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New Windows 8 screenshots: Traceable builds to plug leaks?

New Windows 8 screenshots have emerged. Though it shows no changes, it does reinforce 'cloud ported user accounts'. Plus, a theory of how leaks are found and plugged.
Written by Zack Whittaker, Contributor

A new image has been leaked, presumably by a Microsoft employee, showing what we have seen in previous weeks already. There is nothing new in this particular set of screenshots, except an interesting wallpaper that has had me thinking.

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We saw a few months ago once slides were leaked on some of the upcoming features of Windows 8, including the possibility of Windows accounts becoming connected to the cloud. It is increasingly likely that Windows Live IDs will hold the key to porting around your Windows account from computer to computer.

Imagine that. Your settings, your desktop icons perhaps, and maybe even your files becoming connected to any machine that you log into. This reinforces Mary Jo Foley's comments late last year, with Windows 8 to possibly showcase 'desktop as a service' which mirrors what has come out of these screenshots so far.

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Granted, for the school and university network I imagine this may not work so well, and I imagine that similarly to how BlackBerry systems work, those connected to a corporate server will only allow corporate logins.

But what got me thinking the most was the desktop wallpaper. It maintains the 'leak identity' consistency from before, asking users of the pre-release Windows 8 builds not to leak the ongoing 'hard work', but look closely.

Can you see a pattern emerging from the screenshot below? Because I can't.

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It would not surprise me to see individualised and unique wallpapers being rolled out to each corporate identity logging into the pre-release operating system on Microsoft's internal 'corpnet', to identify users to leaks when screenshots emerge on the web.

It's merely a theory but nevertheless, it would signify even further mystery as to why the pre-release operating system is being kept under wraps, unlike its predecessor Windows 7, with leaks every few days under Sinofsky's weak supposed 'iron fist' of rule.

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