Microsoft to automatically push Service Pack 1 update to all Windows 7 users

Microsoft plans to automatically push out its Service Pack 1 update to all Windows 7 owners starting today, the company said in a blog post Monday.

While Microsoft is peddling Windows 8 now, more than 630 million licenses of Windows 7 have been sold to date, so Microsoft still needs to keep an eye on those many users. Windows 7 without Service Pack 1 will stop receiving support from Microsoft in April 2013, so the company is preemptively moving any stragglers over to Service Pack 1 to ensure that they still get updates for security and other issues. Service Pack 1 users will get security updates for free from Microsoft until January 2020.

The Service Pack 1 update will be delivered through Windows Update and will reach all Windows 7 users over the next few weeks. It can take a bit of time to download and install, so be aware of that.

Microsoft recommends that Windows 7 users that don’t have Service Pack 1 free up some disk space and make sure their laptops are plugged in while installing. The company writes:

To ensure Service Pack 1 is installed without issue, customers should check for sufficient free disk space and that AC power is present on a laptop. If additional space needs to be created, we recommend using the Disk Cleanup tool to delete some files so that the service pack will install. If the service pack installation is interrupted, it will reattempt to install automatically after the next restart.

Windows 7 image via Wallpaper US