Last week the Windows Server team announced the Release to Manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Server 2008 R2 Service Pack 1 (SP1), along with Windows 7 SP1. On February 16, both will be available to current customers of the Windows Volume Licensing program, as well as subscribers to Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and TechNet. On February 22, both will be available to all customers through Windows Update and will also come preinstalled on new servers ordered.

"Is Exchange supported running on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1?" The Exchange team have confirmed that the following versions of Exchange are supported to run on Windows 2008 R2 SP1 (the RTM version of SP1):

• Exchange 2010 SP1
• Exchange 2010 RTM
• Exchange 2007 SP3

There are a couple of things to note:

• Exchange 2007 was not supported to run on Windows 2008 R2 at all before Exchange 2007 SP3.
• Windows 2008 R2 SP1 includes all the hotfixes required to install Exchange 2010 SP1 so if you're installing Exchange 2010 SP1 on a server running Windows 2008 R2 SP1, you don't need to install these hotfixes separately.