Windows 8 Consumer Preview

Michael Wilson 29 Feb, 2012 at 4:02pm ET Article published in Tech

Microsoft has released the consumer preview for Windows 8. There are two ways you can get your hands on it: One is by downloading the ISO while the other is to get the Windows 8 Consumer Preview setup. The setup files are what you should be using if you do not know what or how to use an ISO file.

The system requirements for the preview are as follows (don’t laugh too hard):

Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device or higher
To use touch, you need a tablet or monitor that supports multitouch
To access Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768
To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768
This is a preview and thus many things can change or be introduced. 8 is better than 7, right?

This is only a preview thus many things can be removed, changed, or added. Post your thoughts!

Comments

29 Feb 2012 ~ 4:06pm pigflipper Going to try this as soon as I can get all my data backed up properly; downloading the ISO now though.
29 Feb 2012 ~ 4:10pm Tushon Cool, dl-ing now.
29 Feb 2012 ~ 4:25pm Zanthian How long is the consumer preview good for?
29 Feb 2012 ~ 4:35pm Thrax Preview will probably be good until sometime in early 2013.
29 Feb 2012 ~ 4:42pm AlexDeGruven Excited to see what has changed since the dev preview, which was already pretty close to daily-driver territory for me.
29 Feb 2012 ~ 5:12pm Cliff_Forster This testing methodology did wonders for Windows 7. I'm happy to see Microsoft sticking with a winning plan.
29 Feb 2012 ~ 5:58pm allenpan i wish they release the ARM version of win8 beta....
29 Feb 2012 ~ 6:56pm Zanthian Might have to download for my wife's touchscreen laptop then. I foresee a lot more touchscreen laptops with Windows 8.
1 Mar 2012 ~ 3:34pm Sp00nman Well, Windows 8 installed in 9 minutes in a virtual machine (on my Mac no less). Everything runs smooth. Nice to see a little bit of polish on a consumer preview. We'll play with it for the next couple of weeks and see how it goes.
1 Mar 2012 ~ 6:01pm GHoosdum I used the Developer Preview on my netbook and found it the UI to be a burden for a non-touch interface, however, I can see Windows 8 winning a lot of converts in the casual user category.
1 Mar 2012 ~ 6:13pm Thrax The Metro UI is such a phenomenal waste of desktop real estate. Its coexistence with the ribbon and Aero UI is terrible Ux. And to top it all off, force-feeding Metro to desktop/laptop users is actually a reduction in productivity and usable desktop space.
2 Mar 2012 ~ 9:03am GnomeWizardd
The Metro UI is such a phenomenal waste of desktop real estate. Its coexistence with the ribbon and Aero UI is terrible Ux. And to top it all off, force-feeding Metro to desktop/laptop users is actually a reduction in productivity and usable desktop space.

This is why I decided NOT to sell my Macbook pro, Going back to windows made me shudder
2 Mar 2012 ~ 10:19am Tushon
The Metro UI is such a phenomenal waste of desktop real estate. Its coexistence with the ribbon and Aero UI is terrible Ux. And to top it all off, force-feeding Metro to desktop/laptop users is actually a reduction in productivity and usable desktop space.

This is why I decided NOT to sell my Macbook pro, Going back to windows made me shudder
inb4 you can disable it for a normal desktop experience via Thrax
2 Mar 2012 ~ 10:39am quake101 1) It's very easy to disable (yay for freedom!)
2) If you still don't like that option, buy Win7 as Win8 hasn't even been released?
2 Mar 2012 ~ 12:33pm GnomeWizardd But it is still windows! hehe
2 Mar 2012 ~ 12:37pm quake101
3 Mar 2012 ~ 1:38am Sp00nman I hope this isn't turning into the usual Mac/Windows discussion, there are plenty of other shitty sites to read that on.

But I agree with the statements about UI. Having used it for a while, Metro is clearly meant for fingers, not mice. I think there are some cool things, like docking (snap) to the sides. But those will have to be easier with a mouse than they are today. Overall, it's heading in the right direction if you can have phone-tablet-desktop with a similar and working interface. The trifecta that no one else has been able to create.