The pre-beta version of Windows 7 that Microsoft handed out at two major conferences this fall was uploaded to BitTorrent sites almost immediately -- enabling almost anyone with a little tech savvy to begin kicking the tires early.
Now, it's happened again, despite Microsoft's (NASDAQ: MSFT) vaunted tight-lipped policies regarding unreleased products.
Last week, at a Microsoft conference in Beijing, someone swiped a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) image of build number 6956 of Windows 7-- the coming replacement for Windows Vista. The build has since been posted worldwide, according to reports by enthusiast site Windows 7 Center.
The build given out at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference (PDC) and Windows Hardware Engineering Conference (WinHEC), both held in Los Angeles earlier this fall, had been numbered 6801, and sometimes referred to as "M3" for "Milestone 3" in the pre-beta development process. Similarly, the VHD image of the later 6956 build appears to have been purloined during WinHEC China, Windows 7 Center reported.
"Over 2000 leechers are already downloading ... just 3 hours after its upload," a statement posted on
Windows 7 Center's site on Saturday, Dec. 6.
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