There is really no reason to download the Windows 7 release candidate from P2P networks. While it might give a small speed boost it puts the computer system at serious risk of being subverted by trojans that have been build into these unofficial releases. There are two solutions to avoid falling prey to trojan infested Windows 7 installations.
The first option is to download the Windows 7 release candidate directly from Microsoft. This ensures that the release is free of malicious software. If that is not possible or wanted option 2 comes into play which is a simple hash comparison between the downloaded release and the official release by Microsoft. If the hash values match the release is free of malicious software. If they do not match it contains altered code.
Below are the has information for the 32-bit and 64-bit release of Windows 7:
7100.0.090421-1700_x86fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULFRER_EN_DVD.iso
Size: 2.35GB
MD5: 8867C13330F56A93944BCD46DCD73590
SHA-1: 7D1F486CA569EFFFFB719CFB48355BB7BF499712
CRC32: E8A1C394
7100.0.090421-1700_x64fre_client_en-us_Retail_Ultimate-GRC1CULXFRER_EN_DVD.iso
Size: 3.04GB
MD5: 98341af35655137966e382c4feaa282d
SHA-1: fc867fe1ab2e0a9796f9e4d155b44ea6998f4874
CRC32: 58fb2be0
Recent Comments