Description :
Here's what we know so far...
It's not been a long time when Microsoft released a free Developer Preview build of its upcoming OS "Windows 8" to public. We all were pretty much excited to give it a test drive. Some of us liked it but some of us got disappointed with it. There are many things which have been changed or added in Windows 8 such as new "Start Screen" which has replaced the good old Start Menu in Windows 8, Microsoft Office 2010 like Ribbon UI in Windows Explorer and many other things.
Today Microsoft has released a free Consumer Preview build of Windows 8 to public. You may consider it as a public Beta build, Microsoft has decided to call it as Consumer Preview build.
Since its a Beta build, you should get better performance and lesser bugs compared to the previous Developer Preview build. There are many noticeable changes in this Consumer Preview build such as removal of Start button, a little bit modified Ribbon UI in Windows Explorer, new login screen, better Start Screen, etc.
Interested people can download Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Beta) build using the following download link:
Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Public Beta)
Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Public Beta)
Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup will check to see if your PC can run Windows 8 Consumer Preview and select the right download. Setup also features a compatibility report and upgrade assistance. Built-in tools for creating an ISO or bootable flash drive are available for some previous versions of Windows (excluding Windows XP and earlier).
So, what’s new in the build?
Some of the more noteworthy improvements include OS-wide spell check (this is huge, it’s a feature that has been requested by a lot of people for years), the replacement of the Start button with what is called a "Start preview thumbnail" – which displays a preview of the start screen on top of an interface that allows you to cycle through all of your open apps – and the introduction of "Flyout" notifications.
Some of the more noteworthy improvements include OS-wide spell check (this is huge, it’s a feature that has been requested by a lot of people for years), the replacement of the Start button with what is called a "Start preview thumbnail" – which displays a preview of the start screen on top of an interface that allows you to cycle through all of your open apps – and the introduction of "Flyout" notifications.
One thing that I found to be quite humorous is that Microsoft actually added a feature called "boot forward"; see, due to the vastly improved boot times in Windows 8, it would be tough or impossible to pull up a boot options menu (i.e by pressing F8). They actually had to implement a feature that lets you set boot options prior to restarting.
It would appear that Microsoft finally hired a plumber to solve their constant leak issues as, surprisingly, there have been no Windows 8 build leaks during the interim period from September to now (of roughly five months).
Also, little information has unofficially trickled out since; much of what we learned about the OS during that period is thanks to the notoriously long Building Windows 8 blog posts by Steven Sinofsky.
For further support check also Microsoft's:
Windows 8 Consumer Preview FAQ's
Windows 8 Consumer Preview Forum
Windows 8 Consumer Preview Compatibility Center
Also, little information has unofficially trickled out since; much of what we learned about the OS during that period is thanks to the notoriously long Building Windows 8 blog posts by Steven Sinofsky.
For further support check also Microsoft's:
Windows 8 Consumer Preview FAQ's
Windows 8 Consumer Preview Forum
Windows 8 Consumer Preview Compatibility Center
*by andreascy*
