Windows 8 Developer Preview release

DOWNLOADS AVAILABLE NOW!!

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/home/

If you’ve been following this blog, then you know today is a big day for the Windows team. At the BUILD conference we are about to preview Windows 8. There’s a ton to see in the product and so we’d really encourage everyone to check out the available streams on http://buildwindows.com, where we will webcast the keynote. The BUILD conference this week is focused on developers and hardware partners, and there are over 100 sessions (all of which will be available from the link above within about a day of the scheduled presentation time). In that sense it is good to keep in mind that today is the launch of the developer opportunity for Windows, not the launch of a product (and certainly not the launch of new devices).

Windows 8 represents a reimagining of Windows from the chipset to the experience. Since this is a week focused on developers, we also detailed the bold underpinnings of the re-imagination of the Windows platform, tools, and APIs. We will show off the opportunity to build applications for all of the customers of Windows 8, no matter what type of PC they have—from tablets to laptops to convertibles to desktops. We will show the brand new tools that allow you to code Metro style applications in HTML5/JavaScript, C/C++, and/or C#/XAML. The investments you have made as developers in all of these languages carry forward for Windows 8, which lets you choose how to best make use of the Windows 8 system services. We talked about Windows 8 being a no-compromise OS for end-users, and it is also a no-compromise platform for developers.

Many are interested in Windows 8 for ARM processors. Everything we showcased today at BUILD also runs on the ARM-based Windows PCs being created by ARM partners and PC manufacturers. Windows 8 running on ARM will ultimately be available with ARM-based hardware that you can purchase. ARM requires a deeper level of integrated engineering between hardware and software, as each ARM device is unique, and Windows allows this uniqueness to shine through. The new development tools enable you to start today to build Metro style applications that will seamlessly run on x86 (32 and 64 bit) or ARM architectures. Even if you use native C/C++ code, these tools will enable Metro style apps to target specific hardware if you choose. As new PCs become available for testing, PC manufacturers will develop seed programs for developers.

You probably want to try out the preview release—and you can. Starting at 8PM today, Seattle time, you can download all of the code that attendees at BUILD received. This includes 32 or 64 bit x86 builds, with or without development tools. The releases also include a suite of sample/SDK applications and the SDK (please note these are merely illustrations of potential apps, not apps that we intend to ship with Windows 8). The ISOs are linked to from http://dev.windows.com. You download with a Windows Live ID (which you might want to use to test out some of the new roaming features).

Upgrade from Windows 7 installation is not supported for pre-release code; only clean installs are supported. Reminder: this is a developer preview release and is not meant for production. It is not a beta release. We will be updating the release with various quality updates and drivers over the coming weeks/months just to exercise our overall update and telemetry mechanisms.

We’ve got a lot more blogging to do. So stay tuned. This blog continues to be a big part of the development process. Now we have a lot more shared context, and so we expect folks commenting on posts to be running the Preview so we share in the context of the release. Let’s keep comments focused on the topic at hand and we’ll pay attention for potential new topics. We know there will be a lot—that comes from reimagining a product used by a billion people!
--Steven

More...


See also:

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...-usb-dvd-windows-8-developer-preview-iso.html

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorial...dows-upgrade-windows-8-developer-preview.html

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2241-virtualbox-install-windows-8-developer-preview.html

 

[Romulinx2]

Thanks will give feedback!

 

[vrosa]

I'm stuck... lolllllllll

 

[speedy1979]

I disabled metro ui. But.....the new taskmanager is gone now. grrrrrr

 

[MXRider]

i created a partition and converted it to dynamic by accident, im f'ed right? i have to reinstall 7?

 

[Boastree]

Ran across this:

To get back the old start menu, open regedit, goto

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer

change value of RPEnabled from "1" to "0"

It worked for me.

 

[davefinster]

Die Metro Style Die!!!!

OK, so I went ahead and installed the Developer Preview, and after a half hour of trying to get past the cellphone interface, experiencing all the while deep annoyance at the disappearance of the Start Menu, mI shut off the computer, pulled out my windows 7 repair disc, and restored my system, making sure to format the drive where Windows 8 was installed so it would never again rear its ugly head on my computer.
Glad I checked it out, though. I now know I won't waste my money on Windows 8 unless it comes with the Start menu and immediate access to the Desktop without having to hack my way into it....
Not that I've developed an opinion or anything...

 

[strollin]

I'll admit that Metro is a different and will take some getting used to but I don't understand why people are doing registry hacks to disable it. Why don't you try it for awhile and see whether you like it or not? Especially since this is just a preview and the final version may be different. I have it installed on a scratch machine that I can revert back to Win 7 whenever I want so I figure I'll stick with the new GUI for awhile.

 

[davefinster]

I'll admit that Metro is a different and will take some getting used to but I don't understand why people are doing registry hacks to disable it. Why don't you try it for awhile and see whether you like it or not? Especially since this is just a preview and the final version may be different. I have it installed on a scratch machine that I can revert back to Win 7 whenever I want so I figure I'll stick with the new GUI for awhile.

I've used a similar interface on a Windows phone, for about a year, and never did learn to like it. I guess Microsoft's new "intuitive" is not the way my intuition works. If the final versiuon is different, I'll give it another look, though...

 

[saiarcot895]

If you want to install Windows 8 to a different partition than the current one, open setup.exe from the sources folder. This will present a install UI similar to Windows 7.

 

[Mercurial]

Anyone know a shortcut for back? I'm sick of right-clicking to see app options

 

[Urthboundmisfit]

Me neither...

Only in VMWare 8 Beta.

TY, already installing (as we speak) in V-Box...

Dowloaded VM Workstation 8 30 day trial, installing...so far...

View attachment 1623

I'm in...:grin:

View attachment 1624

 

[Thorsen]

Got the Dev64 build, but couldnt run it in Virtual Box due to 64x processor not found. So I think that is in the BIOS I started downloading the 32xBuild as well, and went to eat and came back and it had paused, so I still have to wait another hour till download completes....

And I cant restart my comp to check the BIOS till the download is complete....

But I am getting there. Got the first ISO mounted easily with poweriso and had no problems. I want to test VMware Player as well with both since others had issues with it.

 

[jeepmann4x4]

Up n Running... in Vbox!!

 

[Britton30]

Well I for one don't like the Metro stuff. I don't have a touch tablet or monitor and one a Metro app is started, the only way to close it I have found is to power off the VBox. Metro apps completely fill the screen. Hopefully the Win 8 RTM will option the Metro stuff.

 

[Airbot]

You can close the apps out by killing them in the Task manager.

They are meant to be "suspended" in the background to quickly come back up when you want them to. But yeah, it's annoying they don't give you an Exit/Close on them.


There are ways to get back to the desktop if you have a Metro app completely taking up the screen, or make a metro app get pinned to just one side in a column, as I mentioned here:

http://www.eightforums.com/windows-8-general-discussion/2279-how-go-back.html#post25784

 

[bemymonkey]

So.... you guys have been testing for a while, and I have a question:

Have you noticed any changes on the desktop side, apart from the ribbon in Windows Explorer?

When Metro is turned off in the registry, my install looks and feels just like Windows 7... was hoping for a few improvements in that department, actually.


But at least Aero looks better now, with its non-rounded corners and all

 

[Lebon14]

I don't even need to install that I get sick. Leave the darn "Metro" to the tablets and give us something better for actual desktops. Don't have a tablet and don't have a smart phone... I don't need or want either of them.

I hope that Microsoft will actually split these two worlds because they will lose A LOT of people. Especially in the large enterprises, ITs and geek.

I don't even want to download that Preview... At all.

 

[Mercurial]

So.... you guys have been testing for a while, and I have a question:

Have you noticed any changes on the desktop side, apart from the ribbon in Windows Explorer?

When Metro is turned off in the registry, my install looks and feels just like Windows 7... was hoping for a few improvements in that department, actually.


But at least Aero looks better now, with its non-rounded corners and all

Its feels really snappy like x10 snappier than windows 7, fast boot , and explorer is way much faster, not to mention IE10 is blazingly fast O_O


new copy/move dialog and stuff

 

[bemymonkey]

OK, didn't notice much of a speed boost because I was running in a VM

That's nice of course, but I was hoping for more UI improvements (yes, to me the ribbon in Windows Explorer is an improvement )...

So we have:

1. Ribbon (only with Windows Phone 7 mode turned on)
2. Copy dialog
3. New task manager look

Anything else?

 

[Bill2]

Buggy build. Disk image tools- mount sees a vhd but not an iso. Reset/Refresh PC says cant reset/refresh your pc.