The 2009 official release of Windows 7 is causing quite a stir, as a lot of things are going on in Microsoft land. Windows 7 is by all accounts looking faster, smaller and more stable than any Windows release out there. We all know that Windows Vista is here, despite its not being a user favorite and eight-year-old Windows XP is still the dominant version of Windows out there.

But first of all, Microsoft  is warning customers that tools for blocking automatic upgrades to the newest service packs of Windows Vista and Windows XP will expire in the coming months. In a note on a company blog aimed at enterprise IT professionals, Microsoft said the Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) blocking tool expires on April 28, while the one for XP SP3 expires May 19.

Despite the tools' expiration, Brandon LeBlanc, Microsoft's in-house Windows blogger, in a Friday post noted that companies that don't want to upgrade to the Windows service packs won't be forced to do so. Users that have the Automatic Updates feature turned on will receive an alert from Windows Updates indicating that an important update is available for installation. Users can then elect to install the service packs or ignore the update.

The tools, which were released in December 2007, prevent service packs from reaching PCs via Windows Update, Microsoft's default update service, and are primarily used by corporations that have not yet tested or approved the newest upgrades.

"Our goal in announcing the removal of the blockers early is to provide you with an early notification to ensure you're prepared to deploy the appropriate service pack when the blockers expire," wrote LeBlanc.

At the same time, Windows 7 has its catching up to do, as Microsoft on Friday confirmed it will issue no more beta releases of Windows 7 and will instead move directly to a single release candidate and then the final release. The company offered no guidance on when we can expect the Windows 7 release, however.

"The next milestone for the development of Windows 7 is the Release Candidate or 'RC,'" Microsoft senior vice president Steven Sinofsky confirmed in a blog post. "We've released the feature complete Beta and have made it available broadly around the world. The path to Release Candidate is all about getting the product to a known and shippable state both from an internal and external standpoint."

In other words this means that there will be no second beta test release of Windows 7 that is scheduled to die on August 1. Microsoft announced last month that the deadline for downloading the Windows 7 beta had been extended to 10 February, so it seems unlikely that a Release Candidate will appear before the end of this month.