Rumour: No SP2 For Windows 7 To Encourage Windows 8 Sales
Now that Windows 8 is launching, those (many?) users wanting to stay with Windows 7 will have been holding their breath for service pack 2, but it looks like it was all in vain. According to sources closes to Microsoft’s engineering team which builds and releases services packs, there are no plans for SP2, which breaks the usual cycle for Windows updates. SP2 would normally be released around the time of the following OS release, hence it was due around now.
The main reasons for this appear to be that it would divert resources from Windows 8 and to gently push people towards upgrading to Windows 8. Besides the inconvenience of hundreds of updates taking up many gigabytes of downloads needing to be applied to a new Windows 7 install, this isn’t a massive problem for users. This is especially true as Windows 7 support will continue until January 2020, so another seven years of support for an OS that’s no longer sold is still pretty good. When asked about this, Microsoft had nothing to say about Windows 7 SP2.
SPs are released to bundle up things like monthly updates and can include security and performance updates and support for new hardware. They span monthly updates released through Patch Tuesday; will wrap in fixes to apps like Office; and will impact software affecting the desktop, network and applications like the browser. A single SP means you can wrap up, test and rollout, and update all in a single software release.
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