Microsoft released the second service pack for the Windows 7 operating system. It is called “update rollup or cumulative update and covers five years of updates released since 2011 until April 2016.
This is the first major update to Windows 7 since the release of Service Pack 1 in February 2015. It includes hundreds of fixes and improvements to security, stability and ease of use. The pack is completely optional and will not be imposed on via the update center. However, it is not required, in a timely manner if the user has set all the outgoing interim updates for Windows 7.
For the future, Microsoft said that it would begin releasing updates for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows 8.1 (and also Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1, Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2), concerning not only security, on a monthly basis. This will simplify the upgrade process, since all the accumulated updates will be installed “wholesale” only once a month, not bringing sudden computer failure at the wrong time a few times a month.