Is my version genuine? Hey guys. Sorry for being such a noob, but I actually didn't even think about this until now somehow... I am running the RTM release by Orbit dl'd from Demonoid a couple months back, and it was titled "Windows 7 Ultimate AIO" or something like that. Anyways, after reading the official repo thread, I couldn't match any of the hashes with my .iso. According to OPA tool, my build is 6.1.7600.16385, so all seems to be legitimate and everything has been working perfectly (didn't have to use BIOS mod or loader, as my BIOS has SLIC 2.1, so I just had to install cert. and SLP key via OPA tool). Is it to be expected for the hashes not to match since the .iso I have contains both 32/64 bit versions? Thanks in advance for any help, I used the forum search feature but didn't really find anything...
freeman is right you might want to check that install in some VMs just to make sure no nasty surprises come up. If you can go to Windows Update and update then you are fine.
The hash changes as soon as a time stamp or even a single letter in a text document inside is changed. And when someone artificially creates an "all in one" disc, of course the hash is going to change. It's not realistically possible to know for sure if someone put something malicious into what you downloaded, even if you're able to activate it and update it like a "normal" copy. Just because it says the correct build does not mean there aren't nasties planted inside. The only way to be sure you have something "genuine" is to have an original MS disc or download that clears a hash check.
Never ever download your os, or anti virus from unknown sources, unless you can do the hash check, with all hashes correct etc... Thats as close as you will get to real thing. But never use a os, that someone has updated etc....
Exept when you know the source where its from. I don't even think that private sites will but malware into it. But you can never be secure even not on original discs! (e.g. Sony with his malware on original discs ) The main thing is to have an good scanner on the computer, it maybe can even fix the malware when its inplented on the system...
I appreciate everyone's responses. I did install/run this first on my "crap" computer, just to make sure it was legitimate/things worked fine. A couple friends downloaded the same .iso as well, scanned it with various scanners and ran it on their own systems fine. I was able to update through Windows Update and it passes WGA and everything else is seemingly legitimate. From what I gather from when I dl'd it from Demonoid was this .iso was created using legitimate files, and there were something like 2000~ odd comments on the .iso and a lot of people ran it fine. I have since installed it on my main machine after running it on my other computer for about 6 weeks or so, and everything is running smooth. It seems to check out across the board as the final RTM release after doing a TON of research across forums and whatnot last night, though I have downloaded an MSDN release with matching hashes and will be ready to use that in case something comes up. I have been fairly reassured based on my experiences (no weird processes or background tasks or the like) and other people's replies using the same .iso, so it all looks to be fine...thanks again guys. And for anyone wondering, the torrent was uploaded by Orbit himself and was pre-activated using the blacklisted Lenovo key. It was "confirmed" by many sites to be one of the first legitimate leaks. Like I mentioned above, I had to install a cert./different SLP key using OPA tool to activate it permanently, as I assume that after going through a bunch of Windows Updates that it un-activated itself once it realized what key it was using.