Windows 8 Consumer Preview download now available

Julio Franco

Posts: 9,090   +2,042
Staff member

For those of you either skeptical or eager to check out what's been cooking at Microsoft these past few months since the developer preview was made available, the long awaited day has finally come.

Before going into detail of what's new and included, here are the download links:

You will need a product key upon installation to activate the Consumer Preview, for the English version this will do: DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J

Microsoft decided not to label this preview as a beta as in previous versions. Beyond a simple denomination, we believe Microsoft is trying to convey this is already a stable operating system built on top of the strong foundation established by Windows 7. Having that said, from a usability and visual standpoint, Windows 8 carries the most radical changes we've seen in the OS in over a decade.

In pure Apple-style marketing, Steven Sinofsky, head of the Windows Division, announced today during a MWC presentation that the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 has over 100,000 changes since the Developer Preview released last year.

Key features and additions in the Consumer Preview include the Metro-style dashboard (the new Start screen for Windows), Internet Explorer 10 and other wide range of Metro-style apps that include Mail, Photos, Video, People, Xbox Live, Messaging, among others. The Windows software store is fully functional in the Consumer Preview, Skydrive cloud storage integration, and Windows Explorer enhancements that we had detailed in the past, including the introduction of a ribbon interface, better support for multiple monitors, and the list goes on.

Windows 8 is meant to be a tablet-ready operating system, with a myriad of features dedicated to touch input (zooming, turning, pinching, etc.), however a very small percentage of users downloading and using it today will be paying attention to such. Tablet hardware optimized to run Windows 8 is not expected until later this year.

Even though this is not a final release, Microsoft is already touting speed improvements and optimizations that are part of the Windows 8 upgrade. System requirements are the same as in Windows 7, but the software giant seems confident to say Windows 8 will provide better performance and reliability, quicker startup times and improved battery life.

Other tools also available today:

Permalink to story.

 
Downloading Win 8 CP w/Apps x64 from MSDN. Having trouble download Win 8 Server beta, will try later.
 
Pass. Used it, Hate it, Skip It. The death of Microsoft has officially begun.
 
I'll check this out once I get out of work. I'm very interested in Windows 8, mostly for tablets but as well for my desktop.
 
Even if Windows 8 is a complete failure, it would not be the death of Microsoft. It's not like they have never had an OS fail before.

Windows 95 full of problems
Windows 95B stable / great OS
Windows 98 full of problems
Windows 98SE stable / great OS
Windows ME complete failure
Windows XP stable / great OS
Windows Vista complete failure (in the beginning)
Windows 7 stable / great OS
Windows 8 we'll have to wait to see
 
Guest said:
Even if Windows 8 is a complete failure, it would not be the death of Microsoft. It's not like they have never had an OS fail before.

Windows 95 full of problems
Windows 95B stable / great OS
Windows 98 full of problems
Windows 98SE stable / great OS
Windows ME complete failure
Windows XP stable / great OS
Windows Vista complete failure (in the beginning)
Windows 7 stable / great OS
Windows 8 we'll have to wait to see

As many others have already said, Microsoft has a trend going on. Good, bad, Good, bad .. etc..

So W8 will be a "fail" for at least the Desktop market. So W9 should be good ^^ To the second guest posting, you are funny one, but not funny enough ;) ''Death to Microsoft''? Orly?
 
just finished downloading and burning. next is doing backup of win7 and installing win8cp. hopefully everything will be ok in the end.
 
I missed the word "not" for some reason. Unfortunately being a guest I cannot edit my posts, I did however post below saying "would not***". ;p
 
I really want to try this, but not until I see some Consumer Preview reviews. Can we expect one from Techspot?
 
Can't I install without actually burning the ISO onto a disc? Id prefer installation from Desktop ... I took my Optical Drive out some time ago, considering its pretty much just dead weight, these days everything I do is digitally.

Still downloading 44 minutes, 2.1GB out of 3.3GB @ arund 400kB/s-600kB/s (30mb connection 3.6MB/s).
 
Everyone should at least try it. They announced they've made around 100,000 changes since the Developer Preview.
 
I'll be interesting in seeing what others think about this. I am almost tempted to try it out myself, but I like Windows 7, I am a desktop user so the whole metro thing makes me apprehensive about trying this out. It would be okay if I could install it along side Windows 7, but everything is running smoothly at the moment, the only thing I would like to see is a fix to the horribly slow xfer speeds between CD/DVDs and my hard drive.
 
Looking for gaming performance benchmarks by TechSpot! Please! Please! :D
 
@breakthesilence, it's not possible to upgrade from the dev preview to the consumer preview. I understand you can upgrade from a Windows 7 install however.

@Guest, gaming performance *should* be identical to Windows 7, provided Nvidia nor AMD screw up on the drivers front, which I assume they won't since not much has changed on that regard.
 
I looked at 4 or 5 Preview Reviews and they are pretty positive. It has bugs and features missing (what Preview/Beta doesn't?), but overall the conclusions for each are good. If the Windows 7 public beta is anything to go by, Microsoft should be absorbing consumer feedback (is there a feedback button throughout this W8 Preview like W7 PB had?), and making changes. I'm still excited to try this.
 
breakthesilence said:
Can you " upgrade" from Dev preview to Consumer preview? Or do you have to do a clean install?

Upgrading and Clean Installing

For those of you who have already been running the Windows 8 Developer Preview, you can install the Windows 8 Consumer Preview using the migrate option (just keep personal files), but not the upgrade option (keep personal files, apps, and settings). Or if you prefer, you can of course do a clean installation (keep nothing). The Consumer Preview release does permit upgrading from Windows 7, and will run the integrated upgrade advisor to check on any things you might need to look into. Please keep in mind that there is no rollback after an upgrade installation. We also strongly recommend that you perform a system backup prior to an upgrade, migrate, or clean install of Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Also note that the final release of Windows 8 will not support upgrading from any prior Windows 8 "Preview" release, though the migrate option will still be supported. In any upgrade scenario, you can run the Disk Cleanup Wizard to remove the previous installation in order to free up disk space. The download will also support boot from USB for a completely clean installation as well.
 

Thank you very much ^^

So it finished downloading and I am running the installation from Desktop with Daemon tools. Regardless iv got my USB that I need to put this onto ^^

I hope Microsoft gets licenses in near future for more fonts, its pathetic that Apple bothered to License Helvetica, Century Gothic and other Typefaces .... shame on Microsoft.
 
I?m all for trying out a new OS but this is the generation for big problems. I think I?ll go the route of setting up a virtual machine and play around with it a bit. Then decide if it?s worth the effort. In the past I?ve not had the virtual machine option. I?m seeing may benefits to using them.
 
wow windows 8 is so damn slow it aint even funny ... While my pc aint a time machine it should not be that slow. Takes me like 30minutes to get it all working and then anything that id like to load just takes way too long. I guess its a corrupt installation or maybe HDD failing, but W7 was fine. Whats more, i cant ****ing boot to windows 7 because this BS aint giving me the option to select which OS i can boot from....

fing nightmare .... BS ... w8 ... no thanks
 
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