Build 7229 is the latest development milestone of Windows 7 that has made it out of Redmond and is now offered for download through a variety of third-party sources including warez websites and peer-to-peer networks. The official communication channels from Microsoft might be mute on the development of Windows 7, while the Redmond company's download pipes continue to offer only Build 7100 to the public, but interim builds of the next iteration of the Windows client are being produced at a constant pace, and served to Technology Adoption Program testers and partners.

The ISO images for both the 32-bit and the 64-bit flavors of Windows 7 Build 7229 have been leaked and are now up for grabs in the wild. As far as Microsoft is concerned, the only official Windows 7 downloads still served involve the Release Candidate build, which went live initially more than a month ago, at the debut of May 2009. The Redmond company has repeatedly asked end users to steer clear of illegal downloads of Windows 7, and for good reason, since some of the previous development milestones served through torrent websites were infested with malware.

The full build string of the latest Windows 7 release leaked to web is 6.1.7229.0.winmain.090604-1901. The figures indicate that Microsoft wrapped up the code for Build 7229 on June 4, 2009. This places the compiling of Build 7229 just a couple of days after that of Build 7227. Windows 7 Build 7227 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) was leaked only as a VHD (virtual hard disk) image, and only as 32-bit. Ahead of Build 7227, Build 7201 was also leaked, this time around as both x64 and x86 ISO images.

Microsoft is currently working its way to release Windows 7 to manufacturing. The Redmond company indicated that Windows 7 RTM would come in the second half of July. The successor of Windows Vista is planned for availability on October 22, 2009.

Leaked 32-bit (x86) releases of Windows 7 Build 7229 are accompanied by the following information: MD5: b4c090f45f2a6ce136c4413a8e56a631; SHA1: b3fec2cfc05b6004864ab7ef99a1f9c7ee8d8ba4CRC32: b1bbd756. The 64-bit (x64) releases of Windows 7 Build 7229 feature the following info: MD5: 32460cb7abb9bf5eac65aea7034c798b; SHA1: f3df1990d9242c48bc56515534911838df0abea9 and CRC32: 04fc6b18 (unfortunately Softpedia cannot link to the source of this data due to the fact that the website in question features links to illegal sources of Windows 7 downloads).

As EheX noted, Windows 7 Build 7231 has also leaked and is available for download through torrent trackers. Full build is 6.1.7231.0.winmain.090608-1900. Keep your eyes on Softpedia and I will make sure to provide an update soon.