As Microsoft gears up for Friday's Windows 8 launch, it's whisperings about Windows 7 that have caught our attention. According to the latest rumors, Microsoft isn't planning to release a second service pack for Windows 7.
The Register cites sources close to Microsoft's sustained engineering team that say there are no plans a Windows 7 SP2, something people have been waiting on for a few months now. Apparently, Microsoft plans to keep updating Windows 7 with patches every month until Windows 7 support comes to an end.
Microsoft hasn't yet commented on the news, so we have no way of knowing if this is a new protocol going forward and will also apply to Windows 8 or if it's just a case of Microsoft not wanting to put in the required resources for a second Service Pack when it's got both hands full with a new OS. We'll update when we know more on that front.
Windows XP was launched in 2001 and got its first service pack a year later, in 2002. SP2 followed in 2004 (along with two service pack patches, SP2a and SP2b, in 2006 and 2007). SP3 was launched in 2008, seven years after the OS first launched. Vista got two service packs, the first a year after it's 2007 launch, in February of 2008, and the second in 2009. Windows 7's first service pack was released in the summer of 2010, a year after the OS launched.
