Ok, I know, I know… I am late to the table with this one. But hey – better late than never. Have been busy at work this week – very busy so I haven’t had time to post anything.

Anyway, as probably most of you know already Microsoft has publicly announced that Windows 7 will be available in stores on 22 October this year. RTM is expected in the second half of July. This is great news and I am really looking forward to downloading the RTM from TechNet come August.

Clubhouse Tags: clubhouse, story, General Availability, RTM, windows 7

Want to see what Windows 7 may look like in your native language, and you have been frustrated by the lack of available language versions of Windows 7 RC? Be frustrated no more. Microsoft today released 31 Language Packs for Windows 7 RC through Windows Update;

As it is stated in the information on the Language Packs;

After you install this language pack, you can change the display language of Windows 7 to be (your chosen language), Go to the Clock, Language, and Region category in the Control Panel to change the display language.

I will try out the Norwegian Language Pack in the hope that this will not degrade my system significantly, bearing in mind my decision to revert to the English version after trying out the Norwegian x86 version of Windows 7 RC the other day.

The English version of Windows Vista SP2 is now available for download here. As Microsoft themselves put it on the page;

Service Pack 2 for Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista (SP2) is an update to Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 that supports new kinds of hardware and emerging hardware standards, and includes all updates delivered since SP1. SP2 simplifies administration by enabling IT administrators to deploy and support a single service pack for clients and servers. Please see the Windows Server SP2/Windows Vista SP2 page on TechNet/MSDN for additional details and documentation.
Windows Vista SP2 TechNet
Windows Server 2008 SP2 TechNet
SP2 is an update to Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista that incorporates improvements discovered through automated feedback, as well as updates that have been delivered since SP1. By providing these fixes integrated into a single service pack for both client and server, Microsoft provides a single high-quality update that minimizes deployment and testing complexity for customers.
Service Pack 1 is a prerequisite for installing Service Pack 2. Please make sure that your system is running Service Pack 1 before you install Service Pack 2.
Note: Windows Server 2008 released with Service Pack 1 included. Windows Vista SP1 information and downloads can be found on the Windows Vista SP1 TechNet page.
Windows Server 2008 SP2 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 – Five Language Standalone version can be installed on x64-based systems with any of the following language versions: English, French, German, Japanese, or Spanish.
If your system has additional languages please use the All Language Standalone to install SP2.

Basically most bugs have been fixed, and some additional functionality have been added, for instance the ability to burn Blueray discs from the OS. So if you are still running Vista, head on over an start the downloads.