Microsoft have done a great job of promoting and publicizing their soon-to-be officially released Windows 8 operating system. The Redmond based company have adopted a policy of making sure the computer loving public and the users of their Windows products have been kept in the loop at every stage of the development process, which in turn has led to stringent and rigorous testing by the very people who will ultimately be purchasing the product when it eventually hits the shelves.
The fact that the testing of Windows 8 has gone so well for Microsoft over the last few months will of definitely put them in buoyant mood for the eventual release to the public, but the news that filtered out in the last few days about a leak of the Enterprise N version of the Windows 8 RTM will have gone some way to dampen that new product spirit. We brought you the news two days ago that build number 9200 had been leaked onto the web ahead of the official launch and unfortunately for Microsoft the leaks just seem to keep on coming.
Microsoft will be extremely concerned at the news coming from the underground of the web that a notorious Russian leaker has confirmed his possession of the x86 and x64 versions of Windows 8 Enterprise and has already leaked it into the wild for anyone to download. As if that wasn’t enough of a blow, the Windows 8 Pro version has also been leaked and available to download.
The previous leak that we heard about two days ago was classified as an "N" version of Windows 8 meaning that the software was shipped without Windows Media Player being included thanks to certain rulings from the European Commission. The four builds that were leaked today are not only classified as non-N builds and contain the Media Player software, but also are said to be totally untouched ISOs from Microsoft and are entirely bootable.
As you might expect we have no official word from Microsoft about this latest posting of their currently unreleased software but it is likely to be a massive concern considering these leaks have come pretty much immediately after handing all the builds over to Official Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs). As always we are advocates for purchasing and using the official software and recommend that all users stay away from these leaked versions.
Windows 8 will be available for general public on October 26th. TechNet and MSDN subscribers will be able to download the final copy on August 15th.
(Via Neowin)
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