In our future, MSFT will take care of many things we did for free, and they may do it for free.

The tools MSFT develop(ed) to do this may be scripted to, or may be (made) distributable and (then) scripted to.

Well, DPINST.exe worked out great for us.  We'll just have to wait and see what M$ releases into the wild.

We're gonna have to collect wisdom on what we can do (if we had not yet), and what we needn't do, and we are always going to be restricted by non redistributable files.
In our future, MSFT will take care of many things we did for free, and they may do it for free.

The tools MSFT develop(ed) to do this may be scripted to, or may be (made) distributable and (then) scripted to.
(While writing this sentence I saw other possibillites we dream of.)

if you are NOT an official win 7 beta tester, don't load (torrents) win 7 from december 18 till fixed beta. (15 jan)

IF you are registered beta tester, you probably also got the news. MVP are often beta testers. I read about a date stamp issue and what I read was not mailed with an NDA delim.
It is beta issue only.
(DriverPacks have a version repository as well, so you know what a date stamp and version check is about.).

MDOP not affected, faik.

We couldn't care less whether it was warez or not (but MS does!) as long as you do not propagate it on the forum, HOWEVER, such "modded" sources are always a big source of errors of all and the most unusual types and will cause unnecessary support issues (stuff, we can't explain because it has never happened to us before etc.) which binds our time and resources and may even prevent legit users from getting legitimate help.

Another issue is the security aspect.
If you are using an OS that you got from dubious sources (and, yes, I consider your friend as such even though or because I do not know him) you no longer have to worry about virus and malware scanners because it most likely already has been compromised at its core.
If folks are "giving away" warez for free, there most be some revenue in for them - as is with any illegal activities.
A nice hidden rootkit with a trojan can be very valuable to certain groups or individuals.

That all is reason enough for us not to support it - or rather not to bother about it at all.
Saves us a lot of nerves and keeps the forum from getting swarmed with warez requests.

Thanks for your cooperation.

Don't trust to a download... I hope this was a lesson to you and you will see the value in getting legitimate.

even if you have to buy vista ultimate so you can downgrade...
it is a good deal if you think of it in terms of pennys an hour that you use it.