The very final RTM bits of both Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 have managed to slip through and has landed into the wild just like the previous builds 7601.16537, 7601.16543 and 7601.16562. Build number for Windows 7 SP1 RTM is 7601.17514.win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850 which means that it was compiled on 19th November 2010.

Microsoft has just released Release Candidate version of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 for users running the final RTM version of the respective operating systems.

As expected, Microsoft today at its Worldwide Partner Conference 2010 has announced the public availability of Windows 7 SP1 Beta, and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 Beta for users running the final RTM version of the respective operating systems.

You can keep on talking about desktops era being over, iPads and tablets killing Windows based netbooks and notebooks, but you cant deny the fact that Windows 7 is by far the fastest selling OS in the history! and it runs on majority of the notebooks/netbooks and desktop PCs near you.

According to a post on Geeksmack, Windows 7 SP1 Beta has been leaked and will be soon available for download on any of your favorite content hubs. The build which has been leaked carries a build string of 7601.16543.100403-1630 v.159, which means that it was compiled on 3rd April 2010.

Those of you who own an official copy of Windows 7 from MSDN or TechNet may have faced a scenario where you wanted to install a different edition of Windows, only to find out that you will have to download a separate ISO file just to install your desired edition. Windows Vista had one ISO file installer for all the different edition of Windows. But with Windows 7, Microsoft changed this approach and started offering separate ISO files for each edition (Starter, Home Premium, Professional and Ultimate) of Windows. This creates an unnecessary strain on bandwidth when downloading, wastes space when archiving, and wastes time in general.

Back in September last year, I wrote this article about accessing FTP sites using Windows Vista. I then completely shifted to Windows 7 (starting from M3 Build which was released at PDC 2008) only to find out that I couldn’t get the FTP site location thing to work in Windows 7 as it did for me in Windows Vista. This functionality was probably broken or disabled by Microsoft on purpose for testing in all the builds up to Windows 7 Build 7057.

Due to excessive demand of Windows 7 Beta from Windows enthusiasts around the world, Microsoft servers have crashed under heavy load as also reported on the official Windows Team Blog.

Got a MSDN or TechNet Plus subscription? If you are among those lucky people on earth with either of these two subscriptions then you can now immediately get hold of the betas of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2