Windows 8 Consumer Preview download now available

Got it installed on a Pentium 4 2.4Ghz with HT and 1 GB of RAM.

WEI Scores:
Processor: 3.4
RAM: 4.4
Graphics: 2.1
Gaming Graphics: 2.7
Primary Hard Disk: 5.3

Seems usable. Certainly not a speed demon, little surprised the RAM and HD scored so high because it seems when there is a noticeable amount of lag it is when the HD is churning away pretty hard. Suppose thats just the lack of RAM. But I'm not going to be upgrading the RAM in this thing anyway :) (old ram is way too expensive)

Was disappointed on first boot that neither the graphics card (nvidia 6200) nor the audio (some c-media chipset) were not auto detected. So on boot I had 2 resolutions to choose from and no audio. Fortunately this machine also boots into PC-BSD and Windows 7, so I was able to go to the other hard drive and get the nvidia drivers from <Win7Drive>:\nvidia and then I told Device Manager to look in <Win7Drive>:\Windows\system32 to find the audio driver. So I have decent video and sound now.

I moved the pagefile to the other physical hard drive and set its min and max size to be the same. That should help a bit with the disk churning and responsiveness. Since it won't be read writing information to the same drive its read writing swap memory on.
 
''Can I uninstall Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

No. To go back to your previous version of Windows, you'll need to reinstall it from the recovery or installation media that came with your PC.''

****ING OWNED ... biggest bullshit ever. So now I cant get on W7 since i dont have the disc version and windows 8 wont even load without freezing for 1hr .... so bad
 
Well I have it installed here on a DELL Latiitude D620 (Intel Centrino Duo G1, 2GB RAM, 80GB Hard Drive and Intel graphics) and it runs great. What are the specs of your machine? Please do not say some single core Celeron or Sempron from 2003 w/ 512MB of RAM.
 
amd 555 be @ 4Ghz, 4GB RAM, gtx 460 1GB, undid OCs and same ****... Its Attempting Repairs ... if this fails im ****ed ..... will have to format to XP then again to W7 .... or I can try and download my W7 on here and then use USB boot up installation ....
 
4gb ram, 555 be at 4ghz, gtx460 ... it failed repair ... will be trying another auto repair then try to bootup and use the CDBSD or w/e to change the bootloader to W7
 
Pass unless you can switch back to the OLD UI.
The "metro" interface is silly. Plus, as other have
said, the "every other OS" that MS releases, since the
win 3.0 days has been crap.
 
You guys missed Windows 2000 from your list, which was a good, stable OS and interrupts you pattern theory, but I get the point.
 
Guest said:
''Can I uninstall Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

No. To go back to your previous version of Windows, you'll need to reinstall it from the recovery or installation media that came with your PC.''

****ING OWNED ... biggest bullshit ever. So now I cant get on W7 since i dont have the disc version and windows 8 wont even load without freezing for 1hr .... so bad

Maybe you shouldn't be installing a preview OS on your main computer just a thought!
 
Played with Win8 today. Installed on a VM VirtuaBox. I must say that I do not like it at all. I can see this being OK on a tablet but not on my desktop. If M$ does not allow us to completely turn off the Metro crap I will be passing and sticking with Win7. I don't not need a touchscreen optimized OS on my desktop.
 
I'm waiting to see benchmarks with the new Radeon driver. I wonder if there's any change. (Not that I expect a big one.)
 
Maybe they can add a warning in red for future reference. This preview was not aimed at enthusiast they should of kept that in mind that non tech savy people wont know what this will do to their machine.

Yep I know, who would of thought right?

*shakes head*
 
Running it off of VirtualBox, x64 bit, 20GB Storage, 2048 MB Base Memory. OS itself is great, of course its still Beta status and theres a few kinks to work out.
FOR ME-Messenger often does not work correctly, App Store also works few and far between.
Great Idea behind the OS, both a Desktop and an (App based like Xbox 360 Dash) innovative start menu.
I cant wait for the day when there are thousands of apps for this OS.
Definitely buying, in my opinion its better than 7 hands down.


Only downside, I have yet to find a way to close apps easily aside from Alt+F4 and Ctrl+W
 
Top close a metro app left click and hold the top middle of the app/screen and drag it to the bottom as if u are dragging an icon into a folder/trash bin.
 
Having no luck downloading the preview (32bit). The download just won't proceed. Is Microsoft overloaded?
 
Well after playing with Windows 8 for a bit. I will agree with what several others have said. It looks like it would be good for a tablet or phone format. It would take a while to get use to the new look/feel as a daily driver. I do very little social networking aside from e-mail. That?s the feel I get from it, they are gearing it more towards the social networking crowd. The desktop looks about the same other than missing the start button. Once on the desktop most things looked about the same as Win 7. There would be a learning curve to be comfortable with where everything is located again. Aside from that I don?t think it would prevent me from giving the Full release a try one day, provided when it is released, Windows 8 will break Microsoft?s every other OS being poopy curse.
 
Having no luck downloading the preview (32bit). The download just won't proceed. Is Microsoft overloaded?

Have you tried their link for the ISO rather than their akami or whatever download? Conversely if you tried the ISO have you tried their other way?
 
Already installed in our enterprise environment (i'm a network admin), and working as a charm.

Ok, some stuff is still unpolished, Metro isn't very useful for enterprise laptops, but improved copy dialog, task manager are some of the things I was really waiting for!
 
I can't see us getting Windows 8.

We bought a Touchscreen monitor for Windows 7 but find it too annoying to use as it involves reaching out over your desk! WE don't own a touch/smart phone or a tablet and never will.

We don't like the Metro flat look at all, we prefer out icons and everything to have a nice colourful 3D look.

We have no use for Social Networking of any kind. None! That's right we don't use Facebook, Twitter, et al.

We use Firefox/Thunderbird not IE/Outlook. We mainly use out PC for running web browsing, Word typing, DrawPlus Vector drawing, PhotoPlus & PSP pho work, 3D Studio Max, AutoCAD, Songbird and other powerful programs. Also for playing FPS games and Simulation games. We have no use for gimmicky Apps, like weather apps, etc. We use our PC for several hours a day and we push it hard.

We are happy with our level of security, we use Avira, Comodo Firewall and no cloud services at all.

It seems to us that Windows 8 has nothing new for us, and if anything is less suitable to our needs!
 
Not more "upgrades" please as at this rate I'll be going over to Linux. Frequently when an OS is "upgraded" new printer drivers are required. The less ethical printer manufacturers then refuse to supply new drivers unless the printer is still current and on sale. (for example I have a laser printer - a good one - which is now dead in the water for a lack of modern drivers) In most spheres of commerce these "Spanish Practices" would be regarded as theft, but because computers are involved this somehow seems to make it OK. I have read about the parties that are held when the plug is pulled on older versions of software and basically these party-goers are celebrating the fact that they are now going to be able to screw yet more money out of the hapless punter. It sucks.
 
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