Today marks an important milestone for Windows 7: the arrival of its first service pack since the operating system's release in late 2009.  The service pack doesn't bring any new major features for consumers, but it includes two important back end additions that promise to improve performance in Windows 7's server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 R2.

Most importantly included in SP1 are a number of fixes for bugs and security holes, which may be useful for those who don't use the auto-update feature (no names mentioned) or are applying the update to machines that don't have an active Internet connection.  Other small changes include improved HDMI audio-device performance, a fix for printing mixed-orientation XPS documents, and "improved support" for Advanced Format storage devices.

Learn more about Windows 7 Service Pack 1 as well as how to download it from Microsoft's official Service Pack 1 page.