Microsoft Releases Windows 8 Developer Preview

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Get your hands on Windows 8 right now!

UPDATE: It's available for download now!

Windows 8 is the star at the Microsoft Build event going on right now, but you don't have to be there to get your hands on this next version of the operating system.

Microsoft will be releasing a Developer Preview for download later tonight. Windows president writes in a blog post:

You probably want to try out the preview release—and you can. Starting later tonight you can download the Windows 8 Developer Preview. This includes a 64-bit (x64) build with development tools to build apps, and a 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) build without development tools. The releases also include a suite of sample applications (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.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.

Stay tuned for more on Windows 8.

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
53 Comments Comment from the forums
  • eddieroolz
    As of now (2:30PDT) the site is still not available. However I'd be stoked if regulars (non-devs) can download this too.
    Reply
  • Check the Winrumors site and see some gorgeous videos. Tom is rather slow nowadays in picking relevant news pieces.
    Reply
  • tupz
    I wonder how long it'l take us all to destroy their servers =/
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    i checked the winrumors site and it said it will not be available till 8:00 PST
    Reply
  • kilo_17
    Can non-devs still D/L this?
    Reply
  • Thunderfox
    kilo_17Can non-devs still D/L this?Sure. It's called BitTorrent.
    Reply
  • CaedenV
    I wonder if this means they will stick with the Win8 name. I know they had said it was just a working title with a real name to come later, but I hope not
    Reply
  • cybr
    Post a link when someone haz. :)
    Reply
  • warmon6
    kilo_17Can non-devs still D/L this?
    to answer your question http://twitter.com/#!/windevs

    0x6d617361 Masahiro David
    @windevs Can non developers download Windows 8 Developer Preview ?
    9 minutes ago
    in reply to ↑

    @windevs
    Windows Developers
    @0x6d617361 Yes, everybody can download it.
    7 minutes ago via HootSuite
    Reply
  • Darkerson
    This should be interesting. I'll definitely be checking this out, one way or another.
    Reply