Windows 8 Release Preview [Updated 6/2/12]

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download

This page is now updated 6/2/12.

---

Updated my main box to this, at first my sound card was working then next reboot it feels like not working.

Anyway, fuck Metro. This is going to piss off a lot of people. Microsoft needs to seriously think about adding in a "Classic" Win7 option or make Metro optional.

Otherwise, Explorer is nicely updated to Ribbon2010, and Task Manager is completely badass, but otherwise eh.

Yeah, I hope metro will be optional, because it sucks ass. If it isn't, I'm sure someone will come up with a solution.

Metro - good for fondleslabs, not so good for full fat PCs.

Nlite time I think...

---

Want to try.. Download it now.. =>

---

The traditional Windows desktop is an app that runs within Metro. If you edit the registry to add a Start button and never leave the desktop to go into Metro, then it runs exactly like Windows 7, only faster and ligter.

Rather than editing the registry, it really should be an adjustable easy-to-find setting or ask during installation.

---

I looked into it, there's a couple of lame Third-party solutions available but they're not something I'd use. In the Dev Preview you could disable Metro Start with a Registry edit, but they removed that ability in the Consumer Preview. Yeah. :v

If they want it to be popular in enterprise environments they really need to have a 'Disable Metro' option available...

I've installed it on my work PC and as a web developer I never ever use Metro...

---

The thing is, this will work GREAT with tablets, but they're trying to bring tablet/smartphone style interfaces to the desktop. Say goodbye to effective multitasking. But then again, this is how Microsoft rolls: Windows 95/98 good, ME crap, XP good, Vista crap, 7 good, and this one will be crap. They'll do better next time 8)

---

I think the idea is that if they allowed that, people would just dismiss Metro altogether, instead of including it in their design decisions for Win8 apps?

I could see that. The point of Metro style apps is to create an app that runs on mobile devices and desktops without any change, which I think is a bad idea. Java has tried to do that for decades to no avail. Even web based apps have to cater to different browsers.

---

I think I will give this OS a try, but does anyone know how simple the process of switching back to your old OS is?

---

Apparently, you have to totally reinstall your old OS with your install disc. Not worth it for me.

You can always install it on a separate partition so it doesn't affect your current OS.

---

Not the best option for someone like me who only has like 8GB left of their hard drive :X
Welp, I am not going to try it on my laptop then. Though I might try putting it on a machine I can make out of spare parts.

---

8GB left? Maybe you should consider doing a bit of spring cleaning lol. But once you upgrade your OS (at least with Windows) you can't go back.

---

Actually i found the windows xp disc yesterday and went from vista back down to xp

---

I tried actually (multiple times). I'm probably going to be doing it again soon lol
I'd usually free up about 5-10GB and after a month it would slowly crawl back to what it was before.

It would probably be best if I just installed it on a dummy machine. I have a few spare computers lying around to test this on anyway.

---

First post updated along with the title. It's now the Release Preview.

---