Windows 8 Community Preview Released

[IanC]

Woohoo - I've been waiting months for this. The Windows 8 "beta" has finally been released (or "community preview" as it's now known):

The download links are available here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows-8/consumer-preview

My first XF forum is set up just for Windows 8, so if you do want to discuss the release then please do join us (we're a friendly bunch) - Windows 8 Forums.

Anyone else giving this a go?

 

[Adam Howard]

For those of you who are part of Microsoft Connect (log-in required)

Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Build 8250):CLIENT
CN: http://connect.microsoft.com/site1147/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=41587
DE: http://connect.microsoft.com/site1147/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=41585
EN: http://connect.microsoft.com/site1147/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=41582
FR: http://connect.microsoft.com/site1147/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=41586
JP: http://connect.microsoft.com/site1147/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=41583
Language Packs: http://connect.microsoft.com/site1147/Downloads/DownloadDetails.aspx?DownloadID=41580

Of course if you have access to Microsoft MSDN, you should have been able to download last week.

Both Connect & MSDN will offer a little bit more speed on downloading -vs- the public front end of things.

 

[Adam Howard]

Should add the obvious notice

• This BETA software. It should not be used as your main system as it can and most likely will have bugs
• This can of course duel boot on another hard drive or via a virtual machine
• You use at your own risk as Microsoft will offer ZERO support.

 

[Digital Doctor]

• You the Beta use at your own risk as Microsoft will offer ZERO support.

That is unbelievable.
Microsoft has a Support Department ?
Who knew ?

 

[Adam Howard]

That is unbelievable.
Microsoft has a Support Department ?
Who knew ?

I've been told it exist... Once you get past the poor English and general script they they read to everyone it's actually...... ...... Nah, not even then.

 

[Taylor J]

Finished downloading the 64bit ISO file, now setting up a VirtalBox for it .

 

[Dragapult]

Been using it for many hours now, it's the sole OS installed on my ThinkPad. Working pretty well, actually. Quite stable and I've not yet found anything that won't run. Pretty much everything that works on 7 works on 8.

The Windows Store is operational, too, already got several Metro-ready apps. Should be a pretty nice OS once finished.

 

[Pereira]

So has anyone tested the the new browser? If so, what's it like?

 

[Dragapult]

So has anyone tested the the new browser? If so, what's it like?

Well it's completely plug-in free, so any site that relies on something like Flash won't work. In the case of YouTube, there is an HTML5 player you can use, though.

There's little point using it on a desktop or laptop, it's clearly designed to be used on touchscreen tablets and other machines like that.

 

[Lucas]

Like at said at Neowin.net, I don't like how I'm being forced into this new Metro UI just to use my OS, I guess I'll have to get used to it and it's the future but I freaking hate it, it's horrible and there are so much blank spaces in those apps, plus I hate fullscreen apps, I like my taskbar for multitasking, not that crappy thing on the left side.

 

[Pereira]

I'm not a huge fan of it either but perhaps I will get used to it. Haven't they kept the same UI as was on Windows 7 tho?

 

[Taylor J]

I'm not a huge fan of it either but perhaps I will get used to it. Haven't they kept the same UI as was on Windows 7 tho?

For the desktop yes.

 

[el canadiano]

Already giving it a go. It's got a very promising interface, but I can't even install NVidia drivers in its current state (freezes every time).

 

[a legacy reborn]

I've been testing it out for a while now(couple of weeks) and have to say that I absolutely hate it! It might be useful for mobile devices but the fact is that I will probably never use a Windows-based mobile device and that most of what I do is from the desktop, something that looks like I will no longer be able to do on a Windows-based computer, unless I wish to run 7 or XP or even 95(but not vista). Hopefully Win9 will be good or at least that seems like the trend with Microsoft: Vista = bad, 7 = Vista's replacement, 8 = bad, 9=?


I understand that there is still the normal desktop but the fact of the matter is that I use my start menu a lot and the Metro-UI is killing me...

 

[Lucas]

Already giving it a go. It's got a very promising interface, but I can't even install NVidia drivers in its current state (freezes every time).

New Windows 8 drivers were released recently.

 

[AdamD]

I can see it working on a tablet, perhaps even a touch screen TV? or laptop, but not a desktop computer.

I couldn't find a way to disable the metro rubbish, there was a registry entry you could modify to remove it, but it's been removed from the consumer preview bit, so I went back to Windows 7

It's a shame, because it did seem to be a fair bit snappier than Windows 7.