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Windows 8 Consumer preview now available for download

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Windows 8 consumer preview released for the consumers to get the experience of the new OS along with touch screen support

Microsoft has revealed their Windows 8 platform at Mobile World Conference and has also made the trail version available for download to the general public. Earlier they had released the developers preview several weeks ago for the developers and IT professionals.

This new Operating System from Microsoft can be considered as a bit crucial as it is built with touch computing and application in mind which will also be released for the Tablets. The latest Windows 8 Consumer Preview is made available for download on the Microsoft’s website. It also offers a diagnostic program which the users can run to verify if their system is compatible with the new OS.

The Windows 8 consumers Preview can be installed on a PC or laptop with a minimum requirement of 1GHz Intel or AMD processor, 1GB of RAM on 32-bit systems or 2GB of RAM for 64-bit machines. It also requires a free space of about 16GB on 32bit system and 20GB for a 64-bit machine.  It also needs a graphics card compatible with DirectX9 or higher. In order to take advantage of the touch feature of the OS users need to use a touch enabled PC.

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview marks as the first opportunity for the general public to see and weigh in on Windows 8 Operating System, which is expected to have a radical change from Windows 7 which was released on 2009. A notable difference of this platform from the earlier one is the Metro Interface, which is based on the interface of the Windows Phone 7. The Metro is designed to run full screen mobile-style applications, as the screen eschews standard application icons in favor of so-called Live Tiles, blocks of screen real-estate that display real-time updates from social networks, email and other services.

Apart from it the Windows 8 version of the ARM chips is not included in the preview for the general consumer. It is made available only for the developers.

Microsoft may also open a beta version of its Windows Store which will mainly be the sole source of Metro Style applications for Windows 8. During the preview period the application will be offered to the consumers for free. 

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Pallab Jyotee Hazarika, 2012-03- 2 (Update: 2012-05-26)