Microsoft could release the first Service Pack for Windows 7 by the end of the year, according to reports.

According to TechARP.com, Microsoft executives had internally scheduled a two-year development schedule for Windows 7 SP1, but have changed their mind in order to address “serious” performance problems.

The website reports that Microsoft will look to pump out the Service Pack in the last quarter of 2010, which would tally with the first Service Packs for its other operating systems. The software giant launched Windows XP SP1 around ten months after the release of XP, and Vista SP1 appeared 12 months after the Vista RTM. However, Windows 7 has proved a critical success for Microsoft and it’s difficult to identify the “serious” performance issues the Service Pack would target. Microsoft declined to comment on the report, or on a Windows 7 Service Pack in general, offering the standard “Microsoft has nothing new to announce at this time. We do not comment on rumour or speculation”.

Source: PC Pro