For a long time I have been running Windows OS's that I have downloaded and now that I have have came across I was unaware of using a possible hacked version of Windows 7 beyond the activation hacks. I have always read the descriptions of what I was downloading and always performed virus scans before installing them. Right now I am running Windows 7 on my net book and it may be a beta that has been put together. What made me start looking into this situation was that I was trying to load that copy onto a Virtual PC on my legit vista machine. It kept hanging at the Decompression of Files. I thought that was weird since I loaded it on my net book and others just fine. Now that I have found this site, what are the risks of running a Home brewed version of Windows 7 that seems legit from the outside. I am pretty computer savvy but I never figured that I would run into this type of concern. I took the ISO of the version I have and Hashed it. (Hashing is very new to me but figured it out quick) and doing an extensive search I have not found a matching Hash here on this site or anywhere of the site links provided from here. To sum it up I have been using this cracked windows 7 now for at least 3 months and now am wondering if I am at risk for sensitive information. And if there is a way to check if it has ever made an unauthorized connection. I do use an external firewall on my home network and it has never went off but on my net book I use hot spots all the time when out and about. And you guys all seem to know what you are doing here. I have paged through pages and pages of threads and topics here and I am just amazed of how uninformed I was about all the risks of using any OS that has been tampered with. On a side note I did find a copy of 7 and I did the Hash and it checked out by using the info on this site. And it loaded on my Virtual PC just fine.
You should back up all your files, format your hard drive and make a clean install from an authentic ISO There is no other way to sleep well at night
Hmmmm....... I did with out even knowing it. I have heard of hashes before but never knew what they meant or had a reason to dig into what they were for. I am going to wipe my net book as soon as I find my external drive.