Windows 7, the highly anticipated next incarnation of Windows, has been leaked.

It appears that just a day after WinHEC 2008 China began, an attendee from the conference managed to slip a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) image of Windows 7 Build 6956 onto a portable device and upload it via torrent to the world.

The OS has been uploaded as a Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) image. Not many people know how to convert the VHD into a fully functional install of Windows 7. A few have succeeded, but most people are having trouble and are awaiting the Chinese hackers and community to get an ISO out.

The leak does raise questions about the security plans that Microsoft had in place to prevent leaks like these from happening. On the other hand, Windows 7 Beta 1 is expected to come out on January 13, 2009.  So, Microsoft might not be too much bothered about the leak. There is even a view that the hype created by the leak would be favorable to the popularity of Windows 7.