Is Windows 11 Real?

ShashankDahatI agree with a lot of the replies that anytime you download something "leaked" you need to take it with a grain of salt.  And consider the chances of it being hacked software that could potentially contain viruses, or malware or spyware. Like a lot of others, I was tempted to download a copy from one of my trusted download places.  And did.  Although it's unofficial and leak, I do not feel it is fake, hacked, full of viruses, malware, spyware.

I did clean installs on two desktops I had sitting in my closet to test and see the new features.  One was a PC I built myself.  The other was a prebuilt gaming PC from Asus.  On the pre-built pc it automatically detected the product key embedded in the bios and installed the appropriate version of windows 11 based on that.  On the one I built I used the product key associated with my Microsoft account and again it installed the appropriate version based on that key. 

On both PC's I did 6 scans on each pc using Kaspersky, Norton, Mcafee.  I did a full scan, scanning EVERYTHING with each program installed within windows.  I then created the related bootable USB drives for each one, booted, scanned everything again.  So that's 12 scans total between the two computers.  Now, if it's a hacked copy full of virus, malware and spyware, I find it extremely hard to believe that 1 of the 3 major programs didn't find at least something.  Especially when you are isolating the os and doing a scan from a bootable scan from the program's USB drive.

On the PC I built, Windows update installed all of the drivers.  I did not have use any third party installer files from the pc part manufacturers to get drivers loaded.  Windows update took care of all the generic microsoft drivers.

On the Asus Gaming pc, Windows update took care of everything except of a couple Asus specific drivers.  Which was easy enough to fix by running the Asus installers.

Now the Asus pc I had at one time purchased the Windows 10 Pro for Workstations through the microsoft store.  So I couldn't upgrade that on to Pro for Workstations on a clean install.  Which to me makes logical and perfect sense.  Windows 11 isn't officially released.  So of course the windows store is going to be the Windows 10 Windows store, not the Windows 11 one. 

Now, I can't speak for every site out there that has the "Leaked" ISO on it.  And yes, I agree that someone "Could" hack.  Hence like everyone else's points, if you do it, do it at your own risk...  And make sure you really do trust the place you are downloading it from.  Don't just be a trigger happy eager beaver trying to stay ahead of the game.  But the amount of time it would take to alter an entire closed source ISO of an operating system to riddle it with viruses, malware, spyware would be extensive.  Especially for a small group of people.  Given that the leak happened roughly a week before all of the indications Microsoft is giving in regards to an official release of Windows 11, it seems more likely this was a purposeful leak to generate hype, buzz and talk.

It seems more likely this was a leak of the DEV channel release than a hacked version.  So for anyone that does download it and install it...  Expect there to be bugs and expect things not to work appropriately or to their full PC potential.