Windows 7 RTM ‘Year of the Tiger’ Theme Pack

What better way to celebrate the year of the tiger, than with a theme pack from Microsoft? Users running the Redmond company’s latest iteration of the Windows client can now download a new theme via the Windows Personalization Gallery. A Windows 7 ‘Year of the Tiger’ theme pack is available from the software giant free of charge, and can be integrated seamlessly into the operating system.
The six new background images feature tigers, no big surprise in this regard, obviously, given the leitmotif chosen for the theme.

The year of the tiger draws its origins from the Chinese zodiac involving a total of 12 animals. It is a Chinese tradition to associate years with animal archetypes, in cycles of 12. The tiger is third in row in the enumeration which is repeated once every dozen of years. In addition to the tiger, the Chinese zodiac also contains the following animal symbols: rat, ox, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig. Read more

Windows 7 RTM Activation Cracks

It was only a matter of time before methods designed to illegally circumvent the antipiracy measures in Windows 7 made their way into the wild. And, in this regard, the latest iteration of the Windows client joins its predecessors, for which a consistent collection of leaked volume keys, key generators (keygens), hacks, cracks and activation bypass techniques, including those targeting OEM activation, is already available from various sources, for those that know where to look. Now, Windows 7 users can also take their pick of fresh items from the bazaar of activation cracks, and illegally prolong the life of the operating system without activating the product, and of course without buying a license, for that matter.

Ways around the antipiracy protections built into Windows 7 have already been documented, with some techniques even automating the process of bypassing activation altogether. Automated Windows 7 hacks are designed to let users circumvent the activation process with little or no effort on their part. Cracks can, in this context, be run like any other executable, and produce a fully functional, albeit non-genuine, copy of Windows 7. Read more

Windows 7 RTM Multilingual User Interface Packs

Microsoft released the Multilingual User Interface Packs for Windows 7 RTM on August 25th 2009 via Windows Update. At the end of the past week, the direct download links for the Windows 7 RTM MUI Packs were also made public, allowing all users to grab the releases. Of course that not all Windows 7 users will in fact be able to take advantage of the MUI Packs. When it comes down to Windows 7, Microsoft went with the same strategy as for Windows Vista.

In this regard, only the Ultimate and Enterprise editions of Windows 7 are capable of integrating the Multilingual User Interface packs, just as it was the case with Vista’s Enterprise and Ultimate SKUs. Windows 7 Enterprise is of course available only to volume licensing customers with Software Assurance, while Ultimate is the high-end edition of Windows 7, and the most costly.

The MUI Packs allow end users to install more languages than just one in Windows 7 and to have the operating system’s graphical user interface be tailored for each specific additional language. The general strategy for Microsoft is to serve the MUI Packs as optional updates via WU to just Enterprise and ultimate users of Windows 7. But for those who want to grab the Windows 7 MUI Packs themselves, the direct download links are now available both for the 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) flavors of the operating system. Read more

Windows 7 RTM Crack Confirmed by Microsoft

Microsoft confirmed the first crack for Windows 7 Ultimate RTM that surfaced in under a week since the official sign-off date of the latest iteration of the Windows client. For the time being, the Redmond company has not supplied product keys to activate the gold development milestone of Windows 7, except for the OEM-SLP (System-Locked Preinstallation) product keys offered to original equipment manufacturers, as an integral part of the OEM activation 2.1 process. It is in fact a leaked OEM-SLP product key from Lenovo that is the backbone of the first activation hack of Windows 7 RTM. Reports in the wild indicate that the crack is capable not only to bypass the antipiracy measures set in place by Microsoft and activate the operating system permanently, but also pass Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) validation.

“We are aware of reports of activation exploits that attempt to circumvent activation and validation in Windows 7, and we can assure customers that Microsoft is committed to protecting them from counterfeit and pirated software,” a Microsoft spokesperson revealed. Read more