Updates

Service Pack 1

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (SP1) was announced on March 18, 2010. A beta was released on July 12, 2010. The final version was released to the public on February 9, 2011. At the time of release, it was not made mandatory. It was available via Windows Update, direct download, or by ordering the Windows 7 SP1 DVD. The service pack is on a much smaller scale than those released for previous versions of Windows, particularly Windows Vista.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1 adds support for Advanced Vector Extensions (AVX), a 256-bit instruction set extension for processors, and improves IKEv2 by adding additional identification fields such as E-mail ID to it. In addition, it adds support for Advanced Format 512e as well as additional Identity Federation Services. Windows 7 Service Pack 1 also resolves a bug related to HDMI audio and another related to printing XPS documents.

Some programs have compatibility issues with SP1 and a limited number of programs may experience a loss of functionality.

In Europe, the automatic nature of the BrowserChoice.eu feature was dropped in Windows 7 Service Pack 1 in February 2011 and remained absent for 14 months despite Microsoft reporting that it was still present, subsequently described by Microsoft as a "technical error". As a result, in March 2013 the European Commission fined Microsoft €561 million to deter companies from reneging on settlement promises.

According to Paul Thurrott, Microsoft is not planning another service pack.

Windows Management Framework 3.0

Windows Management Framework 3.0 is an update package that includes updated versions Windows PowerShell (v3.0), Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) and Windows Remote Management (WinRM). It was released on 3 December 2012.

Platform update

A platform update for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 was released on 26 February 2013 after a pre-release version had been released on November 5, 2012. It is also included with Internet Explorer 10 for Windows 7.

It includes enhancements to Direct2D, DirectWrite, Direct3D, Windows Imaging Component (WIC), Windows Advanced Rasterization Platform (WARP), Windows Animation Manager (WAM), XPS Document API, H.264 Video Decoder and JPEG XR decoder. However support for Direct3D 11.1 is quite limited and the update does not include significant features from Windows 8 which depend on DXGI/WDDM 1.2 and Windows RT APIs.