14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has yet to confirm officially the RTM, with a small exception, let alone to offer an availability timetable for the first upgrade to Windows 7, but the final Build of Service Pack 1 has already been leaked in the wild.
At the time of this article, various warez websites as well as torrent trackers were offering multiple packages containing Windows 7 SP1 RTM for download.
It all started with third-party sources announcing that Windows 7 SP1 had been released to manufacturing.
A RTM-Escrow build of the operating system dating back to November 2010 has graduated to the full RTM, and people close to Microsoft revealed that the software giant was also close to offering the Windows 7 SP1 Gold bits to its OEM partners.
Obviously, original equipment manufacturers need Windows 7 SP1 in order to pre-install it on new computers that will begin shipping to customers this spring.
Subsequently a Microsoft Russia employee on the virtualization team confirmed the fact that Windows 7 SP1 had gone Gold, and that OEMs were starting to get the release.
Confirmation was also offered of the fact that Build 7601.17514.101119-1850 is the RTM of Windows 7 SP1.
Just hours later, Wzor leaked Windows 7 SP1 RTM as initially promised, and now the service pack is available for download to virtually any user with a BitTorrent client.
Of course, my advice is for users to exercise their patience a tad longer, and instead of going for the leaked version of Windows 7 SP1 to wait for the actual release from Microsoft.
The general availability of the Windows 7 upgrade is not that far off, with the Redmond company already revealing that it will start distributing it to end users no later than March 31st, 2011, although some customers, including MSDN and TechNet subscribers are bound to get the bits sooner than that.