Options Explorer dialog. Prior to SP1, previous folders would be restored in a cascaded position based on the location of the most recently active folder. SP1 changes that behavior so that all folders are restored to their previous position.

• Enhanced support for additional identities in RRAS and IPsec

Support for additional identification types has been added to the Identification field in the IKEv2 authentication protocol. This allows for a variety of additional forms of identification (such as E-mail ID or Certificate Subject) to be used when performing authentication using the IKEv2 protocol.

Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) and Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) includes all previously released updates for Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7. Many of these updates are available to the public on the Microsoft Download Center and Windows Update, while others are only available to specific customers or partners.  It is standard practice to include all of these updates in a Service Pack and as such they are included in Windows Server2008 R2 SP1 and Windows 7 SP1.

Download : SP1 Knowledge Base list

This document contains a list of these updates with links to their descriptive webpages on http://support.microsoft.com.  There are other updates in Service Pack 1 which have not been released as updates and therefore are not presented in this list.  This list is pre-release and is subject to change.

According to my previous post Microsoft was thinking to add a support for Windows XP mode without hardware Virtualization in the next Service pack. But they released the patch to Remove Hardware Virtualization Requirement to Run Windows Virtual PC and XP Mode in Windows 7.

You may receive one of the following error messages when you try to start or configure any other virtual machine in Windows Virtual PC.

To overcome this error Microsoft has expanded the Virtualization technology with this patch to run XP Mode on non compatible hardware infrastructure.

Download -  x86 | x64

Today Microsoft has announced Service pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows server 2008 R2. They didn’t  enclosed more details about SP1 for windows 7 but they pointed the new important features in the coming Service pack of Windows Server 2008 R2 which primarily focuses to help organizations of all sizes increase flexibility, employee productivity and IT cost savings.

Microsoft RemoteFX will enable users of virtual desktops and applications to receive a rich 3-D, multimedia experience while accessing information remotely and Microsoft Dynamic Memory will allow customers to adjust memory of a guest virtual machine on demand to maximize server hardware use.

Microsoft remoteFX and Dynamic memory are not the standalone application of microsoft rather they will be shipped as the update package of Windows server 2008 R2 Service pack 1.

]]> http://winspark.net/2010/03/18/announcing-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-service-pack-1/feed/ 0 http://winspark.net/2009/07/11/welcome-infrastructure-update-we-are-ready/ http://winspark.net/2009/07/11/welcome-infrastructure-update-we-are-ready/#comments Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:49:19 +0000 Mr. Spark (admin) http://winspark.net/?p=1177

In beginning next month, Microsoft Update team will start an upgrade to the Windows Update and Microsoft Update services. As a part of the service upgrade, an update to the Windows Update and Automatic Updates client code will be required. They will start this infrastructure update in late August, and it will take a couple of months to complete the rollout. Updates to the services and Windows code are required from time to time to maintain and improve service quality, reliability, and operations. The last update occurred in November of 2008.

As reported in WU team Blog, this update will not change your current Windows Update or Automatic Updates settings. It will improve the user interface for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 computers running Windows Update, adding a more visible and detailed description of updates as well as improvements in how users are notified about service packs. This update will not change the look and feel of Automatic Updates.

The Windows Update or Automatic Updates client software must be updated, or you may not be able to successfully check for updates or perform other configured actions. If Windows Update or Automatic Updates is enabled to automatically check for updates, download updates, or install updates on your computer then the infrastructure update will be downloaded and installed automatically. Your computer will not be updated if you have disabled Windows Update (or Automatic Updates) and do not check for updates.

This infrastructure update is being provided in the same way as previous infrastructure updates.

Install this update on a computer that is running Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) to enable remote management of a Windows Server 2008 computer that is running the Hyper-V role. All users of the Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Management Tools update for the release version of Hyper-V (KB952627) should apply this update. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.

Download now >>

In the English version of Windows 7 Release Candidate (build 7100) 32-bit Ultimate, the folder that is created as the root folder of the system drive (%SystemDrive%) is missing entries in its security descriptor. One effect of this problem is that standard users such as non-administrators cannot perform all operations to subfolders that are created directly under the root. Therefore, applications that reference folders under the root may not install successfully or may not uninstall successfully. Additionally, operations or applications that reference these folders may fail.

For example, if a folder is created under the root of the system drive from an elevated command prompt, this folder will not correctly inherit permissions from the root of the drive. Therefore, some specific operations, such as deleting the folder, will fail when they are performed from a non-elevated command prompt. Additionally, the following error message appears when the operation fails:

Furthermore, the missing security descriptor entries protect non-admin file operations directly under the root.

This problem occurs because the English version of Windows 7 Release Candidate 32-bit Ultimate incorrectly sets access control lists (ACLs) on the root.

The hotfix is released through Windows Update. For those customers who are affected by this problem, the fix is available through Windows Update: http://update.microsoft.com/windowsupdate

More info

]]> http://winspark.net/2009/05/08/new-update-kb970789-released-for-windows-7-rc/feed/ 0 http://winspark.net/2009/04/29/service-pack-2-for-server-2008-r2-and-windows-vista-is-now-available/ http://winspark.net/2009/04/29/service-pack-2-for-server-2008-r2-and-windows-vista-is-now-available/#comments Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:33:27 +0000 Mr. Spark (admin) http://winspark.net/?p=691

Today Microsoft has announced the launch of Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Service Pack 2 (SP2) represents the latest step in Microsoft’s commitment to continuous improvement. It includes all of the updates that have been delivered since SP1, as well as support for new types of hardware and emerging hardware standards. And since it comes with a single installer for both Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, SP2 will be easy for IT Pros to manage, deploy, and support. For an overview of the changes introduced in SP2, check out the notable changes document.

You can update to SP2 through Windows update. Simply turn on the windows update.