Kinect v2 on Windows 7

Question

So I finally got my two Kinect v2's in the mail, and was looking forward to get some raw data from them and see how much they interfere with each other. I went to go download the SDK, and for some reason I had never noticed the Windows 8 requirements... As in Windows 7 isn't supported.

This feels pretty bogus and unnecessary, but fine I can't do anything about that. Before I waste some money to upgrade my machine to an OS that I really don't want, is there any way to get the Kinect v2s to talk to a Windows 7 machine (or maybe even Ubuntu)? I don't need any of the fancy skeletal detection or anything; I just want raw xyz-rgb data. I was reading about OpenNI (and their new Apple overlords), and I was hoping that by some miracle their last open source distributions would be forwards compatible with the Kinect v2s?

TL;DR: Are there any free SDKs that can interface with a Kinect v2 on Windows 7-64bit?

Answer 1

look at libfreenect2

It looks like its not ready yet but there are people working on it. So you might want help them along.

Update 2014-10-28

The Project is live and kicking and works fine

Answer 2

The Windows 8 is MINIMUM requirement to developing kinect v2 you do not need use Skeleton(kinect V1) or Body(Kinect V2) to track body or skeleton . you need use to MultiFrameSource Class

Answer 3

Just dropping by to say that I successfully 'installed' the Kinect 2 SDK to windows 7 and it is being recognized by driver4vr.
I'm not precisely sure which files where required so I'll just post my process.

1. Install VirtualBox (and enable CPU virtualization in bios to support 64bit OS)
2. Install win 8.1 x64 in VirtualBox
3. Monitor the VirtualBox c-drive for changes (I used spy-the-spy)
4. Download and install the Kinect 2 SDK in VirtualBox
5. Check spy-the-spy for all files added, and copy them to your Windows 7 OS on the same location. (It also installs some VC redistributables, so skip the files already there)
6. Reboot windows 7 and enjoy Kinect 2.0 on the final decent MS OS.