Windows 8 Consumer Preview Released

March 1, 2012 · by John Ponio

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview, which includes access to Microsoft’s App Store for the Metro UI, was released earlier today. This is probably not the final build, but it’s most likely pretty close. If you are planning on switching over, you can download the upgrade files(you can upgrade from Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, but make sure to check out the FAQsto see what you’ll retain and what you’ll lose in the upgrade), or do a fresh install from the .iso files.

I previously tried out the Developer Preview and switched back to Windows 7 because I ran into too many performance issues and program problems, but hopefully all issues are fixed in the Consumer Preview. Both AMD and NVIDIA have Windows 8 drivers out, so that should help quite a bit. Don’t expect it to be totally bug free, though, as it still is a “preview” (which is the same as a beta).

To run the new OS you don’t need much of a computer. Here’s the system reqiurements taken from the FAQs:

Processor: 1GHz or faster
RAM: 1GB (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device or higher