Will Windows 8 take us where 7 or no operating system has gone before?
Windows 8 Consumer Preview Frebruary 2nd, 2012 Word has it that the beta version will be named "Windows 8 Consumer Preview" and should be available within the next 2 to 3 weeks. From the screen shots that I've seen, it looks like Windows 8 may ask you for your product key at the very beginning of the installation process much like the Office 2010 product installation. This may spell the end to the 30 day grace period Windows 7 products allow before you are required to activate.
Windows 8 Beta December 5th, 2011
Word has that the beta version will be available around February or March of 2012. This opens the door for a Release Candidate (RC) in June and a possible Gold or RTM build by late Summer, with public availability by October of 2012.
September 29th, Revised Oct. 10th and Dec. 2nd (Screen Shots now available) How to restore Windows 7 after installing the Windows 8 Developer Preview. This recovery procedure is only valid if you “Upgraded” from Windows 7 to Windows 8, it has not been verified to work if you performed a “Custom/Clean” install of Windows 8. You have two choices: 1) Text only version (available Oct. 1st), use thislink to print a hard copy of the instructions. (Oct' 10th - Basic screen shots of Preview Build installation now available). 2) Text with supporting screenshots link (Added Dec. 2nd), provides the additional visual aid needed to make the recovery process as easy as possible.
September 14th, 2011 Windows 8 - First looks, Updated with more tips Sept 17th 2011 Read More --->
This is not a typical review, yes you will screen screen shots, but more importantly a look at how Windows 8 compairs to Windows 7 and XP from the average users point of view. How easy will it be to adapt to using 8, will everything be easy to find or is will it be an easter egg hunt. Not everyone will have touch screens so does upgrading from an earlier version of Windows make sense. This will be an on going article, a little peak or comments over the comming days and weeks. Could call it a Blog but its not since this is a web based article, so call it a Wlog. The "Read More" will go active as soon as I can do the initail install.
Download a preview build of Windows 8 tonight: later today a developer preview of the new OS will become available. More specifically, at 8pm PST you will be able to download either a 32-bit or 64-bit ISO from the Microsoft Dev Center website. Which you choose to get depends on whether you are a developer or not: only the 32-bit version will come with development tools. Read the full Story here: http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-pick/download-a-preview-build-of-windows-8-tonight-20110913/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- System Requirements Windows Developer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows Vista and Windows 7:
1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor 1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit) 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver Taking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch
Notes about installing the Windows Developer Preview You can't uninstall the Windows Developer Preview. To reinstall your previous operating system, you must have restore or installation media.
Install on: Windows Developer Preview with developer tools Windows Developer Preview (32-bit or 64-bit) Windows 7 and Windows Vista Clean install only You can keep accounts, files, and settings
Windows XP Clean install only You can only keep accounts and files
A clean install is supported on all builds. You will only receive the full set of installation options when setup is launched in Windows.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------- Windows 8 - What We Know So Far 08/24/11 http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/story/286738/windows-8-what-we-know-so-far "All indicators point to Windows 8 being a huge change from its predecessors. While Windows 7 was a tightening, speeding up, and interface-improving of Windows Vista, Windows 8 promises to radically change the operating system—even beyond anything the leaks and rumors hinted at."
Wednesday July 13th, 2011 - More news Microsoft shows off early peek at Windows Server 8Windows Server 8, the server complement of Windows 8 client, is on the same development track and path as Windows 8 client. If we Microsoft watchers are right, both Windows 8 client and server should be out in 2012, possibly in the first half of the year. Read the fully story here: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/microsoft/microsoft-shows-off-early-peek-at-windows-server-8/10002
Buy Windows 7 today, keep same PC for Windows 8 upgrade Microsoft has already shown two technical previews of Windows 8, and announced today that a further preview of Windows 8 is coming in September. http://www.networkworld.com/news/2011/071111-windows-8.html
Tuesday 12 July 2011: Ballmer implores XP users to “switch now”As reported by Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 12 July 2011 17.11 BSTMicrosoft has sold 400m Windows 7 licenses, its chief executive Steve Ballmer told its Worldwide Partner Conference in Los Angeles - but warned that between half and two-thirds of PCs worldwide are still running the ten-year-old Windows XP, for which support will expire in less than a thousand days.Ballmer also alluded to the forthcoming Windows 8, expected in late 2012, which he said would be "a true reimagining of Windows PCs and the dawning of Windows slates." Microsoft demonstrated an early version of Windows 8 last month which it said would work on both desktop PCs and slates.
My thoughts:Trouble is XP still has the lions share of the market and just yesterday I spoke to the local Electric company’s Meter Reader who is attending college and he prefers Windows XP and it’s user interface when compared to Vista and Windows 7.How about a Windows XP Second Edition Microsoft?
July 11th, 2011 If there is going to be any “official” information about the next version of Windows it could well come from the Worldwide Partners Conference: http://www.digitalwpc.com/Virtual Press room: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/wpc/The latest build compiled is build 8042.The complete build string of this build is 6.2.8042.0.110707-1940 which states that the build was compiled recently on July 7.
June 3rd, 2011 REDMOND, Wash. – June 1, 2011 – Today, at the D9 Conference, we demonstrated the next generation of Windows.
Code-named “Windows 8,” for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.
January 5th, 2011 Next Version of Windows to Run on System-on-a-Chip Architectures by Brandon LeBlanc
We announced that the next version of Windows will support System on a Chip (SoC) architectures including ARM-based systems from partners NVIDIA, Qualcomm, and Texas Instruments. On the x86 architecture, Intel and AMD continue their work on low-power SoC designs that fully support Windows, including support for x86 applications.