Barcelona, Spain — The long wait is over now! Software monopolist Microsoft on Wednesday unwrapped a trial version of Windows 8 preview in Barcelona during Mobile World Congress, available for download to the general public, several weeks after releasing a preview of its widely anticipated new operating system to developers and IT pros. A final version is expected in the fall.
Windows 8 beta software gives public first chance to check out the updated OS that will be crucial to Microsoft’s efforts to become relevant in the tablet market, available now for download via preview.windows.com in English, French, German, Japanese, and simplified Chinese languages.
The Redmond, Wash.-based company said that the developer preview witnessed more than three million downloads. The release is the most feature-complete yet, ahead of the final product’s appearance later this year. Windows chief Steven Sinofsky appeared on stage to address a press event here and to present this “bold re-imagining of Windows.”
Image Source: (InformationWeek.com)
Windows 8 is “beautiful, modern, fast, and fluid,” Sinofsky said, indicating that the new OS is a “generational change” in how Microsoft designed Windows. That last time that happened was with Windows 95 and back then, Redmond had to include a “click to start” button on the bottom left so people knew how to use it. “Our purpose with Windows 8 is to deliver PCs without compromise,” Sinofsky said, which suggests that the OS scales with you depending on how you want to use the OS and with what gadget — tablet, PC, or touch-based PC.
Appropriately designed with touch computing and apps in mind, Windows 8 is crucial to Microsoft’s endeavors to make inroads against Apple and Google in the red-hot tablet market, where Redmond is significantly behind rivals following a failed campaign to convince hardware makers and telecom carriers of Windows 7’s suitability as a tablet OS.
“With Windows 8, we re-envisage the different ways people interact with their PC and how to make everything feel like a natural extension of the device, whether using a Windows 8 tablet, laptop or all-in-one,” Windows chief Steven Sinofsky said in a statement. “We think it will be a super fun experience and will come natural to people,” he added.
In order to operate Windows 8 Consumer Preview, consumers will need a PC or laptop with at least a 1 GHz Intel or AMD processor, 1 GB of RAM on 32-bit systems or 2 GB of RAM on 64-bit machines, 16 GB or 20 GB of disk space respectively, and a graphics card compatible with DirectX9 or higher.
The Consumer Preview of Microsoft’s forthcoming Windows 8 operating system is now available for download, after it was unveiled at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Image credit: (Microsoft)
Windows 8 Consumer Preview can be downloaded for free from Microsoft’s website, which also offers a diagnostic program users can run to verify that their systems are compatible with the OS.
Finally, at the end of his presentation, Sinofsky said the consumer preview had been downloaded by users in more than 70 countries in its first hour of availability. Wednesday also witnessed the beta opening of the Windows Store, which will offer various Metro-style apps to desktop and tablet users of Windows 8. The apps that are currently available are all free to use during the consumer preview period, Microsoft said.
Take a peek at images here.