Windows 7 RC leaks on to net

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 24 Apr 2009 at 15:21

A new version of Windows 7, believed to be the Release Candidate build, is circulating on bit torrent sites.

The leaked build carries the version number 7100 and comments on sites such as The Pirate Bay suggest that it is a genuine Windows build.

Microsoft is expected to offer the Release Candidate to beta testers on 5 May, although the software has already been distributed to the company's OEM partners.

New builds of Windows 7 have consistently appeared on file-sharing sites. The official beta build 7000 was on sites such as The Pirate Bay weeks before it was officially released by Microsoft.

Microsoft has repeatedly urged beta testers not to download the unofficial builds, claiming that they are not intended for public consumption and may contain bugs.

"There's a thrill in getting the latest, we know, but that also comes with risks that can't even be quantified," the company wrote on the Engineering Windows 7 blog last month.

"For the RC we will work to release a hash or some other way to validate the build, but the best way is to always download directly from Microsoft."

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