Windows 8 Developer Preview Download

@Spoonie · Sep 13, 2011

Will be available later tonight from the following:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/

There are Facebook and Twitter links on the page to get notification.

Tom · Sep 14, 2011

It really does look fantastic. some people are saying its a bit of a monster to use.

sargey · Sep 14, 2011

Been playing with it all morning.

Really good. Deffo geared towards touch screen / tablet machines.

The interface is great. Well worth the download!

realnumber 1 · Sep 14, 2011

Downloaded this tonight but after trying 3 dvd drives it falls over saying there is no driver for them. Will have to pinch a pendrive from work tomorrow to make a bootable USB drive for it and try again over the weekend.

sbridgey · Sep 15, 2011

installed it and it is like windows 7/windows phone 7, very weird i also cant figure out how to close some windows

Krispwee · Sep 15, 2011

realnumber 1 said:
Downloaded this tonight but after trying 3 dvd drives it falls over saying there is no driver for them. Will have to pinch a pendrive from work tomorrow to make a bootable USB drive for it and try again over the weekend.

Probably a dodgy download. Had the same problem and downloaded again with JDownloader and it was fine. Didn't realise the first one I downloaded was only 2GB

realnumber 1 · Sep 15, 2011

Krispwee said:
Probably a dodgy download. Had the same problem and downloaded again with JDownloader and it was fine. Didn't realise the first one I downloaded was only 2GB

That makes sense

. Crashes explorer and errors in DOS on the same bootsect.exe file. Just set it downloading again...

realnumber 1 · Sep 17, 2011

Just downloaded the 32bit version after trying 64bit with no luck. Works fine now.
Looks good, just looks like 7 with a skin on it a bit like htc sense on android and a office 07/10 look to explorer. I'll have a better look over the next few days...

CrippsCorner · Sep 17, 2011

Well this morning I found out multiple tabs in Chrome kinda kills it! Internet Explorer 10 is weird... Tweet@Roma looks good but all I can see is my own posts!?

FiXX · Sep 17, 2011

does it include windows media center?

word_easy · Sep 17, 2011

No it doesn't. Been playing with it for a bit now on my laptop, getting the hang of it, but can't say I prefer it to Windows 7.

FiXX · Sep 17, 2011

hmm i wonder if wmc is getting the boot altogether then.

@Spoonie · Sep 17, 2011

FiXX said:
hmm i wonder if wmc is getting the boot altogether then.

Its alpha software designed for developers to get started using the news tools and interfaces.

@Spoonie · Feb 28, 2012

Consumer Preview (Beta) released tomorrow.

cava83 · Feb 28, 2012

For those who are trying to install it on VMware workstation and getting a license error, un-mount the floppy drive and run the install again, it should be fine.

I think it's ok, just a bit weird, doesn't seem to flow in regards to navigation. Very geared towards touch screen.

@Spoonie · Feb 29, 2012

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso

@Spoonie · Feb 29, 2012

FOr those wanting to follow event (no live feeds)

http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/29/live-from-microsofts-windows-8-press-event-at-mobile-world-cong/

Tom · Feb 29, 2012

Its odd. VERY quick in "7" mode.

James28 · Feb 29, 2012

Downloading consumer version now

James28 · Feb 29, 2012

Shame I can't change the resolution for some reason, and so currently looks shocking.

dk · Feb 29, 2012

Tom said:
Its odd. VERY quick in "7" mode.

If it has a 7 mode I'll be happy, I hate the windows 8 mode, it's just stupid, ridiculous, totally useless without a touch screen.

Might download this new beta to see how it's changed.

Tom · Feb 29, 2012

I've used it for a few hours. OH MY GOD ITS ANNOYING.

2 Separate OS's is stupid. One or the other, metro looks great but isn't very good.

Bear in mind i didnt use the dev edition.

Andy. · Feb 29, 2012

I got a new tablet laptop from work a couple of weeks ago so am quite curious to know how usable this is with it. Win 7 on a touch screen is no different than RDP on the iPad, but with less click accuracy and gestures.

I'll see if I can find a spare 2.5" HDD to play with this week.

James28 · Feb 29, 2012

I find it a bit stupid how it switches between the tile mode, and the mode that looks similar too windows 7. Feels like two different OS's, and that the tile mode is just a nice looking home screen, with little practical function.

Although I haven't investigated it fully yet.

Skeeter · Feb 29, 2012

I dont think your meant to use Metro on a desktop or without a touch screen. I think the idea behind this is that there is a single OS across tablets, laptops, and PCs meaning cross platform compatibility and single versions of software, but with a GUI that is applicable to the device your on. Metro is as useless on a desktop as the standard desktop GUI is on a tablet. Win8 gives you both.

I', fairly certain a standard Start menu will appear in the proper version.

Tom · Feb 29, 2012

i dont think it will.

Skeeter · Feb 29, 2012

Then everyone without a touchscreen will not upgrade to it, making it pretty pointless to include any desktop GUI at all.

dk · Mar 1, 2012

hmm, in the last version it did have a start button in the bottom left, which actually took you to the desktop tiles, now thats gone in this version.

still don't like it, its not at all intuitive, i want it to just act like oldskool if i want it to, should be my choice really.

Revels · Mar 1, 2012

Looks quite cool there. I like the squares.

Tom · Mar 1, 2012

Metro is quite cool, its got some nice ideas.

Where it fails is giving you the choice to go back to the old environment to get things done.

James28 · Mar 1, 2012

Admittedly it does look nice. But thats about all it does for me.
Can't see I'd ever use it. On a PC anyway. Haven't been on the preview so far.

EmirK0 · Mar 2, 2012

Not all that keen on it, like others have said the metro UI is just annoying and pointless on a desktop without a touchscreen. Hopefully MS will sort it out before its released.

ncoppen · Mar 2, 2012

Downloded this and played with it on a virtual box.

It's so annoying it's actually unreal. They just look 7 and added a s**tty tablet interface and got rid of my much loved start bar. It's the worst and most un-intuitive thing that I've ever used in an OS. Would honestly rather have windows 2000..

I can see it being "okay" on a tablet but compared to Android and IOS it's going to fail very badly. So glad that they released a preview version because now I know to not even bother..

CrippsCorner · Mar 2, 2012

I hated people having a go at this online, annoys me because want to just moan for the sake of it.

But boy, where they right.

Been using DP since it came out but I disabled Metro. If I can't do the same on Windows 8 then I think I'll be staying with Windows 7. I really can't see why they've done this

My girlfriend summed it up perfectly last night... "This is f**king s**t".

dk · Mar 2, 2012

Itd be great on a tablet though, and that's where it should stay.

Andy. · Mar 2, 2012

I installed Win8 on VMWare but it doesn't recognise react to my touch screen properly which makes it a pretty crappy experience.

I can't help but think that the who environment would be better off like the Media Centre in Windows 7, in that it is hidden away until you start it, rather than the other way around.

Skeeter · Mar 2, 2012

Are there actually any major advances in W8 under the hood? Or is it just W7 with a new GUI?

If the latter, then staying with 7 is a no brainer. (says the guy posting on a laptop running XP, lol!)

dk · Mar 2, 2012

Lion, avec fusion-windows 7 for me I think. Ultimate combo!

@Spoonie · Jun 1, 2012

Release Preview now available

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso?ocid=W_OFF_W8P_TechCenter_ISO_EN-US

Reko · Jun 1, 2012

Spoonie said:
Release Preview now available

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso?ocid=W_OFF_W8P_TechCenter_ISO_EN-US

Nice!!! thanks for the heads up.

Windows 8 Developer Preview Download

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