Monday 28 March 2011

Windows 7: SP1 Update Redux


I wrote a short blog entry a little while ago about the potential application compatibility issues with Windows 7 Service Pack 1.


The update has been out for a while now (though not everyone is getting it - you are going to have to email me about that) and we are really not seeing many application compatibility issues reported. And, given that the Service Pack update is essentially the same for both the workstation and server platforms - we are not seeing any differences between updated workstations or servers.

Microsoft has released a KB article about the few (possibly too few) applications that have been reported to have had compatibility issues with the Windows 7 Service Pack. You can find this bulletin here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2492938

Interestingly, only 2 programs (IncrediMail and Ninja Trader) were reported as not running correctly after the Windows 7 SP1 update and a further 2 applications experienced a loss of functionality (Alibre Design Express and Ideazon Z Engine) with the update. And, From our own application compatibility analysis, we have not seen many causes for issues with the Service Pack update.

You can find out more about Windows 7 SP1 here:


We will continue to monitor the results from our clients - as Windows 7 SP1 encompasses more machines and applications we may find a few application compatibility issues. My initial concern was that the large collection of updates might cause a problem with application dependencies. That said, if you have kept you machine current and updated, then you should have already installed most of these changes.

For the complete list of hotfixes and updates included in Windows 7 SP1, you can find the release documentation here: 


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