An indication that we are approaching the release of the Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 update is the availability of this tool at the Microsoft Download Center.
A blocking tool is available for organizations that would like to temporarily prevent installation of Service Pack updates through Windows Update.
This tool can be used with:
- Windows 7 Service Pack 1 (valid for 12 months following general availability of the service pack)
- Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (valid for 12 months following general availability of the service pack)
This toolkit contains three components. All of them function primarily to set or clear a specific registry key that is used to detect and block download of Service Packs from Windows Update. You only need to use the component which best serves your organization’s computer management infrastructure.
The first service pack for Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 is currently in beta and is expected to be released sometime after the new year. This tool allows businesses to control the installation of this service pack by preventing it from showing up in Windows Update to end users. They can then implement their own plan to field the update when they are ready to do it.
I believe this tool will also work on home machines if you want to control that availability as well via Windows Update if you use automatic updates in Windows Update. However, in a small network it is much easier to control that install then in a corporate environment.
