Microsoft has finally announced the arrival of the first service pack (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2, officially. The official full build string for both Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 is 7601.17514.101119-1850, which confirms the SP1 has been finalized, compiled and signed off long at at November 19, 2010, and the SP1 leaks as genuine and valid.

According to Windows Team Blog, the final release (RTM) of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1) has been delivered to Microsoft OEM partners on February 9th, 2011, and the SP1 will be available for MSDN and TechNet subscribers as well as Volume License customers on February 16th, with general availability for the rest of the world from February 22nd.

When the Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7 SP1 is generally available, the update package can be downloaded via the Microsoft Download Center or user can directly upgrade the operating system via Windows Update.

If you cannot wait for the official release of Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, the setup installer of SP1 and ISO images with SP1 integrated/slipstreamed have been leaked to the Web for free download. Note that if you have installed SP1 beta or SP1 RC, you may have to uninstall SP1 beta or RC prior to install final SP1 RTM version.

Not much new features have been included into the SP1. For Windows 7, SP1 is delivering ongoing updates, many of which have been made previously available through Windows Update. It also includes client-side support for RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory which are two new virtualization features enabled in Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, with more in the notable changes in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1.