Windows 8 Consumer Preview Download: Microsoft Shows Off New OS; How To Try It Now

Five months after last sharing its progress on Windows 8, Microsoft took the stage at Barcelona's Mobile World Congress to reveal what had changed, what had been added, and what had been taken away in its radical new operating system for desktops and tablets.

Microsoft's President of Windows Division Steven Sinofsky was the main presenter in Barcelona, reporting that over 100,000 code changes had been made since the Developer's Preview arrived in September (per Engadget). Among the new features: A built-in music and video store for rentals and downloads (via AllThingsD); an improved interface that earned the praise of "slick" and "fluid" from those in attendance; an updated task manager; and better accuracy and functionality using a mouse and a keyboard.

As part of the presentation, Microsoft also announced that a "Consumer Preview" version of Windows 8 would become available for download for those who can't wait until the official release.

You can download the Windows 8 Consumer Preview here, though we'd only advise this for the technologically proficient. Be advised that if you want to go back to Windows 7 (or any previous operating system) afterwards, you'll need to reinstall from recovery or from the media that came with your PC.

Check out the slideshow (below) for an overview of the new features you can expect from Windows 8.

Comments

[technewsinfos]

12:45 PM on 12/13/2012

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[lifewontwait89]

01:07 PM on 04/18/2012

I've been previewing this OS for a couple of days now, and it's absolutely awful. Having an app screen take precedence over a program list should never happen. "Pinning" shortcuts to the app list just looks ugly, putting them on the desktop clutters my screen and going to the "App List" takes forever. To me, the entire purpose of owning a PC over a Mac is the ability to get things done without taking extra steps. Everything good about this OS was already present in Windows 7, and what is good is merely cosmetic. This OS may be alright for tablets, but it wastes too much time for normal users and the apps waste too much space and power for netbooks.

[fatnugly]

12:54 AM on 03/02/2012

Boy I really have mixed feelings about this. It looks good but putting a tablet GUI on a desktop operating system is not real easy to use. Good thing this is alpha they got a lot more thinking to do I think. It's kind of limiting like the photo app doesn't sync it google picasa plus these little silver light apps are just weird on a desktop environment. Maybe I will get used to it. Basically it's Winodws 7 with a new start menu and some kind of lame apps.

[Tom Hn]

11:08 PM on 03/01/2012

I installed it on a VM for our IT department. So far we have problem with the nvidia quadro graphics card and some of the 3D rendering is misbehaving. I recommend people big on gaming stay with Windows 7 or XP.
We also don't care much about the "Metro" interface. I can see how it is fun on a touch screen, but it dosen't offer any advantage with a keyboard and mouse. To me, it is a bit flashy but not very practical.
Firefox and Chrome don't work in Windows 8 yet so we are stuck with IE...

[Tom Hn]

11:21 AM on 03/01/2012

We don't want another iPad copycat. We don't want frequent security updates. We don't want tablets/computers that crash every day. We don't want anything from Microsoft.

[Angelus2007]

07:08 PM on 03/01/2012

Windows 8 doesn't seem to be an iPad copycat, since it is a full fledged OS that will work on a PC or tablet. Something Apple at this point doesn't have. That said, I have not had a Windows PC crash in years.

[Tom Hn]

10:58 PM on 03/01/2012

My Windows PC has not crashed for years either. It is on the shelf of Goodwill donation center.

[NerdyStudent]

07:38 PM on 03/01/2012

You keep using "We," do you have dual personalities?

[Tom Hn]

11:00 PM on 03/01/2012

"We" in this context means everybody.

[iamwired]

08:49 AM on 03/01/2012

So what's with the fish? Is that their answer to the Penguin or the Mouse?

[NerdyStudent]

07:39 PM on 03/01/2012

It's a logo.

But it's okay...

There's text you can read that tells you the important stuff.

[richj45]

06:59 AM on 03/01/2012

If it still requires an anti-virus program it isn't worth the cost of the dvd its burnt on.. Linux rocks..

[Ironsi]

06:55 PM on 02/29/2012

Question:

Windows 8 Requires a minimun Hard disk space of 16 GB (32-bit).

I have a second laptop attic with 30 GB disk space in the the C: drive, with 10 GB unallocated space in drive E:

Can I install Windows 8 in the unallocated drive? Do I meet the requirement? Or do I have to extend the size of the unallocated drive to 16 GB?

Pls, help. I just want to play with Windows 8 before I install it in my new laptop.

[jgeurian21]

11:57 PM on 02/29/2012

Yup. My suggestion would be to download Virtualbox and then download the ISO.

[Angelus2007]

07:11 PM on 03/01/2012

Not sure, how the beta will work. But I assume it will remove Windows 7. So, you probably would just put it on your C drive. Although I could be wrong.

[Ironsi]

05:37 PM on 02/29/2012

I like Windows 7. Very much!

[Ppenguinator]

05:34 PM on 02/29/2012

It'll be interesting to fid out if the odd/even rule still applies.

[Ironsi]

05:19 PM on 02/29/2012

How long did it take you to download? 4 hrs and download has not reached half way. I am downloading in the University Library which has pretty fast connection.

[iamwired]

09:01 AM on 03/01/2012

15 minutes. Either you got a really bad connection rate, or hopped on when many people are on and downloading it.

[democles]

04:28 PM on 02/29/2012

It is ugly, that's for sure. I guess they can't afford graphic designers.

[NerdyStudent]

07:40 PM on 03/01/2012

Too bad they didn't call you.

[circadian]

04:07 PM on 02/29/2012

Still borrowing for other tech companies, amazing! You'd think they would be embarrassed.

[six seven]

04:29 PM on 02/29/2012

Cite specifics. Seriously. What is borrowed in Win8?

[bcountry76]

04:37 PM on 02/29/2012

Because Apple invented the telephone.

[WTxIndependent]

04:06 PM on 02/29/2012

Installed it on my old netbook just to see how it looks/feels. the install was easy and it seems to work pretty well: gateway lt2104u: Atom 450 (1.66mhz), 2Gb ram, intel graphics (3150).

1 Issue, screen resolution too small for some Metro features.

Already had 5 important updates ready to install...oy.

It looks/moves around as easily as Win7. Gotta mess w/ it some more but I was impressed w/ the ease of the install.

Boot Time; about 19.7sec to the Start screen. Impressive. Win7Home-Basic on this same netbook took about 40sec-45sec

[bcountry76]

04:40 PM on 02/29/2012

Nice review. About the screen res though. You are on a netbook? Inherently small, and can you not change the res? Haven't seen it since the Dev preview and wasn't very impressed back then, but will give the new release a try.

[WTxIndependent]

05:06 PM on 03/01/2012

found a work around for the screen res issue. http://liliputing.com/2011/09/how-to-enable-windows-8-metro-style-apps-on-an-older-netbook.html

b/c it is a dev preview, the features are not perfect but I can see where they're going w/ it. To me it has a sort of phone-OS feel to it; simple/basic, easy to use and arrange most common used features, focused more toward socialmedia/sharing/etc

but i cannot get over the boot speed even w/ an older netbook w/o an SSD. that part is definitely impressive haha

[deezus]

02:58 PM on 02/29/2012

Windows 8 Metro is horrible. I'll stick with Windows 7's Start menu.