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Seen this come across Twitter and at a few news sites this morning. Microsoft has released a consumer preview version of Windows 8 for download. I haven't installed it yet, I'm still running the developer preview release so I'll be intersted to see what has changed. It looks to me that the Windows 8 beta will begin soon. Windows 8 download links below. Windows 8 Consumer Preview System Requirements 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 higher Additional 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 the setup which contains tools to create an iso, bootable usb install disk or install directly to another partition. Download Windows 8 Consumer Preview Windows 8 ISO downloads: English version 64-bit (x64) Download (3.3 GB) Sha 1 hash — 1288519C5035BCAC83CBFA23A33038CCF5522749 32-bit (x86) Download (2.5 GB) Sha 1 hash — E91ED665B01A46F4344C36D9D88C8BF78E9A1B39 Product Key: DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J

In the beginning of the Windows 8 project we started with the notion that you should get all that you need for computing from a single PC—that you do not need to choose between two desirable options, but that you can indeed have what you want in a single PC. The Consumer Preview is about saying “of course you can” to all those things you want to be able to do with your PC. You don’t need to choose between consumption and productivity, between portable and powerful, or between touch and keyboard. Windows 8 doesn’t force you to compromise. It isn’t about “modes” of working, but is about seamlessly moving through all the things you want to do on your PC in the way you want to do them. And the first step in achieving that was making sure Windows 8 works great with the hardware and peripherals you already have. To run the Consumer Preview, we recommend you start with your Windows 7 PC identified by a Windows 7 logo. While some software and devices will require updates provided by the manufacturer, we are committed to supporting any device with a Windows 7 logo. Occasionally the manufacturer will decide that a PC or peripheral is not supported and will say so on their website. However, since we are still in pre-release, not every manufacturer has this information available and so we ask your patience during this testing period. Software utilities such as security, management, and disk tools are normally tied very closely to the specific Windows version for which they were designed and will require updates from the manufacturer. Whether you have a logo PC or you’ve built your own PC, the recommendations for the Consumer Preview include: 1 GHz or faster processor 1 GB RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit) 16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit) DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver This setup gets you going with Windows 8 such that it is functionally equivalent to Windows 7, and as we have talked about previously, you should see measureable improvements in performance in a number of dimensions with a system at this level. One new element to Windows 8 is the requirement that Metro style applications have a minimum of 1024x768 screen resolution, and 1366x768 for the snap feature. If you attempt to launch a Metro style app with less than this resolution (e.g. 800x600, 1024x600) you will receive an error message. Since the software is in everyone’s hands now, we will follow up with a more detailed blog post where you can learn more about the work we did for scaling across multiple resolutions and why this is a requirement in order to make sure developers can easily build applications that scale well across resolutions. We chose to allow Windows 8 to install even when a system doesn’t meet this requirement because, even without Metro style applications, your Windows 7 workloads on these PCs will improve and you can benefit from all the other features of Windows 8, including enhancements to the desktop. We have made sure that Start and Settings all scale well on 800x600 resolution screens. Many of you asked about running on a virtual machine. Our recommendation for the Consumer Preview is to run it natively on hardware if you intend to run Windows 8 on hardware when the product is final. Some of you will run virtualized environments for enterprise workloads or specialized purposes, but we strongly recommend that you experience Windows 8 on hardware, as it was designed to run for the majority of consumer experiences. The most important reason is access to the rich experience powered by accelerated graphics, and the fast and fluid operation that you’ll experience when running this way. If you do run in a VM, which is supported as expected, please be sure your screen size meets the minimum requirements. We previously outlined some of the requirements for touch hardware if you wish to experience Windows 8 in a touch environment (a touch tablet, convertible, all-in-on, or touch-capable monitor). We want to provide a short update on touch below and will post more about this soon. With the Consumer Preview, if you want to support touch, you will need a screen that supports multi-touch. Although there are a number of existing Windows 7 touch devices and many are fully supported, we do recognize the touch experience of Windows 8 places a greater demand on a high quality experience than could have been foreseen when manufacturers were developing hardware for Windows 7. Our data is showing that a vast majority of Windows 7 touchscreens will perform well for Windows 8. This means that touch drivers continue to load, and you’ll be able to perform basic touch interactions with a reasonable degree of success. The following systems are a few that we have been using widely in our internal testing and self-hosting, although of course, this is not a specific endorsement of these PCs: HP Elitebook 2760p convertible (Note: This PC is 1280x800 and so does not support snap.) ASUS EP121 tablet (Note: his PC is 1280x800 and so does not support snap.) Dell Inspiron Duo convertible Lenovo x220t convertible 3M M2256PW 22” display (Note: The raised bezel can make it harder to swipe along the edges) Samsung Series 7 slate (Note: This PC has two models, one was provided to attendees at //build/ and the other is a commercial release the latter has slightly different peripherals and firmware.) It is also worth noting a couple of other features that have specific hardware requirements. (Note: be careful whenever you adjust your BIOS settings.) Secured Boot requires a new UEFI BIOS, which is not available broadly on PCs yet, but is starting to be made available. If your machine does have UEFI, you can enable it via BIOS settings. BitLocker does not require but performs more seamlessly if your PC has a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Machines that have this sometimes require it to be enabled via BIOS settings. BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive that meets performance criteria evaluated at installation time. Hyper-V requires a 64-bit system with second level address translation (SLAT) capabilities and an additional 2 GB of RAM. You can also enable SLAT via a BIOS setting. Some games and other software require graphics capabilities compatible with DirectX 10 or higher (including some games available in the Consumer Preview and in the Windows Store. We will continue to improve the verification of your system prior to downloading or running software with these requirements). Some games and programs might require a graphics card for optimal performance. If you clean install instead of upgrade (see below), you should check your PC manufacturer's website to make sure you install any specific drivers that they provide there. Many laptops will get better battery life with a power-optimized driver that is specific for that PC (often known as ACPI, Power, or Chipset driver). Oh, and for a lot of things you’ll probably want an active Internet connection! Be sure to check out the there is no rollback after an upgrade installation[/b]. We also strongly recommend that you perform a system backup prior to an upgrade, migrate, or clean install of Windows 8 Consumer Preview. Also note that the final release of Windows 8 will not support upgrading from any prior Windows 8 "Preview" release, though the migrate option will still be supported. In any upgrade scenario, you can run the Disk Cleanup Wizard to remove the previous installation in order to free up disk space. The download will also support boot from USB for a completely clean installation as well. Happy downloading and installing! Grant George Source: Windows 8 Blog

Today is a big day for the Windows team. At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain a few moments ago, we unveiled the Windows 8 Consumer Preview to our partners and press. Based on a broad range of feedback, we have made over 100,000 code changes and the Consumer Preview represents a refined product ready for broad and daily usage by those of you willing to test a pre-release OS. You can download the Consumer Preview starting now at http://preview.windows.com. If you tried the Windows 8 Developer Preview, then you are going to be delighted to see a broad range of product changes and improvements based on a feedback from many sources. Windows 8 reimagines Windows, from the chipset to the experience. With the Developer Preview we focused on presenting the new APIs and amazing new tools for developers. Today’s Consumer Preview is focused on a broader audience, and along with improvements to the WinRT APIs based on developer feedback, we are introducing the full user experience, the Windows Store for apps, and early previews of some first- and third-party apps. With so much to dive into, let’s talk about what is different in the Consumer Preview at a high level: Broad range of product changes and improvements: Since the Developer Preview in September, designed to preview the programming platform, Windows 8 has progressed across every dimension. From completing the user experience for touch, keyboard, and mouse, to refining the development platform, to improving performance, quality, and reliability across all subsystems as well as new features, the Consumer Preview represents a complete view of the capabilities of Windows 8. Windows Store with an “App Preview” of new apps: The Windows 8 Consumer Preview marks the opening of the Windows Store for testing. You’ll see a variety of new Metro style apps from both third-party developers and Microsoft. During the Consumer Preview, these apps are available to try and experience at no cost to users. Please note, these apps and the set of preinstalled apps are at an early stage of development and are available as an early App Preview, and will be updated via the Windows Store. In addition, the Store will offer personalized recommendations, and Windows 8 gives users the ability to take their apps and settings with them across multiple PCs, making it easy to discover and try new apps while offering developers the greatest opportunity of any platform Connecting to the cloud across Windows PCs and Windows Phones: You’ll experience seamless integration with the content across your web services. Optionally signing in with a Microsoft account provides access to features including the ability to roam all settings, use cloud storage, communicate with email, calendar, and contacts, and connect to a broad range of services. Your connection to the cloud works across your Windows PCs and your Windows Phones. You’ll also experience early previews of the Metro style apps for Mail, Calendar, People, Messaging, Photos, and SkyDrive. Internet Explorer 10 Platform Preview 5: With IE10, we reimagined the browser to create a new experience designed specifically for Windows 8 devices. It provides an edge to edge interface that is all about less browser, and more web. Fast and fluid, IE is hardware-accelerated to enable web performance. The same rendering engine and high-performance script engine is available on the Windows desktop as well. We’ve detailed many features in this blog across all the subsystems of Windows 8. From the kernel, networking, file system, graphics, and the user interface across all of those. There’s no easy way to enumerate the depth and breadth of Windows 8 in a post. The best thing to do is experience it yourself. We encourage everyone to check out our demo video, and all the videos and information on http://preview.windows.com. From there you can also download the Consumer Preview for x86/64. For developers, there is also a beta of Visual Studio 11. We’ll publish a quick look at system requirements for this release, but the short version is that your Windows 7 logo PC is the perfect place to start as the system requirements have not changed. You can upgrade from the Developer Preview or from Windows 7, or install cleanly (we strongly recommend a hardware installation and not a VM install if you are looking to experience the release as the vast majority will experience it, and please keep in mind the minimum screen resolution required is 1024x768). 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. Please keep in mind that this is a test release of a product still under development. We’ve got a lot more blogging to do. So stay tuned for details of the changes we made and the features we haven’t had a chance to talk about yet. This blog continues to be a big part of the development process. Now that we have this shared experience, we expect folks commenting on posts to be running the Consumer Preview so we’re all sharing the same context. We know there will be a lot of feedback—that comes from reimagining a product used by a billion people! Happy downloading and testing! --Steven on behalf of the Windows 8 team Source: Windows 8 Blog

Here’s my ‘live’ FAQ with all the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, Windows Server 8 beta and Visual Studio “11″ tidbits from my contacts and around the Web. Source: All About Microsoft

Have you checked and made sure you allow both TCP and UDP inbound and outbound connections on port 21? I don't run FTP on my servers so to test out what happens when it's installed I activated the FTP roll and setup FTP for one website. I can connect without making any changes to my firewall rules. I then changed configuration to use SSH and was still able to login. The only thing I can see causing the problem is the firewall rules since it works with the firewall off.

Microsoft is not part of any new antitrust complaints against Google+ in Europe, company officials said. Source: All About Microsoft

The firewall rule should automatically be added when you turn on the service. It sounds like this could be a problem with the upgrade to 7.5. Have you tried uninstalling the service and reinstalling it?

Microsoft is launching the Consumer Preview of Windows 8 on February 29. Here’s what testers may see once the bits are downloadable. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft Research is showing off publicly more natural-user-interface and Kinect-based projects ahead of the company’s annual TechFest research showcase for employees. Source: All About Microsoft

A Microsoft roadmap slide sheds some additional details on the scope of the work the company is doing to integrate Hadoop with Windows Azure and Windows Server. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft has forged a new partnership with Good Technology to bring encrypted email support to Windows Phone. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft officials have finally started talking about Tango, the next update to the Windows Phone operating system. Source: All About Microsoft

The coming Office 15 client apps all seem to be getting a new ‘touch mode’ button that will enable them to work better on touch-centric devices. Source: All About Microsoft

Never seen this problem. Maybe this is a java applet and you don't have the java sdk installed on the server?

Microsoft has begun sharing information about the beta of VS 11, the next release of its tool suite for Windows 8, that will be released on February 29. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft is adding new features to the next versions (Wave 15) of its SharePoint Server and SharePoint Online offerings. Here are early looks at some of those. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft is adding another Facebook-linked feature to Bing known as Linked Pages. Source: All About Microsoft

In the latest round in the never-ending patent wars, Microsoft has filed an antitrust complaint in the EU over Motorola Mobility’s video-patent-licensing terms. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft is leaning toward adding more social analytics and data-enrichment components to its Dynamics CRM update due in the latter half of this year. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft’s response to The Daily’s latest Office on iPad story provides a lesson in how to interpret Microsoft’s official responses to information the company isn’t ready to share. Source: All About Microsoft

Microsoft plans to open two retail stores in New Jersey in the coming months, growing its brick and mortar presence slowly toward its 75-store target. Source: All About Microsoft

If the Daily.com is right, Microsoft’s Office for iPad could be launching well ahead of Office for Windows 8 on ARM tablets. Source: All About Microsoft

If the Daily.com is right, Microsoft’s Office for iPad could be launching well ahead of Office for Windows 8 on ARM tablets. Source: All About Microsoft

With Windows 8, weve changed how we think about languages from a "local-market feature" to a "feature for everyone everywhere," and have made it a priority for you to be able to work in any language you want, from any Windows 8 PC. If you cant read the text that Windows presents to you, you cant use Windows to its fullest potential. Thats why we are so excited to bring powerful, easy-to-use language features to more users than ever in Windows 8. In some countries, people can purchase PCs with a variety of languages preinstalled. With Windows 8, users will be able install additional display languages beyond those preinstalled languages. This means that the language of the PC no longer needs to be a major consideration when deciding on which model to buy. If the language you want is not preinstalled on the PC you like, you can now install the one you want. But for some families, allowing the installation of an additional display language might not be enough, as they also need the ability to switch between languages. To illustrate the point, lets look at the United States (where historically we have been less sensitive to these issues than in most other places around the world). We know from and[/i] English, and the ability to switch between them. A subsequent study by an outside firm confirmed these results. In many cases, parents in the home spoke Spanish, and their children were speaking English. The ability to have a Spanish user account for the parents, and an English one for the kidsor at least the ability to switch a single accounts display language back and forth between English and Spanishwas the way to delight these customers. New, easier way to get languages The new Language preferences section in Control Panel is the new one-stop place to find all Windows display languages in Windows 8. In the past, some languages were available through Windows Update, and others were distributed through the Microsoft Download Center. The reasons for separating the languages into two groups and their separated distribution channels made no sense to our customers. It wasnt their fault. This classification of languages only made sense to our internal teams. This confusion was a great motivator for re-imagining Language preferences in Control Panel. We will no longer ask customers to understand these nuances. Looking at the end-to-end experience, it made sense to build an entirely new experience around the acquisition of new languages. Heres what that looks like in Windows 8: [url=http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/6758.Language_2D00_preferences_2D00_in_2D00_Control_2D00_Panel_5F00_1D88B3BF.jpg" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/8321.Language_2D00_preferences_2D00_in_2D00_Control_2D00_Panel_5F00_thumb_5F00_1591115D.jpg Language preferences in Control Panel The main view of Language preferences shows you which languages are enabled on your system. You can see that on this system, English (United States) display language is installed and enabled. The keyboard layout is also US. Language preferences is the one place to go to add or change display languages, input language, and other functionality. Well be talking more about that in future blog posts. To add another language to your Windows, simply click the Add a language link above the first tile to bring up this list. [url=http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/5287.Language_2D00_list_5F00_2F84D17F.jpg" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/0871.Language_2D00_list_5F00_thumb_5F00_61103F14.jpg List of languages you can add to Windows Select the language you want from the list. In these screenshots, Im selecting Hindi. This list is long. Luckily, its filterable. Just type the first few letters of the language you want into the search box, and the list is narrowed for you. This search filter works in both the native script as seen on the tile, and the localized name of the language. [url=http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/6242.Language_2D00_added_5F00_2EAC6B95.jpg" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/8308.Language_2D00_added_5F00_thumb_5F00_72146CF7.jpg Hindi language has been added Once selected, the language is added to your language list, but does not download and install the display language until you choose to do so. To add it as a display language, click Options. [url=http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/0572.Language_2D00_options_5F00_38252A0B.jpg" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/4113.Language_2D00_options_5F00_thumb_5F00_50489466.jpg The Options page for this language shows the status of the language pack If a language pack is available for your language, you will see the link to Download and install language pack. [url=http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/1070.Installing_2D00_a_2D00_language_2D00_pack_5F00_6FF76E2E.jpg" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/2134.Installing_2D00_a_2D00_language_2D00_pack_5F00_thumb_5F00_2F5521BF.jpg You can monitor progress of the download and installation To switch to the newly installed display language, youll need to make it your primary language, by clicking Make this the primary language, as seen in the next screenshot. [url=http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/5661.Make_2D00_this_2D00_the_2D00_primary_2D00_language_5F00_15ED1E85.jpg" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/3531.Make_2D00_this_2D00_the_2D00_primary_2D00_language_5F00_thumb_5F00_359BF84D.jpg Make your new language the primary language on the PC [url=http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/6761.Hindi_2D00_is_2D00_now_2D00_the_2D00_primary_2D00_language_5F00_2353318B.jpg" target="_blank">http://blogs.msdn.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-01-29-43-metablogapi/4113.Hindi_2D00_is_2D00_now_2D00_the_2D00_primary_2D00_language_5F00_thumb_5F00_4295D85E.jpg Hindi is now the primary language on this PC Its as simple as that. Pretty cool, huh? No more hunting around on websites looking for the languages you want. Theyre right here. If you are currently using Windows Vista or Windows 7 Ultimate, you probably see 34 or 35 languages as optional updates in your Windows Update UI. These wont show up there anymore in Windows 8. Instead, weve consolidated the languages in one place for you: Language preferences in Control Panel. Language preferences will be a clean, unified control for all Windows display languages moving forward. More languages than ever before Microsoft will continue to be a market leader in language support with an additional 14 new display languages for Windows 8, bringing the total to 109 languages. (For reference, here are the [url=http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows/downloads/languages" target="_blank">95 languages in which Windows 7 is currently available). With these additional languages, Windows will provide a native language version of Windows for over 4.5 billion people. It is important to note that a display language in Windows is a massive undertakingWindows needs to support the fonts, localized text, and input methods to support a user experience that encompasses almost two million words. Thats roughly the same number of words contained in two full sets of the Harry Potter series of books. We are proud to announce the addition of English for the United Kingdom to the list of Windows display languages. We admit that this is something we should have done a long time ago. Windows users in the UK have gotten by with the US English version of Windows, and while we Americans knew this was not their favourite, that is clearly no defence. We believe that this version of Windows will also be widely used in India, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, the Republic of Ireland and many other places. We are releasing English for the United Kingdom as a standalone language. Standalone languages contain all the user interface components needed to be independent versions of Windows. Standalone languages can be used by OEMs to image a PC, or can be purchased as boxed software. The release of English for the United Kingdom is also a trial run for us. Adding a second language under an already existing primary language codeISO 3166-2 ENposes some engineering challenges for us (which is why this took us so long to do). We have had to pay attention to the language fallback chain, for instance. If there are no localized resources available at any time, we fall back to secondary choices and then to English. That used to be English US. But, now theres English UK as well. Which do we fall back to? So far, planning for these scenarios is looking good. We are also continuing to broaden our language support with the addition of 13 new Language Interface Packs (LIPs). Language Interface Packs install over the top of a standalone Windows display language. These lightweight packs contain localized user interface elements for the most commonly-used Windows features. The new languages offered include Punjabi (Pakistan), Sindhi (Pakistan), Central Kurdish (Iraq), Uyghur (Peoples Republic of China), Belarusian (Belarus), Kinyarwanda (Rwanda), Tigrinya (Ethiopia), Tajik (Tajikistan), Wolof (Senegal), Kiche (Guatemala), Scottish Gaelic (United Kingdom), Cherokee (United States), Valencian (Spain). This set of languages includes language coverage for emerging markets that are experiencing great growth in PC usage: Punjabi (Pakistan), Sindhi (Pakistan), Central Kurdish (Iraq), Uyghur (Peoples Republic of China), Belarusian (Belarus), Kinyarwanda (Rwanda), Tigrinya (Ethiopia), Tajik (Tajikistan), Wolof (Senegal), Kiche (Guatemala) and a few languages that are preferred by groups of customers in developed markets: Cherokee (United States), Scottish Gaelic (United Kingdom), Valencian (Spain). While these packages remain different in how theyre installed, users will not need to understand those differences. Language preferences in Control Panel is the one place where theyll go to get new Windows display languages, and it handles download and installation seamlessly. Display languages are just the beginning Most of this post has focused on Windows display languagesthe language of the Windows user interface on your computer. We have focused our language efforts in Windows 8 on: Enabling more users than ever to install additional languages on their Windows PCs and switch between them. Building a Language preferences area in Control Panel that is an easy-to-use central location for all display languages. Making significant additions to our language list by adding one standalone language and 13 Language Interface Packs (LIPs). Were super excited about these improvements in Windows, and we hope youll like them as well. But display languages are only one part of the overall language story for Windows 8. In a future blog entry we will tell you about improvements in text entry, locale support, and other critical pieces of the Windows 8 story. Let us know if there are other language-related topics youd like to hear more about. Thank you, Ian Hamilton Source: Windows 8 Blog