Windows 8 is ready for business. Designed to deliver the experiences people love and the enterprise-grade solutions companies need, Windows 8 provides what today's workforce wants, bringing new possibilities in mobile productivity, end-to-end security, virtualization and management advancements, and the business tablets you've been waiting for. Try Windows 8 today to experience the new capabilities firsthand and start planning for Windows 8 in your organization.

About This Evaluation

The Windows 8 RTM evaluation provides up to a 90-day evaluation of Windows 8 . It is intended for evaluation purposes only and cannot be used for productive business or personal purposes. In order to use this evaluation, the product must be activated online with Microsoft-hosted activation and validation services. Microsoft does not provide technical support for this software.

Key Features and Changes

  • It delivers new Bing apps, including ones for Travel, News and Sports
  • Improvements to Mail, Photos and People apps since the Consumer Preview
  • Increased personalization options for the Start screen
  • Improved multi-monitor support
  • Refinements to the way people find and download apps through the Windows Store
  • New Family safety features and enriched privacy and security controls when browsing online, including Do Not Track capabilities being turned on by default with Internet Explorer 10
  • Enriched support for touch with Internet Explorer 10, including a new capability with the Release Preview called "flip ahead" that allows users the option to flip between pages with the swipe of a finger, as well as a touch-friendly Adobe Flash Player now fully integrated into IE10; IE10 is also the first browser to enable Do Not Track "on" by default, giving customers more choice and control over their privacy

Important: If you decide to go back to your previous operating system, you'll need to reinstall it from the recovery or installation media that came with your PC, which is typically DVD media. If you don't have recovery media, you might be able to create it from a recovery partition on your PC using software provided by your PC manufacturer. Check the support section of your PC manufacturer's website for more information. After you install Windows 8, you won't be able to use the recovery partition on your PC to go back to your previous version of Windows.

System Requirements:

Windows 8 works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7:

  • 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
  • Internet access (ISP fees might apply)

How to install Windows 8 RTM from an ISO image

The easiest way to convert an ISO file to a DVD in Windows 7 is to use Windows Disc Image Burner. On a PC running Windows XP or Windows Vista, a third-party program is required to convert an ISO file into installable media---and DVD burning software often includes this capability. One option is the USB/DVD download tool provided by the Microsoft Store. You can also download Windows 8 Release Upgrade Assitant, which includes tools that allow you to create a DVD or USB flash drive from an ISO file (Windows Vista or Windows 7 required).