Windows 7 SP1 coming Feb 22, new Windows Thin PC coming Q1

Contrary to reports which said they were released in January Microsoft today announced that Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 were released to OEM partners today, and the updates will be available to consumers on February 22.

As we've known since back in June when the first beta invites went out for SP1, this is a very minor release. However, the RemoteFX and Dynamic Memory virtualization features in Windows Server are especially noteworthy this time around.

With the release of SP1 today, Microsoft devoted some time to talking about a pair of new features that Windows 7 users can look forward to in the near future: Windows Thin PC (WinTPC) and Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM.)

Windows Thin PC is a smaller, stripped-down version of Windows 7 especially designed for repurposing old PCs and feature-strapped devices into Windows 7 thin clients. This will not require a VDA license that normal thin clients do to access virtual desktops, and it will be available some time within the first quarter of this year.

Wednesday, General Manager for the Windows Commercial business, Gavriella Schuster said, "With Windows 7, we delivered built-in security features such as BitLocker, a full encryption of the operating system to help protect PCs in your organization. Overall, feedback has been positive; however some IT Professionals told us they wanted an easier way to manage BitLocker."

That is essentially what MBAM is supposed to do, and it builds on top of BitLocker in Windows 7 to simplify provisioning and deployment. Not much else has been said about this, but it will be launched in beta in March, and you can sign up for it here.