Windows 8

[rookierahul]

hi everyone i am thinking of buying windows 8 from the upgrade offer but i want to test it before i buy it, i was going to download the consumer preview but it is no longer on the microsofts website. does this mean i can no longer download it. can it be downloaded anywhere else and if so will it work
Thanx in advance

 

[rgd1101]

yep, no more consumer preview as the retail version is out. But most importantly, why upgrade to windows 8? you got a reason?

 

[rookierahul]

yep, no more consumer preview as the retail version is out. But most importantly, why upgrade to windows 8? you got a reason?

its futureproof programs will start releasing on windows 8 now rather than windows 7. more people will move to windows 8 aswell so files might not be compatible against the two (i presume) like office 2010 effects dont open on office 2007 thanx anyways will try and find another way to get the consumer preview

 

[nbelote]

The consumer preview is way outdated. Even if you were to install it or the more current Release Preview, you wouldn't be able to directly upgrade to full Windows 8... you would have to do a reinstall.

With that being the case, your best bet for a trial is the actual Windows 8 90 day evaluation that Microsoft themselves offers. You can download that here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

You cannot upgrade the 90 day evaluation to a full paid version of Windows 8, either, so you'd still be doing a reinstall... but that is the path I would take if I were you. I would install it in a Virtual Machine though,. Something like VMWare Player would do, before I gave up my installed programs, especially if I were just going to trial it.

 

[Labrynthian]

Wait for the first package to come out. That will have a lot of fixes to the initial bugs. Should come out sometime in December.

 

[rookierahul]

The consumer preview is way outdated. Even if you were to install it or the more current Release Preview, you wouldn't be able to directly upgrade to full Windows 8... you would have to do a reinstall.

With that being the case, your best bet for a trial is the actual Windows 8 90 day evaluation that Microsoft themselves offers. You can download that here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

You cannot upgrade the 90 day evaluation to a full paid version of Windows 8, either, so you'd still be doing a reinstall... but that is the path I would take if I were you. I would install it in a Virtual Machine though,. Something like VMWare Player would do, before I gave up my installed programs, especially if I were just going to trial it.

Thank you so much but i want to download an iso and install on a seperate blank partition so i dont loose any data so i dont need a virtual machine software (if thats better?) if not i shall do as you say thanx

 

[nbelote]

Thank you so much but i want to download an iso and install on a seperate blank partition so i dont loose any data so i dont need a virtual machine software (if thats better?) if not i shall do as you say thanx

No that's fine. An entirely separate hard drive would be better, after removing the original, if you happen to have one laying around, otherwise you'll be having to deal with fixing your MBR and removing the additional OS.

Here's a link that'll guide you through removing an additional OS partition on the same drive, in case you've never done it before: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/210983-dual-boot-delete-os.html