It’s finally here, the first Windows 7 Service Pack. I am not in a rush to be a guinea pig so I think I will wait it out a few days or even a week to see what others are saying on various forums.Windows 7 SP1

If you are ready to take the plunge here’s is what you need to do to update to SP1;

  • Download SP1 via the Windows Update function, which downloads only what is necessary to bring your OS (Operating System) current. This will also avoid downloading patches which have previously been installed via Windows Update.

or

  • You can download Windows 7 SP1 here.

I opted to wait a little bit before downloading just to see what happens. If you want to delay the automatic update, you can by using the Microsoft’s blocking tool. It prevents automatic installation of SP1 for a period of one year.

Notable Changes in Windows 7

Additional support for communication with third-party federation services
Additional support has been added to allow Windows 7 clients to effectively communicate with third-party identity federation services (those supporting the WS-Federation passive profile protocol). This change enhances platform interoperability, and improves the ability to communicate identity and authentication information between organizations.

Improved HDMI audio device performance
A small percentage of users have reported issues in which the connection between computers running Windows 7 and HDMI audio devices can be lost after system reboots. Updates have been incorporated into SP1 to ensure that connections between Windows 7 computers and HDMI audio devices are consistently maintained.

Corrected behavior when printing mixed-orientation XPS documents
Prior to the release of SP1, some customers have reported difficulty when printing mixed-orientation XPS documents (documents containing pages in both portrait and landscape orientation) using the XPS Viewer, resulting in all pages being printed entirely in either portrait or landscape mode. This issue has been addressed in SP1, allowing users to correctly print mixed-orientation documents using the XPS Viewer.

Read the entire list of changes in Windows 7.