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By George Norman - Software News Editor

Added on 30 Jul 2009(1964 Views)

A crack version of the Microsoft developed Windows 7 operating system, the Ultimate version, which comes with all the bells and whistles, has been spotted in the wild. All just a week since the Redmond-based software giant announced Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 had reached RTM (Release to Manufacturing) status. Great news for all of Microsoft’s paying customers, I’m sure.

The only ones who got the official Windows 7 RTM ISO up to this point are original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). The truth is that the whole P2P, file sharing community got it as well as the RTM is plastered over every torrent site out there, but let’s keep things official. Now that OEMs got their hands on the Windows 7 RTM ISO and the accompanying product key for the OS, it was only a matter of time until the inevitable happened.


And the inevitable did happen: Windows 7 Ultimate was cracked using an OEM product key from hardware manufacturer Lenovo. The crack will activate the Ultimate version of Windows 7 indefinitely and has absolutely no problem bypassing Microsoft’s WGA (Windows Genuine Advantage). Please note that the crack is not limited to Lenovo hardware.

This whole cracking business went something like this: Lenovo received Windows 7 RTM from Microsoft -> the ISO leaked to a Chinese forum -> hackers grabbed the ISO which let them access the OEM-SLP (System-Locked Preinstallation) product key and the OEM certificate -> a cracked Windows 7 Ultimate version is now available in the wild.

Microsoft has not provided an official statement on the subject. At the moment rumor on the web has it that Microsoft will probably address the issue in the future, but these rumors may turn out to be just that – rumors. After all, when Vista was cracked in a similar fashion, Microsoft never did anything to address the issue, so why would it do anything about it now?

I’m not going to link to the cracked version of Windows 7 RTM, or any of the proof-of-concept posts as we here at FindMySoft do not openly support the use of pirated software. Here's a picture though showing you that Windows 7 has been activated successfully.

UPDATE: Microsoft acknowledged the crack, asked users not to get the cracked Windows 7 Ultimate (details here).







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Tags: Windows 7 RTM, Microsoft, Crack, Windows 7 Ultimate

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