Windows 8 Consumer Preview Apps Listed

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Microsoft's upcoming Windows 8 Consumer Preview will come packed with pre-installed apps and games.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview, set to launch sometime within the next few weeks, will come packed with pre-installed Metro-style apps. These will reportedly include Camera, Messaging, Mail, Calendar, SkyDrive, People, Photos, Video and Music. There may also be additional pre-installed apps as well, all updated via the new Windows Store.

Microsoft is reportedly working on enabling SMS support for the Messaging app which is supposedly Windows Live Messenger in disguise, but without the Windows Live branding. Mail, Calendar and People will also be designed as core Windows communication apps, thus tossing out the Windows Live branding.

Sources clam that the Video and Music apps were built by the Xbox team and branded with Zune, but this may be changed to Xbox Live for Windows before the Consumer Preview goes live. Xbox Live for Windows will reportedly be the entertainment brand for Video, Music and Games.

On the gaming front, Pinball and Solitaire are currently slated to be pre-installed in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview. A Metro version of the Xbox Live Companion app, similar to the one currently available on Windows Phone, is also slated as a pre-installed app.

In addition to the pre-installed apps, the Windows Store will offer 11 games at launch. These include Angry Birds, Ms. Splosion Man, Toy Soldiers, Hydro Thunder, Reckless Racing, Ilomilo, Rocket Riot, Full House Poker, Tentacles, Crash Course, and Wordament.

Previous reports claimed that all apps available at the Windows Store launch would be free, and that retail paid apps will be sold once Windows 8 lands on store shelves this fall. Paid apps will cost between $1.49 and $999, with Microsoft initially taking 30-percent of the proceeds, then 20-percent once the app reaches $25,000 in sales. That said, there's a good chance the 11 launch games will be packed with ads, or will be limited demos.

Kevin Parrish
33 Comments Comment from the forums
  • billybobser
    This is looking like it's going to be as bloated as vista.

    Cripes!
    Reply
  • dickcheney
    Metro will still suck.
    Reply
  • rangas
    i will probably wait till W9 to 'upgrade'
    Reply
  • gnesterenko
    Bloated? Nope, runs on less hardware then Windows 7.
    Don't like Metro? Turn it off.
    Don't like the OS? No one forcing you to upgrade.

    So many crybabies... jebus.
    Reply
  • gnesterenko
    I for one am looking forward to having all of my devices run on a single platform and natively communicate with each other without any frills or bending over backwards on my part.
    Reply
  • JasonAkkerman
    billybobserThis is looking like it's going to be as bloated as vista.Cripes!It's the consumer preview. It wouldn't be much of a preview if there were no apps to show off the new features of the OS. There is nothing said in the article about these apps being part of the final version.
    Reply
  • dickcheney
    gnesterenkoDon't like Metro? Turn it off
    The registry hack wont be available in the final version...

    Dont know what you are talking about? Still comments!
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    Yes! The return of Pinball!
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    dickcheneyThe registry hack wont be available in the final version... Dont know what you are talking about? Still comments!It will not be a hack, there will be an option to turn it off within control panel... unless you have the ARM version which will not have the traditional desktop at all, which kinda sucks. So yes, you will have to deal with Metro for a whole 10 minutes while loading the OS and fixing your settings, after that you can deal with the good 'ol broken and useless start menu, instead of the new crappy Metro UI. But all that being said, I have had no problems using it on my netbook, and my only complaint is the required resolution for Metro is higher than my netbook natively supports... but then again I never use it, so I don't really care, and the rest of the OS is amazingly fast considering it is running on an older Atom and 1GB of ram (2GB of ram on my other netbook and there is no real performance difference between the two).
    Reply
  • dickcheney
    caedenvIt will not be a hack, there will be an option to turn it off within control panel... unless you have the ARM version which will not have the traditional desktop at all, which kinda sucks. So yes, you will have to deal with Metro for a whole 10 minutes while loading the OS and fixing your settings, after that you can deal with the good 'ol broken and useless start menu, instead of the new crappy Metro UI. But all that being said, I have had no problems using it on my netbook, and my only complaint is the required resolution for Metro is higher than my netbook natively supports... but then again I never use it, so I don't really care, and the rest of the OS is amazingly fast considering it is running on an older Atom and 1GB of ram (2GB of ram on my other netbook and there is no real performance difference between the two).
    MS position is that the Metro UI is not the default UI, its the mandatory UI.

    Research before spewing BS, thank you.
    Reply