Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview

A few months ago, Microsoft released the first preview of Windows 8 operating system that was called Windows 8 Developer preview. Although that version was aimed at developers but I’m pretty sure that most of you who love to get hands on with latest technology may have tasted the metro interface of the Windows 8 Developer preview as soon as it was released.

As you may know, Microsoft is all set to release the first consumer preview, and as sources say, it will be available to download at 7:30 PM (IST). Anyone can download and install Windows 8 Consumer Preview from the official website. If you have installed the previous version of Windows 8, you may already know how to install this version.

Windows 8 Consumer preview is a pre release operating system but users will get strong indications about what can be expected once the final version of Windows 8 rolls out. It’s already cleared by Microsoft that Windows 8 will run just fine on computer that meet the following minimum requirements: 1-GHZ processor, 1 GB of RAM, 16 GB of available hard disk space, and DirectX-capable graphics.

Now I guess you all are going to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview. That’s Great !! As I stated above, it’s still for testing purpose. So I suggest that you shouldn’t install Consumer Preview as your primary operating system. Talking about the major changes, Microsoft has come up with a new Windows logo. Up until now, Microsoft had used the multi-colored and multi-paned logo, but the new logo associates the blue, four-paned rectangle with Microsoft’s flagship operating system.

Moreover, Microsoft will also open its Windows Store application market for a preview on Wednesday. You heard it right that Microsoft is releasing it for public but you should be on safe side so that it won’t affect your daily tasks. I’d recommend you to install it on a virtual machine, and for that there are some good applications such as VirtualBox 4, VMware Fusion 4, WMware Workstation 8 etc.

If you don’t know about these applications, you are left with two options: either do a complete research on how to install OS on a virtual machine and then install it carefully or just forget about it and wait for the final product.

Microsoft has updated the Windows 8 official page with the download links of Consumer Preview. The Windows 8 Consumer Preview is currently available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions in English, Chinese, French, German, and Japanese. Download Consumer Preview from the following links:

Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview 64-bit (x64) (English) (3.3 GB)

Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview 32-bit (x86)  (English) (2.5 GB)

Product Key:   DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J

Check out the official page to download Windows 8 Consumer Preview in your preferred language.