Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Server 2008

[dave.m]

Service Pack 1 for Windows 7 and Server 2008 is ready.
According to the release announcement, SP1 will be provided to volume licensees, MSDN and TechNet subscribers on the 16 February, then from the 22 February all other customers will receive the update via the Windows Update service. It will also be available from the Windows Download Center.

May I suggest that if you are thinking of installing it, to wait a few days before installing it, and wait to see if there are any glaring issues with a specific setup (hardware or software) before installing.

Also if you have multple computers with Win7, if you have a good broadband connection, get the full download from the Windows Download Centre. Save to a USB stick and all computers can be updated with only one download.

Also, before install do run a quick antivirus check as Service Packs will halt if they smell malware, once you are ok and malware free disable your internet connection (switch off the router or unplug the ethernet cable to the router), and disable your AV and security apps before installing, as this just cuts one thing out of the mix that could block a sucessful install.

This service pack is a relatively minor upgrade. It combines all the previously released stability and security updates, but there are no new features for Windows 7 apart from the support for the Advanced Vector Extensions instruction set.

so if you have kept up to date with Microsoft updates since you got Win7 there should be very little to update with SP1.

dave

[chat_to_rich]

I've just downloaded the offline installation files for SP1. Both the x64 and x86 versions are quite large, 924MB and 550MB respectively. The installation on my fairly high-end machine, Core i5 660 3.33GHz, 4GB RAM, Samsung SSD, it took just under 25 minutes to install. On a colleagues machine with the same base image, but Core 2 Duo E8400 3GHz, 4GB, 7.2K hard drive, it took 1h 10 to install.

Once you've installed the service pack and you're happy you won't want to uninstall it, you can run the following command from an elevated command prompt. It removes any backup files resulting from the service pack installation and on my machine freed up 1.6GB of disk space. Remember you can't uninstall the service pack if you run this command.

DISM.exe /online /Cleanup-Image /spsuperseded

[dave.m]

Thanks for that, Rich.

To say that there is very little new in SP1 that is not covered by the previous updates, that took some time to install if you already had all the latest updates installed. It looks like it reinstalled all the previous updates that you had.

dave

[gas4you]

Thanks for this both of you.

I always have any windows updates set to install automatically, but in view of your posts I now checked manually and it only came up with one important update and that was for silverlight.

Does this mean that I need absolutely nothing from Win 7 SP1?

I can only presume so

[dave.m]

Does this mean that I need absolutely nothing from Win 7 SP1?

Dave,
not quite that simple, set your MS Updates to 'Check for updates but let me decide whether to download and install them'

Then towards the end of the month (after 22nd) it will pop up with a list of any parts of SP1 that you may need to install. Check the list and tick the items that you want and install them.

Just don't install them on the 22nd if it offers them then. Leave it about a week to see if there are any problems that others may experience.

dave

[gas4you]

Thanks Dave

I'd missed the date in your OP

[dave.m]

For information:

I used Windows Update ( Start -> All Programs -> Windows Update) and clicked 'Check for Updates' (on the left menu bar).
It checked and showed a list of updates available including the Service Pack 1.
I ticked all of them including a couple of Win7 Updates and MSE Updates. The total size was 101MB and took about 45 minutes to download, but I used the browser during that time.
It then took about 30 minutes to install all the updates I had selected including SP1.
Following a reboot, which took about 5 mins to configure the updates before shutting down and the same before booting up, everything worked fine. No problems with any software, hardware or other programs.

That was yesterday, and so, today I downloaded again from Windows Update and installed it on the laptop.
Both computers are running Win7 Home Premium 64bit and are working fine today.

So you should be safe to install the SP1 on any Win7 computers you have.

Edit: Just came across this problem in a forum (not on my computers):
For those of you who are running Online Armor Premium Firewall and are going to install the just released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7, make sure you put the firewall in Learning Mode before you restart the computer to finish the install or you could have a locked up PC.

dave

[gas4you]

I'm downloading it as I type, but only got offered 87.6mb

[gas4you]

All seems ok here as well

[dave.m]

I'm downloading it as I type, but only got offered 87.6mb

The total size varies with what other Windows/Microsoft software you have installed. part of the update size that I mentioned, was because of a couple of updates for Microsoft Security Essentials, nothing to do with the SP1.

dave

[dave.m]

Not a major problem, but just noticed that since installing SP1 on Win7 Home Premium 64bit, that all my previous System Restore points have been removed, except the one set by the update itself.
There is now just the one prior to installation.

[gas4you]

The only strange thing I had, after saying all was ok, was that all my sounds settings were gone and there was no sound at all.

Took me about 20 mins to figure it out