


"As a reminder, we strongly recommend that customers do not install unofficial software for their own protection," a Microsoft spokeswoman said today. Windows 7, in fact, hit BitTorrent sites just hours after Microsoft handed out a preview build to developers in October 2008, while the official RTM, for "release to manufacturing" build leaked two weeks before the best-connected customers had access to the new operating system. Microsoft's software regularly reaches file-sharing sites before release. "Reports as Service Pack 1, v1.53 and it did not brick my activation, but I'm sure that all depends on the technique you've used for activation."

"Installed and tested, works fine," said someone identified as "cj42057" on. Users who downloaded and installed the pirated build reported that they had successfully updated their copies of Windows 7. BitTorrent sites listed the SP1 preliminary build as a 1.26GB download.
