Anyone know when service pack 2 for Windows 7 will be released? Our deployment images are getting pretty fat with all the windows updates.

No, seriously, when will a Service Pack 2 be released? Its a pain to install Windows 7 in new PCs, the update process is getting lengthier and lengthier every time. The blog you suggested is Windows 8 centric at this moment and I don't want to get news about Windows 8 when I only care about when a Service Pack 2 of Windows 7 will get released.

That blog is the Windows Team Blog, where you can find informations about Windows 7 too by means of tag filtering: you can go to http://windowsteamblog.com/tags/windows+7/default.aspx to see the posts filtered for such topic. Another web site you could refer is the Windows 7 web site (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/home): when a Service Pack for Windows 7 is released, you can surely find it there. Bye.Luigi Bruno - Microsoft Community Contributor 2011 Award

"Aldo_MX" wrote in message news:c648e3ba-7adc-4e44-be70-1256f884ace6... No, seriously, when will a Service Pack 2 be released? Its a pain to install Windows 7 in new PCs, the update process is getting lengthier and lengthier every time. The blog you suggested is Windows 8 centric at this moment and I don't want to get news about Windows 8 when I only care about when a Service Pack 2 of Windows 7 will get released. I would suspect that SP2 will be going into Beta as soon as Win8 goes RTM - but don't hold your breath! Noel Paton | Nil Carborundum Illegitemi | CrashFixPC | The Three-toed Sloth

Service Pack 2 for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 will be released in the first half of 2013. If all goes well for Windows team, a Service Pack 2 Beta should be out in 4th quarter of this year.

I suggest you to follow the Windows Team Blog (http://windowsteamblog.com/) to stay up-to-date with all the Windows related news. Bye. Luigi Bruno - Microsoft Community Contributor 2011 Award why is it always do this do that you never answered the question when sp2 for windows 7 will come out we have waited to long for it and some of the hang ups and smoother running from the cpu to the ows and programs neeed sorting out. just tell us straight with us.

why is it always do this do that you never answered the question when sp2 for windows 7 will come out we have waited to long for it and some of the hang ups and smoother running from the cpu to the ows and programs neeed sorting out. just tell us straight with us. He can't - he is not a Microsoft employee; and even if he was, you really think Microsoft will let it's employees announce publicly on Forums that when SP2 will be released. My post above is based on estimation and some minor leak information about SP2 release, however, it for 99.9% should be correct - and no chance of getting the Service Pack 2 RTM this year.

You could update your Windows 7 image with recent patches. I recently updated our Windows 7 image, I used SCCM to create a basic Windows 7 SP1 build, then configured the PC to connect to our WSUS server. After all the patches had installed (more than 70 patches and few reboots later) I cleared out the WSUS registry keys on the PC with these commands (needed so PCs built with the image get unique IDs): reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v AccountDomainSid /f >nul 2>nul reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v PingID /f >nul 2>nul REG DELETE HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v SusClientIdValidation /f >nul 2>nul REG DELETE HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v SusClientId /f >nul 2>nul and the captured the image with SCCM. So now when I do a fresh Windows 7 build, there are no patches to install! (well at least until the nexth month's patches come out).

Size: important. Features: more important. Will SP2 provide increased functionality to the consumer version of the kernel beyond SP1's virtualization improvements to Server 2008 R2? Say like XP SP1 to XP SP2's Security Center, Windows Firewall, etc... Based on the high degree of silence surrounding this specific Service Pack, either it's going to be big changes coming or SP2 will simply incorporate 2 + years of updates. SP1 Alpha leaked about 10 months ensuing the Oct 2009 Win 7 release. I presume MS will look to monetize their App Store in as many systems as possible. This includes Vista, and possibly even XP. Expect at the bare minimum, a bare-bones "Windows Store" Perhaps in Windows 7, the store would include system integration. Also, expect some sort of forwards compatibility with "Windows 8" apps. Like clicking an icon in your start menu to access "modern" apps. For the ones that just have to have it, they'll get a new PC come the October release of Windows 8. They'll pay the premium for having immediate access to the "modern apps". Make no mistake though, MS wants to push the Windows Store across the board. This undoubtedly includes Windows 7. Beyond that, Skydrive will replace "Sync Center", practically a guarantee. My feeling is that these features are near complete, but releasing them so close to Windows 8 will eat into sales, seeing as how these additions is what Win8 is touting as new and improved. Regarding your deployment images, I have limited advice on how to compress an already encrypted and compressed image (well not the updates). Perhaps you might consider two-stage deployments. One a fresh Win 7 SP1 install. The other being the updates. That way repackaging the update image will take far less time than including and repackaging them within your install image every time new updates are released.

He can't - he is not a Microsoft employee; and even if he was, you really think Microsoft will let it's employees announce publicly on Forums that when SP2 will be released. My post above is based on estimation and some minor leak information about SP2 release, however, it for 99.9% should be correct - and no chance of getting the Service Pack 2 RTM this year. you are correct MS will not release this information but for reasons that do not make since. Why not allow people to publicly know this information. They can choose to make decisions based on this. "Should I update my image?"........ no not if I knew SP2 was coming out next month...... MS does things backwards all too many times. they want you to love them but that make it hard to love them. Kinda like an abused wife feels about their husband.

You could update your Windows 7 image with recent patches. I recently updated our Windows 7 image, I used SCCM to create a basic Windows 7 SP1 build, then configured the PC to connect to our WSUS server. After all the patches had installed (more than 70 patches and few reboots later) I cleared out the WSUS registry keys on the PC with these commands (needed so PCs built with the image get unique IDs): reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v AccountDomainSid /f >nul 2>nul reg delete HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v PingID /f >nul 2>nul REG DELETE HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v SusClientIdValidation /f >nul 2>nul REG DELETE HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\WindowsUpdate /v SusClientId /f >nul 2>nul and the captured the image with SCCM. So now when I do a fresh Windows 7 build, there are no patches to install! (well at least until the nexth month's patches come out). Wow i'm not sure sure if you could posibly do this in a more difficult manner......

Well, from what it looks like now, there are no plans for a Windows 7 SP2....ever. I also second the fact that all the patches are bloating the heck out of my images.