If you've been itching to get your hands on a more stable copy of Windows 8, you can download the consumer preview right now from Microsoft.
Just download the Consumer Preview Setup exe from the page linked below, and it will decide which version of Windows 8 is right for your system. It'll tell you which of your apps are compatible with Windows 8 (if you want to upgrade your current system), grab you a product key, and download any tools you may need to create an ISO or bootable flash drive.
If you prefer, though, you can just grab a regular old ISO image here, in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. While you can upgrade your system to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, only upgrading from Windows 7 will be treated as a full upgrade. Upgrading from XP or the Windows 8 Developer Preview will only save your user accounts and files, but you'll lose your Windows settings and programs (so you may want to dual-boot or install it in a virtual machine, Oracle VM VirtualBox or VMWare Workstation 8. instead).
You can install Windows 8 on Oracle VM VirtualBox and also have posted a step-by-step instructions on Installing Windows 8 on Oracle VM VirtualBox. If you are experiencing problem installing Windows 8 on Oracle VM VirtualBox, We suggest you to install Windows 8 on VMware 8 Workstation. Read my recent article explaining the Step by Step Instructions To Install Windows 8 on VMWare Workstation 8.
February 29th, being a day that occurs once every four years, Microsoft will unleash the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. The download is expected to go live around 9 AM EST and we highly expect the severs to get slammed with traffic.
After various online news, rumours and leaked information, Microsoft has officially unveiled that Windows 8 Consumer Preview of its eagerly awaited Windows 8 operating system would be on hand to the public on 29th Feb 2012, it means, you can download Windows 8 Consumer Preview shortly without any doubt, and you can even test Windows 8 Consumer Preview OS for your Laptop, computer or Tablet PCs.
Ok, lets see what Windows 8 has to do, There are a lot of new features to look forward to in the Consumer Preview including the new start screen, the amplification of the Windows platform, deep Skydrive integration, and much much more.
You can Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview from official website given here.
While we do not have any specifics, we have heard that the download size for the X64 build is a little over 3 GB in size, which is not quite larger for the current generation.
It’s time to free up some hard rive space, install your favourite VM software or make the bold decision to go all in and use the CP as your primary desktop. Whatever your decision is, you have to decide.
Windows 8 is a bold shift from Windows 7 and represents Microsoft’s new direction. Consumers will get their first look since the Developer Preview at how the OS is progressing and how the new interface works in real world use.
However, The best way to run them is not VMware and not wipe your current install. Get a second hard drive (hopefully i guess most of us have a secondary one, may be the old hard disk), unplug your main, install, plug both into your computer and use F12 or a similar key to switch back and forth. No partitions, no slow virtualization. On a practical side, I don't think most would install a beta on their primary PC.
Warning! If you don't know how to install Windows on your own. you probably should not try installing beta on the primary system. This is not even a release candidate. This "beta" is not like a Gmail Beta or simple 20mb "beta" software. This is seriously "beta" and won't be stable for distribution for another several months when the RC's are made available. And even there, the most cynical tend to wait until a few months after official launch (RTM, release to manufacturing) of either these bits or the first service pack (SP1)
There are risks involved, but I am confident in the build. The Windows 7 Beta sure was a lot more stable than you seem to imply that a Beta would be. I know that Beta builds used to be quite unstable, but Microsoft does things differently now. They would NOT release this for general public consumption if they weren't confident that it was stable enough to run for everyday purposes!
You can Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview from official website given here.
If you have successfully downloaded Windows 8 and when you are installing Windows 8 as Virtual machine on VMware Workstation or on Microsoft Virtual PC you may get the following Error, HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED. and followed by a message that “Your PC ran into a problem that it couldn't handle, and now it needs to restart. You can search for the error online: HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED” HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED Error Message On Installing Windows 8 | Solution To HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED
Best of luck to you.
6 comments
Write commentsHaha, I can't wait to download this new operating system :)
ReplyWhile I would agree that people who can't install it for themselves shouldn't be using the CP, I disagree that it would be stupid to run a CP as a primary OS. It's perfectly fine to use a consumer preview (aka beta) as your primary OS as long as you understand the risks implied; while Microsoft has done fairly extensive testing on the build, you understand that there are ways to mess it all up. If you really want to use Metro, but you don't (or can't) partition/VM, it's completely fine to run the beta as your primary, IMO
Replyplease stop calling Metro the new start menu, it's much more than that (for better or worse and personal taste issues aside). Assuming you're staying in metro, the new start screen (not start menu) is a replacement for: the desktop, the sidebar, the notification tray, the taskbar and the start menu.
ReplyThe Metro experience also encompasses the actual running of the Metro apps. People merely erroneously referring to the Metro experience as "the new Start Menu" doesn't account for that.
ReplyI will probably go VM until RC. With vmWare's vGPU on hardware version 8.0 you can get a good feel for the graphics without having to use dedicated hardware. At least running Win7 as a VM works just as well as on real hardware.
Replymain, primary, and only, just as I did with the DP
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