Microsoft has officially announced that the Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 Beta and Windows 7 SP1 Beta are available for download. Although Windows 7 SP1 Beta and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta were launched around the second week of July, they have undergone a minute refresh during the first half of this week. The refresh had to do more with the packaging of the first upgrade. Microsoft now offers five downloads for service pack 1 as against three. However, this will not affect the early adopters in any way. In fact, they can now enjoy streamlined downloads of SP1, the upgrade being the same for both Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7.

The five downloads are essentially the 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions of the WUSignUpTool, designed to tweak the RTM builds so that they can identify, download and install SP1 Beta via Windows Update, and three downloads of Windows 7 SP1 Beta – Windows6.1-KB976932-X86-INTL.exe (SP1 Beta for the Windows 7 32-bit x86), Windows6.1-KB976932-X64-INTL.exe (Windows 7 client and Windows Server 2008 R2) and Windows6.1-KB976932-IA64-INTL.exe (SP1 Beta for Windows Server 2008 R2 for Itanium-Based Systems).

The SP1 can be downloaded by the customers currently running the RTM Build of Windows 7 or Windows Server 2008 R2, in two ways,

1. Download a special key that will enable Windows Update to offer you the service pack beta,
2. Directly download the service pack beta

However, it is important to choose the correct download for your platform i.e, x86, IA64 or x64.

The Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) Beta can be downloaded from http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/ff183870.aspx