Windows 7 SP1 Security Updates... What's Included?

Among the most important parts of keeping any computer secure is to update the OS when fixes become available. Microsoft Windows 7 SP1 Beta has been available for test release since July of 2010 while the formal release began late last month (Feb 2011).

To update, users can select the Windows 7 SP1 update in Windows Update (which is the easiest way for one PC), or do it manually by downloading and installing as a separate file (which is the easiest way if you have several machines to update).

The x86 version is about 527 MB while the x64 tips the scales around 903 MB.

Besides fixes and improvements for stability, there are about 80 other fixes generally classified into hotfixes and security updates by our friends in Redmond.

The majority of these can be grouped as follows:

• 25 fixes to help prevent Remote Code Execution  
• 8 Internet Explorer Updates
• 7 Kernel fixes to prevent Elevation of Service 
• 6 .NET framework 3.5, 3.51, and 4.0 fixes
• 5 Elevation of Service fixes related to various vulnerabilities
• 5 Vulnerability fixes that could allow Denial of Service
• 3 Application Compatibility Updates
• 3 Updates  including Rollup/Security updates for Active X, and
• 2 Updates for XML Core Services

While we here are all very much proponents and strong advocates of antivirus firewall software to help keep a PC secure, it's an understatement to say it's important to take advantage of security fixes like these, too.

Put another way: if you haven't applied SP1 to your PCs yet, now's a good time to hop to it.