Windows 7 SP1 is now available from Windows Update.
First question answered: Is there a difference between x86 and x64 SP1? Yes, the installer will be specific per your architecture:
What this means is that if you intend on doing offline installations of SP1 for varying x86 and x64 systems, you will need to download the appropriate release.
What’s the major stuff contained within SP1? This is the link you want to go to read up on that: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=194726. In particular, the document that will probably help you out most from that page is Notable Changes in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1.
If after reading that document you think that SP1 appears to have much more importance concerning Server 2008 R2 compared to the consumer edition Windows 7 – you’re right. However there are many hotfixes specifically for consumer edition Windows 7 which you can read up on in Hotfixes and Security Updates included in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 from the above link.
I recommend SP1 to those running Windows 7 that:
- Are having specific issues with audio, video and/or networking hardware
- Plan on installing newer-technologies hardware
Other than the above, SP1 does not appear to be a must-have-now update if you’re running Windows 7, so unless you want to stay ahead of the update curve, you can hold off on SP1 until Windows Update prompts you to get it.
Lastly, as always, whenever downloading/installing a Microsoft Service Pack, this is rarely a quick process no matter how fast your PC is. Plan on setting aside at least an hour (preferably two) for everything to complete itself proper.
My experience downloading and installing Win 7 SP1:
Uneventful, which is to say nothing went wrong. The only annoying parts were that the download took a while (because the download servers were getting hammered at the time I was getting the update), and the boot after install took a while to complete. Total time spent download + install + restart was about an hour.
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Yeah… I too installed it yesterday… The installation was very easy, automatically showed up that the updates were available and I installed them as it is, however, I would say, it took while to download as you mentioned that the servers were highly hammered, and also after the installation, reboot took almost 45 mins in my case.. I actually remember it was around 42 mins in total as I had to sleep, it was getting late and so was staring at the clock.
I am not able to feel any changes in my normal laptop, but since past couple of days I have been observing that Google Chrome has been crashing very often, it just keeps on crashing, today I was watching some videos on http://www.seesaw.com, to my surprise, whole of the laptop hanged up.. and after a while i tried hitting Ctrl + Alt + Del but no good, ultimately had to push the off button on laptop to force it to turn off and then restarted, now working normally!
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From what I have read elsewhere about Win7 SP1, I would strongly recommend creating a system restore point and preferably making a full disk backup prior to installing it.
I personally do not intend to install it until it becomes absolutely imperative to do so.
Sam,
Tel Aviv
Israel
I agree with you , I tried to install and system went into a configure loop. It take long to dump sp1 and go back to to where it started. I’ll wait until Microsoft can explain what the —– went wrong.
Howard
Ohio
Yes definitely, this service pack will now make installing audio drivers a breeze.. Thanks. Hope to hear more updates coming..
I can hardly wait…
I can hardly wait too!
I had a client who installed the new Windows 7 Service Pack and then was unable to use their iTunes software. After googling this problem, it was found that in both x86 and x64 service packs, this was a problem showing up across the board. I suggested they un-install the service pack until such time as Microsoft fixes this problem or iTunes finds a fix.