Windows 7 Ultimate cracked already

UPDATE 6:30PM ET Microsoft has responded to news of the crack, telling Betanews that it's "pleased" customers are eager to upgrade, while warning about pirated copies.

Even though it's been In the hands of OEMs for barely a week and has not even made it to general availability yet, Windows 7 has already been cracked.

The crack can reportedly be built on Lenovo's Windows 7 Ultimate OEM DVD .ISO that was leaked to a Chinese forum. Using the leaked .ISO, the OEM-SLP product key and activation certificates can be obtained through the boot.wim.

It is actually a rather simple method of exploiting OEM activation 2.1, an updated volume license activation system which first debuted in 2006 with Windows Vista as "Activation 2.0".

Not surprisingly, Activation 2.0 was also the weak point which was used to crack Vista in 2006. Because it is a volume license, it means someone using the cracked version can put it on as many machines as they want.

Statements from Microsoft are pending.