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Windows 7 Not Getting A Second Service Pack

Posted by Unknown on from the mark-shuttleworth-becomes-filthy-rich dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Windows 7 was expected to have Service Pack 2 issued roughly 3 years from its introduction (late 2009). People, including myself, have been asking 'Where is it?' and the answer apparently is, 'It isn't, and will never be' which lends itself to the giant pain of installing Windows 7, then Service Pack 1, and hundreds of smaller hotfix patches. Why Microsoft? No go to Service Pack 2 for Windows 7!"

12 of 441 comments (clear)

  1. to continue the trend? by ctk76 · · Score: 5, Funny

    NT4 - 6 2000 - 4 XP - 3 Vista - 2 7 - 1 8 - 0???

    1. Re:to continue the trend? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, just seems like they are trying to phase out older OSes faster and keep people current.

      Read: make more money

    2. Re:to continue the trend? by tlhIngan · · Score: 5, Informative

      It could also be more benign. The fact that most of us have high speed internet connections and can update the system when the updates are made and tested. The Service Pack Concept is a throwback to them good old days where we would get a CD or Disk in the mail and run the upgrade. Because trying to get it online every week would be a major job.

      Until you have to install a new version on blank hardware. One of the really big annoyances with Windows is the initial install. Install Windows 7 (no SP). Now run Windows Update for the next 10 hours downloading and installing updates.

      The SP is basically a roll up of fixes so you can install all 500 or so in one go, or when slipstreamed onto the disc, during install. Which turns the Windows Update hassles from huge mess down to something much more managable.

      And no, you don't need to get them every week. Once every few months or once a year is quite enough to ensure you aren't spending hours installing updates.

    3. Re:to continue the trend? by NJRoadfan · · Score: 5, Informative

      Service Packs also include hotfixes that don't appear on Windows Update. You have to request them from Microsoft if you have that specific issue. One notable hotfix that dogged XP users was the UAA patch that enabled HD Audio sound cards to work. It wasn't available for download from Microsoft, you had to get it from the vendor who made the hardware.... it was later made part of XP SP3.

    4. Re:to continue the trend? by JamesTRexx · · Score: 5, Funny

      Year of the Linux desktop! :-D

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    5. Re:to continue the trend? by kimvette · · Score: 5, Informative

      Now run Windows Update for the next 10 hours downloading and installing updates.

      . . . and contrary to the claim of some, both Windows and Windows Server still require many reboots while doing this, unless you streamline them into the install - which in itself is a major pain in the ass when it's hundreds of individual updates. APUP (autopatcher) is a partial solution but it stagnated for a long while and I'm not sure I trust it on production systems now.

      --
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    6. Re:to continue the trend? by man_of_mr_e · · Score: 5, Informative

      Pro Tip: Install SP1 manually first, then do Windows Update.

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  2. Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Duh. People won't willingly switch to Windows 8, so this is just another way to push them there.

    Having barely used Windows for the last few years I'd almost forgotten the horror of Windows Update compared to apt-get or yum update.

    1. Re:Why? by gander666 · · Score: 5, Informative

      I am in marketing and product management, and I can state that this is not true. Often it is engineering who wants to cut or discontinue support for older products.

      It is far more common that I have to force them to support a reasonable life cycle after the launch of a new version (reasonable being 3 or 5 years).

      FWIW, Microsoft publishes their PLC, and is quite good at giving you runway to plan for end of support.

      --
      Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress ... but I repeat myself. - Mark T
  3. Disappointing, but not surprising by JDG1980 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is disappointing, but not surprising. Microsoft knows that most experienced Windows users don't want any part of Windows 8. But they are convinced that Windows 8 is a vital part of their business strategy going forward. So they are doing whatever they can to bribe, force, or coerce users to switch to Windows 8. They don't want Windows 7 to become the new XP, even though they profited handsomely for many years from XP licenses. The power user/business desktop just isn't cool enough for Steve Ballmer, Steven Sinofsky, and the other myopic decision-makers at MS these days.

  4. At least release a goddamn rollup patch by Nimey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Microsoft hasn't done one of those since Windows 2000, but at one time they had a roll-up patch for 2K SP4 that incorporated all the updates released between the SP and the roll-up. I wish they'd re-institute the practice because it saves us desktop-support types a lot of time.

    Maybe make a yearly roll-up so that I shouldn't have to install more than a few dozen updates at the most when I put our image on the computers. I've rolled my own image, but it's a bit of a pain to install updates.

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  5. Aero isn't gone by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 5, Informative

    Glass is gone, not Aero.

    Aero is the desktop composition engine that uses the GPU to do all kinds of rendering shit. This is present in 8 and in fact faster/more capable than ever. Glass (Aero Glass) is the shiny UI in Windows 7, that is gone in Windows 8, replaced with an uglied up flat, square, UI.

    So basically there is an even better desktop composition engine, that is used to composite something that looks like Windows 3.1 :).

    In terms of drivers, yes older drivers seem quite compatible. My pro sound card works no problems with the 7 drivers and pro audio cards have some of the most finicky drivers out there.