Windows 7 SP1 confirmed for Feb 22nd release

Microsoft has now confirmed on the Windows Team Blog that it has released Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 to manufacturing (RTM).

“Today we officially handed off the final release (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) to our OEM partners” said Brandon LeBlanc.

MSDN and TechNet customers will receive the bits on February 16, followed by a general web release (RTW) on February 22. Winrumors is reporting the final build to be 7601.17514.101119-1850.

As we reported earlier today, SP1 only contains two major new features, which will not affect the majority of users. The first of the two is RemoteFX, a standalone product that requires Windows Server 2008 R2 to be used. RemoteFX allows users to watch high-quality video and interact with 3D applications over a remote desktop session -- this will change the way Virtual Machines are used, as they have had limited display capabilities until now.

The second feature is an update for HyperV in Windows Server 2008 R2 called "Dynamic Memory". The feature is as simple as it sounds -- it dynamically allocates memory to virtual machines as required and is able to remove memory from virtual machines when others need higher resources. You can read more about the new features over on the Windows Server Team Blog.