Service Pack 1 Beta out for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2

Ned here again. You may have missed this on Monday, but the Beta version of Service Pack 1 for Win7/2008R2 was publically released. Besides offering the usual bevy of hotfixes and security update rollups, SP1 also offers servers two big new features: Hyper-V Dynamic Memory and RemoteFX.

Download Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta here

Dynamic Memory Technical Overview whitepaper

Remote Desktop Services Datasheet

But those features are the just ones the Marketing people want to broadcast from their secret tower made of Swarovski crystal skulls.

Yep, Office clipart. Seriously, we need to start drug testing over there.

There are a variety of other new features being evaluated here, plus many fixes. Make sure you check out this download site:

Documentation for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Beta (KB976932)

It includes the following three docs:

If you read the “notable changes” doc you will find these other improvements:

• Enhancements to scalability and high availability when using DirectAccess
• Support for Managed Service Accounts (MSAs) in secure branch office scenarios
• Support for increased volume of authentication traffic on domain controllers connected to high-latency networks
• Enhancements to Failover Clustering with Storage
• Additional support for communication with third-party federation services
• Enhanced support for additional identities in RRAS and IPsec
• Support for Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX)
• Other stuff that sounds kinda boring.

Finally, I want to make sure you are clear on the support model: No formal product support is available from Microsoft for this beta product. If you want to report things or get some informal, best effort, forum-only support, visit:

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7itproSP/threads

If you are the EULA reading type, we reiterate this again. Special note should be made of the fact that we do not want you installing this in your production environments at all – only test. I’m serious about this and you should be too; your boss is going to be impressed if you say you are testing SP1; if you need to reinstall a DC that is now dead from a beta service pack, I doubt you will get that bonus.

Feel free to send us comments, we can always pass them along to the beta team – it includes our very own Mike Stephens! Just don’t ask when the final version will be released, we don’t know.

Have fun testing!

- Ned “I prefer Pandora Chamilia” Pyle