Windows 8 Consumer Preview Hits 1 Million Downloads

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview wasted no time hitting the first big milestone.

It's been just two days since Microsoft released the Windows 8 Consumer Preview for download but already the software has reached a huge milestone. The Microsoft Windows 8 Build team on Thursday afternoon announced that they had seen one million downloads of the consumer preview after only one day.


Windows 8 Consumer Preview launched on Wednesday morning, approximately six months after the Developer Preview was released in September of 2011 at BUILD. Windows 8 is a notable departure from Windows 7 in that it includes the Metro UI, which most people will recognize from Windows Phone 7. The famous Start button has also been removed and Microsoft has replaced this iconic Windows feature with a sort of hotspot in the bottom left corner. Windows 8 also includes the ability to sign in via Windows Live, and the Windows Store, which is similar to the Mac App Store.

Follow @JaneMcEntegart on Twitter.

Jane McEntegart
74 Comments Comment from the forums
  • olaf
    good for them ... so far not loveing it ...
    Reply
  • beayn
    And... 1 million thumbs down (minus a few weird people).
    Reply
  • upgrade_1977
    Haven't downloaded it yet, no time. Probably download it sunday and try it then.

    olafgood for them ... so far not loveing it ...
    Just for informative purpose's, what are the reason's why your "not loving it"?
    Reply
  • wolley74
    upgrade_1977Haven't downloaded it yet, no time. Probably download it sunday and try it then. Just for informative purpose's, what are the reason's why your "not loving it"?
    pain to navigate, no start menu / desktop / task manager is a pain to use... it's just horrible
    Reply
  • nbelote
    Wolley74pain to navigate, no start menu / desktop / task manager is a pain to use... it's just horrible
    The desktop is there and it's fine. No Start menu? Right click the lower left hand corner, a ton of functions are there and if I can't find something I can start typing in Metro and it shows up immediately. The new task manager is also quite handy. From a sysadmin point of view I like the new server management console that's installable, it's very feature-rich in comparison to the tools provided for Vista and 7.

    Problems? I have none. Accepting that it's the future of Windows is the first step. Using your brain and understanding what's there versus what you need to do is the next.
    Reply
  • hotroderx
    I am not sure I will be in the minority on this but I cant stand the Metro Desktop. I just find it extremely hard to navigate and use. We have used the same basic system of desktop navigation since 1995. I dont understand why after all these years it needs to be changed. Glaring example of how Windows 8 is much harder to navigate is as follows (unless I am missing something) lets open the C: Drive.

    First: Open the Metro Window by going to the bottom left hand corner (far corner) and highlighting the small indent. This will pop up a window that will allow us to access metro window.

    Second: We need to right click any where in the metro Window where there is nothing that will open a bar at the bottom that allows us to click all apps

    Third Once all Apps has been accessed we have to click on Computer which will then exit metro taking us to the desktop with our drives showing.

    All this for something that should be as simple as double clicking the My computer icon on the desktop.

    This system might work great on a touch screen or on a tablet but I just don't see it working that great for the average user.

    Personally I will stick with my Windows 7 unless Windows 8 is given a proper start button or the option to setup a proper start button. Worse case might have to look into going Linux if Windows truly does adopt this new interface access system and continues it down the road.
    Reply
  • jdog2pt0
    I will be skipping Win8 as long as possible and here's why. The current trend is mobile devices, and the problem is that everyone seems to focus on that now, instead of the traditional desktop experience. They seem to forget that PC's still exist. The Windows tile interface is useless to PC users. Ubuntu is going the same path. Unity sucks and HUD is bullshit. Here soon I will be switching to Mint. It's sucks, and I'm not going to encourage it.

    For clarification I use Win7 on my desktop, and Ubuntu on my laptop (my main computer)
    Reply
  • halomasterfs
    sounds good
    Reply
  • masterofevil22
    It's "interesting"...

    I realize this is not the final build, but so far I'm planning on sticking with W7. If I get a windows phone ever (doubtful, GSII ftw..) maybe I'll use it for sync with the next xbox or something, but it's definitely wierd.
    Reply
  • jdwii
    You can get to my computer by right clicking on the bottom left corner of the screen and clicking on windows explorer!
    Reply