SP1 (Beta) Now Available for Windows 7 & Server 2008 R2…

By Matt McSpirit - virtualboy. Microsoft Partner Technology Specialist for Virtualization;
http://blogs.technet.com/mattmcspirit

Just over a month ago, straight from TechEd North America, we announced SP1 for both Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, and stated, at the time, the beta would be available before the end of July.  Well, it’s available now, from here.

What’s in there?

Well, Dynamic Memory for one, which I provided some useful resources for a few weeks back, along with RemoteFX, which has plenty of useful background reading here.  As a recap, what are Dynamic Memory and Remote FX?

Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V introduces a new feature, called Dynamic Memory, in the Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta releases.  It allows customers to achieve increased density when they’re consolidating physical servers into a virtual realm, providing them with predictable performance and linear scalability.  With Dynamic Memory, IT administrators are able to pool available memory on a physical host and then dynamically dole that memory out to virtual machines running on the host, based on current workload needs.  For a technical overview of the new Dynamic Memory feature, download the Dynamic Memory Technical Overview whitepaper.

RemoteFX, a key feature of Remote Desktop Services (RDS) lets IT administrators deliver a rich graphics experience to end-users through virtualized desktops.  Using new protocol enhancements between Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, end users can now access virtual machines on a wide variety of target devices and still get a rich graphics experience with server-side graphics processing.  Learn more about RemoteFX and download the Remote Desktop Services Datasheet.

There is a load of reading to be done here too, which will keep you busy while you’re downloading the SP1 bits:

• Windows Server 2008 R2 Technical Whitepaper
• Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta Reviewer’s Guide
• Dynamic Memory Technical Overview whitepaper
• Remote Desktop Services Datasheet
• Windows Server 2008 R2 FAQ
• Hyper-V FAQ
• RDS FAQ

Once I’ve finished the download, and had some time to play around with it, I’ll make sure I report back with any useful information, but also, perhaps a cheeky video if I get the chance…

Once again, you can download the SP1 bits from here.