Microsoft is making headway with the development process of Windows 7. The Redmond-based company has now taken Windows 7 all the way to Build 7232, as you can see from the screenshot attached to this article. The past week brought an affluence of Windows 7 pre-RTM leaks, as no less than three builds made it out of Redmond and into the wild. Windows 7 Build 7232, also pre-RTM was wrapped up by the software giant at the end of the past week and is extremely close to the official RTM-Escrow development milestone of the next iteration of the Windows client.

Microsoft is in fact weighting in on whether Windows 7 Build 7232 will be the RTM Escrow build of Windows Vista's successor, according to Wzor. The full build of the release is 6.1.7232.0.winmain.090610-0700, indicating that the code was compiled on June 10. Of course, there is no official confirmation from Microsoft of any details related to Build 7232 of Windows 7 or of the RTM-Escrow Build. Still, the company has been noticeably mute when it comes to the evolution of Windows 7 from Release Candidate Build 7100 to RTM.

Windows 7 will be released to manufacturing in the second half of July 2009. But before it hits RTM, the platform needs to go through an intermediary phase dubbed Escrow. While in Escrow, all code changes on the operating system will be frozen, and the focus will come on confirming that reported bugs have been resolved and that there are no regression issues as a consequence of the under-the-hood or on-the-surface modifications of Windows 7 post-RC.

During the past week, no less than three Windows 7 builds were leaked into the wild and made available for download via torrent trackers and other sources of illegal software, including warez websites. Over the weekend, I had the chance to take a closer look at Windows 7 Builds 7227, 7229 and 7231, all of which are still labeled Release Candidate, an aspect that might just change with Build 7232.

Keep your eyes on Softpedia, and I will provide additional details on Windows 7 Build 7232 soon.