It looks like Microsoft’s “shhh… let’s not leak our hard work” plea to Windows 8 testers has fallen on deaf ears. As I told you yesterday, an early development milestone of Windows vNext was leaked in the wild.
The actual Windows 8 bits are now available from a variety of illegal download sources including torrent trackers.
In fact, quite a few users that have not been invited at the Windows 8 testing feast, hesitated little to fire up their BitTorrent clients and downloaded
Build 6.1.7850 6.1.7850.0.winmain_win8m1.100922-1508.
Earlier today I received a link to a batch of screenshots from the recently leaked Windows 8 Build 7850. I’ve included the images below (courtesy of
windows8test via
CNKT).
I must underline one thing about Windows 8 Build 7850, this is a Milestone 1 release, in fact, the last M1 Build that the software giant compiled before starting work on M2.
As such, this particular leaked version of Windows M1 is not as complete in terms of the operating system’s evolution compared to M2 or M3, which is reportedly under development at this point in time.
At a first glance it might in fact pass for Windows 7 without any problems, particularly if the default wallpaper is ignored. However, there are various elements that indicate it’s in fact Windows 8, said wallpaper being one of them.
The Build string reveals that Windows 8 M1 was wrapped up in September 2010, so it’s quite an achievement for Microsoft to have contained a possible leak for over half a year.
The message on Windows 8 M1’s default background image might have something to do with this, with the software giant informing early adopters, including Microsoft’s own that they will be held responsible for leaking the bits.
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