Waiting to Download Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2?

It’s been more than 2 years since Microsoft released Service Pack 1 (SP1) for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. Since then all Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2 users are waiting for Service Pack 2 (SP2). Actually there are 100+ new updates and hotfixes which have been released after Service Pack 1 and if a user installs fresh Windows 7 with SP1 in a computer system, he’ll need to waste a lot of Internet connection bandwidth to download and install all these 100+ post SP1 updates.

There were rumors that Microsoft has decided to discontinue service packs for Windows OS. Instead the company will follow faster Windows iterations process such as Windows 8.1, 8.2 and so on. These Windows iterations are supposed to replace Service Packs for Windows OS. But these are rumors, Microsoft has not officially announced any such news.

If these rumors are true and if Microsoft will not release SP2 for Windows 7, then what will existing Windows 7 users do? Because Microsoft has not released or talked about SP2 for Windows 7 yet, so people have started believing this rumor.

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Don’t worry! If you are still using Windows 7, here is something interesting for you. Although this news is a little bit old but as they say better late than never. Thanks to our reader “j_veen” for sharing this useful piece of information with us.

As a part of Patch Tuesday program, Microsoft has released an ultimate collection of hotfixes and updates for Windows 7 SP1 and Server 2008 R2 SP1. Its a single pack which contains 90 hotfixes focused on performance and stability which were released after Service Pack 1 (SP1) so you can consider it as Service Pack 2 (kind of) for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. Basically these hotfixes improve overall performance and system reliability of Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 based computer system.

According to Microsoft, this hotfix rollup includes following improvements:

  • Improves the Windows Client Remote File System components such as Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), DFSN client, Folder Redirection, Offline Files and Folders (CSC), SMB client, Redirected Drive Buffering Subsystem (RDB) and Multiple UNC Provider (MUP).
  • Improves the SMB Service and TCP protocol components.
  • Improves the processing of Group Policies and Group Policy preferences.
  • Improves the Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) components to reduce the CPU usage and to improve the repository verification performance.

In other words, this hotfix pack will make your Windows 7 or Server 2008 R2 based computer system faster and more stable.

According to Microsoft, this hotfix rollup primarily addresses the issues that occur on domain-joined client computers and servers. Therefore, this hotfix rollup is available only from the Microsoft Update Catalog and not from Windows Updates.

You can download this hotfix rollup using following link:

NOTE: The link will only work in Internet Explorer web browser.

Windows_7_Hotfix_Rollup.png

Separate hotfixes packs are available for different Windows editions such as:

  • Windows 7 (32-bit or x86)
  • Windows 7 (64-bit or x64)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit or x64)
  • Windows Server 2008 R2 (IA64 or Itanium-based systems)

Just go to above mentioned link, select the correct hotfix pack and click on “Add” button. At last click on “View basket” link and then click on “Download” button. It’ll ask for a location to download and store the file. Provide desired drive or folder path and start downloading the hotfix pack.

Did you already know about this hotfix pack? Do you also think that Microsoft will never release SP2 for Windows 7 or you are among those people who are eagerly waiting for Windows 7 SP2? Feel free to share your comment with us…

Published in: Windows 7

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Do I have to download these hotfixes though I have Windows Update up to-date?

  2. Here is the Microsoft Knowledge Base webpage relating to the hotfix:- support.microsoft.com/kb/2775511

  3. TheAslan no, this is designed for getting freshly installed versions of Win7SP1 part way up to date. Rather than having to install multiple updates through Windows Update, some of which may require restarts, and then further updates on top of them, with this installed that process should be greatly improved. After installing this hotfix rollup on top of a Windows 7 SP1 system, only important updates released after mid-March should be required. As it was released the day before Patch Tuesday, I somewhat doubt that it includes patches otherwise released the following day. So a fresh system would then only require updates from the past three Patch Tuesdays, to be brought up to date.

  4. The only bad thing about the address is it only works with explorer 9 or less.
    Tried with explorer 10 and could not.

  5. Already know about few months back, got this info from neowin forums. So I have it installed already.

  6. Thanks VG, For let us about these updates. Is there are any option to get them all in one package?.

  7. let windows 7 users suffer their own fault for being out of date they should just get windows 8 install ex7forw8 and been done with it

  8. The link does not lead to download file in firefox. Asking to open in IE. Or the link it self has been changed ?

  9. After accepting installation of the “Microsoft Update Catalog” plugin, download works just fine in IE10

  10. hmm… something about this post reminds me of this:maximumpc.com/article/news/sticking_windows_7_no_service_pack_2_you234

  11. I take it installing this Hotfix Rollup even though you have already downloaded
    all updates via Windows Update should do no harm?

  12. For IE10 users, you might want to try accessing the site under compatibility mode.

  13. “There were rumors that Microsoft has decided to discontinue service packs for Windows OS. Instead the company will follow faster Windows iterations process such as Windows 8.1, 8.2 and so on. These Windows iterations are supposed to replace Service Packs for Windows OS. But these are rumors, Microsoft has not officially announced any such news.

    “If these rumors are true and if Microsoft will not release SP2 for Windows 7, then what will existing Windows 7 users do? Because Microsoft has not released or talked about SP2 for Windows 7 yet, so people have started believing this rumor.”

    it’s so obvious that SP2 wont happen, nor will it EVER get released. the reason behind it is because Ballmer wants everyone to use that PO$ called Windows 8.

  14. Thanks for this info, VG.

    — Please be aware that this roll-up *probably* includes KB2670838 (released circa February 2013) which caused lots of problems on some laptops, including BSODs and failures-to-boot. The issue was *supposedly* limited to laptops with hybrid graphics cards but it BSOD-ed an older HP laptop of mine which does NOT have such a card.

  15. Don’t think this is a replacement to a service pack. I compared what this update replaces
    support.microsoft.com/kb/2775511
    – Hotfixes that are included in this update rollup
    to my 104 updates I inject into my install.wim for 64 bit SP1 Windows 7and it only replaced (1). I removed adding this since it has other improvements.

    I installed only this update and ran a VM and when done it has 102 important updates available on Windows Update

    For the IE10 issue I just added the catalog.update.microsoft.com to allowed things in the Popup Blocker

  16. Here’s a small nibble of info on Service Packs of NT 4-Now
    – Nt 4 had 6 service packs, 7 if u count 6a.
    – 2000 had 4 service packs.
    – XP had 3 Service Packs
    – Vista had 2 service packs
    – 7 had 1 service pack (as of aug 2013, and maybe forever)
    – 8 had 0 service packs because now there’s 8.1.

    Notice the pattern? W2K had 4 SP’s, XP had 3, Vista had 2, 7 had 1 and 8 had none? 4, 3, 2, 1, 0!!

  17. After user “sinders” posted his very interesting question, I was eager to read “maxXPsoft” answer.

    MaxXPsoft wrote: “to my 104 updates … it only replaced (1). I removed adding this since it has other improvements. … I installed only this update and ran a VM and when done it has 102 important updates available on Windows Update”.

    I fail to understand these sentences, and what I can understand is contradictory: 1 update or 102?, what has VM to do with all this?

    Would it be too much to ask to please rewrite the post so that it can be understood?

    Thanks!

  18. ^^ He meant that he tested this hotfix by installing Windows virtually in VM (virtual machine) and even after installing this hotfix, there were other 102 updates waiting for download.

  19. I click on add but when when i click view basket it says no updates
    I have done it like dozens of times
    Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64 with IE 11

  20. ^^ Download Service pack and run its EXE file. Thats it. It’ll automatically install the required updates and stuff.

  21. Microsoft added a “Notice” in the beginning of the article for this update! It says after this update is installed, you must install update 2732673 to fix a regression issue in the Rdbss.sys file, install update 2728738 to fix a regression issue in the Profsvc.dll file, and install update 2878378 re-released on November 11, 2013 to fix a regression issue in the Advapi32.dll file.

  22. here are the Direct Download Links :-

    32-Bit :
    download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/updt/2013/03/windows6.1-kb2775511-v2-x86_f298cf30fae9f581550d783ac9ad57fcbc7f7587.msu

    64-Bt :-
    download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/software/updt/2013/03/windows6.1-kb2775511-v2-x64_ec18cc10e27faf443c17e7a8073c9eba773eb13e.msu

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