Windows 7 Build 7201 Leaks Onto P2P Networks

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It's jumped a number!

The release of Windows 7 is finally in sight. Microsoft said earlier this week that the new OS will be on store shelves on October 22, and to expect an RTM date of sometime in the second half of July.

From beta to release candidate, Windows 7 moved from build 7000 series to 7100 series. Now information from unofficial channels indicate that the software development team is now working on builds in the 7200 series, though it’s unknown if there’s any significance behind the number bump.

Build 7201 is now available through unofficial sources, such as BitTorrent networks, in both 32- and 64-bit flavors and carries a build tag of “6.1.7201.0.winmain win7ids.090601-1516.”

Microsoft has said that the build 7100 that is still publically distributed is feature complete, so don’t expect significant changes in the 7201 release other than better driver support and slight tweaks.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
15 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jerther
    so don’t expect significant changes in the 7201 release other than better driver support and slight tweaks .

    :) I can wait a bit more time to download genuine from microsoft.

    btw, is a RC2 planned?
    Reply
  • Hanin33
    yep... wot jerther said... i don't get it.. the fascination to get every single build... but to each their own...
    Reply
  • IzzyCraft
    Just more botnet computers for some hacker to ddos some company with. Or if hes lucky steal your info for various needs.

    I don't think if there was a RC2 that it would be public
    Reply
  • Kill@dor
    Definatly knew this was coming... I mean the hackers already have all the builds of windows and that could go either way (good or bad). People are getting their information stolen from their personal folders/files...i.e. my sisters accounts were just robbed 4 days ago. The bank did a refund but still its not fun to deal with. MS really needs to step it up on security. I understand that some hackers do provide higher marketing/money in their pockets to some degree, but for the cost of peoples privacy? And then expect people to buy antivirus software that hackers already bypass?
    Reply
  • zendax
    Vista had two public RC builds. It would make sense given the numbering that 7201 would be an early (internal) build of RC2. Not that it matters. Downloading a new build from torrents with RC1 publicly available is silly, even if you are having compatibility issues with the current build. I think one would be more likely to experience even more issues with an unofficial build, aside from the obvious virus risks.
    Reply
  • jerreece
    I'm running the 7100 RC build I downloaded directly from Microsoft. Have yet to run into a single crash, bug, glitch, driver error, etc. System seems to run quite well. :)

    My modern games run at least as well as they did with Vista 64. (Age of Conan for instance, however DX10 won't work with Win 7).

    I can even throw on an old copy of Warcraft III and it runs fine!! :)
    Reply
  • jerther
    Speaking of old software on 7, we've tried an old Visual dBase application that couldn't run on todays system because of a bug in dBase which caused application to crash if the system had more than 424 Mb of ram, something like this.

    So we've tried the application on Win 7 and 2 Gb of ram and it ran fine!

    What's next? ROTT with sound??? HAHA! :D
    Reply
  • rambo117
    Hanin33yep... wot jerther said... i don't get it.. the fascination to get every single build... but to each their own...yahh, i dont get it either... it's getting kinda annoying hereing about all these new builds comming out.
    until its directly from microsoft, i wont bother with it
    Reply
  • Marcus Yam
    kami3kSo RC1 is feature complete? Where's the XP mode then???You have to download it separately. It's currently in beta mode, but it's in there.

    http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    Build 7201 seems "almost" the same.

    Different themes included, and one little annoyance.

    In 7201, it doesn't like you doing admin tasks without a password set.
    So far, it has also forced me to right click: run as admin for a coule programs to install which I previously hadn't.

    Got it because I destroyed my 7100...
    Reply