Microsoft made the first service pack for Windows 7 and 2008 R2 available for public download. This service pack is essentially a "roll up patch" including most security patches and hot fixes released so far.

Aside from patches, service packs typically include some improvements and new features. From a security point of view, RemoteFX may be of interest. RemoteFX extends RDP to allow a more "complete" remote desktop access including access to USB drives from example, more in line with virtual machine desktop clients that can use a local drive to load data on a remote virtual machine.

DirectAccess has been improved as well. DirectAccess requires the use of IPv6, and with SP 1, 6to4 as well as ISATAP are supported.

The RemoteFX and DirectAccess enhancements only affect Windows 2008 R2, not Windows 7.

Some twitter reports suggest that the service pack install may fail if bitlocker is used. If you experience any issues: Please let us know.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff817622%28WS.10%29.aspx

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Johannes B. Ullrich, Ph.D.
SANS Technology Institute
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