WINDOWS 8 CONSUMER PREVIEW

Windows 8 Consumer Preview:
Windows 8 Consumer Preview is a prerelease version of Windows 8 that focuses on people and apps and gives you powerful new ways to use social technologies to connect with the people who are important to you. It's Windows reimagined. Windows 8 Consumer Preview is built on the rock-solid foundation of Windows 7 and has the security and reliability features you expect from Windows, but we’ve made it even better. It’s fast, and it’s made to work on a variety of form factors—especially the new generation of touch devices.
Here’s your chance to be one of the first to try it out. We'll be using information from preview users to make the final product even better.
We strongly recommend that only experienced PC users download Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Before you download the preview, you should weigh the pros and cons of installing software that's still in development. If you install the preview release, you'll get to try out the many new features, but you might also encounter errors that you wouldn't encounter using a released version of Windows.
You should consider downloading the Windows 8 Consumer Preview only if all of the following apply to you:







You like to use the latest software and enjoy experimenting with new technology.
You're comfortable backing up a PC, formatting a hard drive, and installing an operating system from scratch.
You feel comfortable troubleshooting PC problems yourself.
You don't mind updating software frequently.
You have the installation or recovery media and the knowledge to restore your previous operating system after you're done testing Windows 8 Consumer Preview.Risks to installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview:

Windows 8 Consumer Preview is stable and has been thoroughly tested, but it’s not the finished product. Your PC could crash and you could lose important files. You should back up your data and you shouldn't test Windows 8 Consumer Preview on your primary home or business PC. You might also encounter problems like:








Software that doesn’t install or work correctly, including antivirus or security programs.
Printers, video cards, or other hardware that doesn’t work.
Difficulty accessing corporate or home networks.
Files that might become corrupted.You should carefully balance the risks and rewards of trying out the Windows 8 Consumer Preview before you install it.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview support:
We’ve created some online forums where you can ask questions and get answers from other Consumer Preview testers and Microsoft support professionals. (We don't offer technical support for prerelease software, including Windows 8 Consumer Preview.)







Visit the Windows 8 Consumer Preview forum
Visit the Internet Explorer 10 Consumer Preview forum
Visit the developer forums for building apps
Visit the IT pro forums for Windows 8 business featuresDownloading and installing

System requirements for Windows 8 Consumer Preview:
Windows 8 Consumer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7:








Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (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 higherAdditional requirements to use certain features:







To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.
To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768.Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup:
When you download Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup, the following happens:








Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup checks your PC to see if it can run the consumer preview, and provides a compatibility report that you can save or print (make sure your devices are connected to your PC and turned on before you run the Setup program). The Setup program then selects the optimized version of the download (up to 25% smaller) that is right for your PC (32-bit or 64-bit).
The built-in download manager lets you start, stop, and resume the download at any time.
Once Windows 8 Consumer Preview is downloaded, you choose how and when to install it. You can install on the current drive or you can make an ISO or bootable flash drive for installing Windows 8 Consumer Preview on another partition, virtual machine, or another PC (requires Windows Vista or Windows 7).
Download

64-bit (x64) Download (3.3 GB)                 Sha 1 hash —1288519C5035BCAC83CBFA23A33038CCF5522749

32-bit (x86) Download (2.5 GB)                Sha 1 hash — E91ED665B01A46F4344C36D9D88C8BF78E9A1B39 Upgrade from previous versions of Windows to Windows 8 Consumer Preview:
You can upgrade to Windows 8 Consumer Preview from Windows Developer Preview, Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP, but you might not be able to keep all of your files, programs, and settings. The following table shows what you can keep during an upgrade depending on the current version of Windows running on your PC:

Current operating system	What you can keep
Windows Developer Preview	User accounts and files
Windows 7	Programs Windows settings User accounts and files
Windows Vista	Windows settings User accounts and files
Windows XP	User accounts and files

　
WarningIf you create installation media, start your PC from the media, and then install Windows 8 Consumer Preview, you won't be able to keep your files, programs, or settings. You must install Windows 8 Consumer Preview using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup program to move files and settings over to Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview download files:
The Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup program will check to see if your PC can run Windows 8 Consumer Preview before downloading either the 32-bit (x86) or the 64-bit (x64) version and will select the architecture that’s currently installed on your PC. The table below shows the sizes of the download packages when using Setup.

Download	Download package size (approximate)
Setup	5.0 MB
32-bit (x86) Windows 8 Consumer Preview	1.5 GB
64-bit (x64) Windows 8 Consumer Preview	1.9 GB

　

If you don't want to use the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup program, you can download an ISO image and use it to create a bootable DVD or USB flash drive to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview.

Product key to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview:
If you install Windows 8 Consumer Preview using the Windows 8 Consumer Preview Setup program, you won't need to enter a product key—the setup program automatically provides the product key. If you create installation media, start your PC from the media, and then install Windows 8 Consumer Preview. You'll need to enter this

Product key: DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J.

Uninstall Windows 8 Consumer Preview:
To go back to your previous version of Windows, you'll need to reinstall it from the recovery or installation media that came with your PC; typically DVD media. If you don’t have recovery media you might be able to create it from a recovery partition on your PC using software provided by your PC manufacturer. Check the support section of your PC manufacturer’s website for more information. After you install Windows 8, you won’t be able to use the recovery partition on your PC to go back to your previous version of Windows.

Need for Microsoft account in Windows 8 Consumer Preview:
A Microsoft account is an email address and password that you use to sign in to Windows. You can use any email address, but it's best if you choose the one you already use to communicate with friends and sign in to your favorite websites. You don't need a Microsoft account to use Windows 8 Consumer Preview, but we highly recommend that you use one. When you sign in to your PC with a Microsoft account, you’ll connect your PC to the people, files, and devices you care about. (If you need an email address, we can give you one for free.)
When you sign in with a Microsoft account, your PC is connected to the cloud and:
Your friends’ contact info and status automatically stay up to date from places like Hotmail, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as soon as you connect those services to your Microsoft account.
You can get to and share your photos, docs, and other files from places like SkyDrive, Facebook, and Flickr.
Your personal settings are synced to any PC running Windows 8 Consumer Preview that you sign in to, including your themes, language preferences, browser favorites, and apps.
You can get apps in the Windows Store and use them on any PC running Windows 8 Consumer Preview that you sign in to.If you've already installed Windows 8 Consumer Preview and didn't sign in with a Microsoft account or you don't have a Microsoft account and want to get one, follow these steps:
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Settings.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, and then click Settings.)
Tap or click More PC settings.
Tap or click Users.
Tap or click Switch to a Microsoft account. Apps and the Windows Store
Yes. With a Microsoft account, you can see all of the apps you bought from the Store and you can install any of those apps on up to five PCs.
To sign up for a Microsoft account
How do use my apps on other PCs:
You can install any of the apps you bought from the Store on up to five PCs. To install one of your apps on another PC:
Open Windows Store, swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Settings.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, and then click Settings.)
Tap or click Accounts and preferences, tap or click View your apps, and then choose the app you want to reinstall.
Internet Explorer 10 Consumer Preview:

 Internet Explorer 10 provides an "add-on free" experience. It supports HTML 5 for video content, but you can't install toolbars and add-ons in Internet Explorer 10.
If you are viewing a webpage that requires an add-on or uses Flash, you can view the content by opening the website in Internet Explorer for the desktop. To do this, swipe in from the right edge of the screen (if you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen), tap or click Settings, and then tap or click Use the desktop.

Find my favorites:
Internet Explorer 10 doesn't use the traditional Favorites from previous versions. Instead, you can pin websites to the Start screen or open a list of pinned sites and frequently visited sites using New tab. If you open Internet Explorer for the desktop, you can use the traditional Favorites, but you can’t access the pinned sites from the Start screen.

View a website in Compatibility View:
To view a website in Compatibility View, open Internet Explorer for the desktop, and then click the Compatibility view button in the address bar.


On the Start screen, swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, and then click Search.)
Enter Default programs, and then tap or click Apps.
In the search results, tap or click Default Programs.
Tap or click Set your Default Programs.
Choose the browser you want from the list.
Select Set this program as default, and then tap or click OK.Can't find the Internet Explorer 10 tile on the Start screen. How do get it back:

Internet Explorer 10 might have accidentally become unpinned. To pin it back to your Start screen, follow these steps:
Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search.
(If you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, and then click Search.)
Enter Internet Explorer, and then tap or click Apps.
In the search results, swipe down on the Internet Explorer icon, and then tap Pin to Start.
(If you're using a mouse, right-click Internet Explorer, and then click Pin to Start.)