Microsoft has just announced some of the feature set of the upcoming first service pack for Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2. This will be the first time that Microsoft has officially spoken about the existence of Service Pack 1 (SP1) and any new functionality it may contain. Contrary to what I was previously led to believe, SP1 will contain some new functionality and not just updates. The currently acknowledged features are Hyper-V Dynamic Memory and RDP RemoteFX capabilities.

• Hyper-V Dynamic Memory: Provides Hyper-V Virtual Machines with the ability to have their memory allocation adjusted dynamically while on-line. This will provide a more efficient virtualisation environment where hosted machines can maximise the use of available resources and provide direct performance benefits.
• RemoteFX: Additional capability that enables the Remote Desktop Protocol to leverage the capabilities of a host’s graphics hardware. Providing extra capabilities through RDP such as 3D Hardware acceleration and Video rendering capabilities that have not previously been as responsive or even possible. This will enable more compelling Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment where the Virtual Desktop and real Desktop Environments are more indistinguishable.

For more information see: http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2010/03/18/announcing-windows-server-2008-r2-and-windows-7-service-pack-1.aspx