Windows 7 SP1 RTM due before end of February 2011

[NewsBot]

Microsoft has informed close partners that SP1 has hit the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) milestone. MSDN and TechNet customers will receive the bits on February 16, followed by a general web release (RTW) on February 22. According to sources close to the matter, Microsoft sent out internal announcements to mark the RTM of Windows 7 SP1 in January. Russian site Wzor confirmed the RTM too and has leaked several versions of Windows 7 SP1 for various languages.

Microsoft has yet to announce the RTM milestone publicly. WinRumors previously asked Microsoft officials multiple times to confirm whether Microsoft had reached the RTM milestone for Windows 7 SP1 but company officials would only reply in January with Microsoft has not released SP1 to OEMs at this time. As always, we'd advise against installing leaked bits on production machines but at this time we're confident build 7601.17514.101119-1850 is the final RTM. Copies of Microsoft's Windows 7 SP1 RTM update leaked last month to file sharing websites. Microsoft is expected to announce the official RTM shortly, including the MSDN/RTW dates.

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[Tarun]

I can't wait for this to release.

[James_A]

Make sure you have run the latest SURT (System Update Readiness Tool) [November 2010] before trying to install SP1.

32-bit: System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 (KB947821) [November 2010]

64-bit: System Update Readiness Tool for Windows 7 for x64-based Systems (KB947821) [November 2010]

Also if you want to use RSAT (Remote Server Administration Tools), you'll need to install before you install SP1 because RSAT won't install after SP1 is installed (or wait until April 2011 for the RSAT update...)

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