Windows 8 Developer Preview Reaches 3 Million Downloads

Microsoft have announced that the Windows 8 Developer preview has now had over 3 million downloads since it was released back in September. I suppose the news isn’t really that surprising, especially when you consider that Windows is easily the most popular operating system in the world.

I’d imagine that nearly all the developers and Windows enthusiasts have all grabbed a copy of the developer preview by now and downloads have probably dropped off significantly. Of course the main reason people are downloading the new operating system is to get a look at the new Windows 8 interface which is made up predominantly of the new Metro UI. Developers of course will also be looking at what apps they can create which will utilise the new features in Windows 8.

Of course I believe that if you want to get the best experience out of Windows 8, you will probably have to use a device with a touchscreen like a tablet or those all in one desktops with touchscreens.

Microsoft have said that they’ll be releasing the first Beta of Windows 8 in February which is expected to have a good few changes from this developer preview. Microsoft stressed that the Windows 8 developer preview is far from finished and has a lot of work still to be done on it as well as more features to be added.

Let’s see if the Beta lives up to those expectations.

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My First Impressions of the Windows 8 Preview

I’m sure each of the excellent writers here on Windows8News.com will want to share their thoughts on the new Windows 8 developer preview. I am no different and thought I would go over what I’ve found. As soon as the Windows 8 developer preview was available, I began preparing my main desktop for the install. Since this is only a preview and I will not be using this install as a primary OS, I simply took an old 40GB 7200rpm SATA hard drive and formatted it and used the .iso to install the new OS. Here are my thoughts on the first preview, keeping in mind that this isn’t even a beta and is missing many features and programs that will come installed on the beta and final builds.

Setup was a breeze. I wasn’t sure how Windows 8 install and setup could be any easier than Windows 7, but it just is. There may even be less menus and screens than the setup process for Windows Phone, but I’ll need to verify that. Actual install time was under 20 minutes with absolutely no setbacks. You’ll be brought to a screen where you can sign in with your Windows Live ID, this is very similar to Windows Phone. Once you enter your ID, the PC will begin setting up with your settings. In the preview, you do not have local access to mail and media via the new metro interface, so I was unable to check that stuff out. However, it is said that the beta will allow users to bring down all of their info and files from SkyDrive to populate their PC.

The performance of the Windows 8 developer preview is outstanding. Everything is incredibly smooth on my own PC. Scrolling and switching back and forth between programs and full screen apps is blazingly fast. Load and boot times are also very fast. Unoptimized, my PC boots from cold to working desktop within 15-20 seconds and this is with a normal 7200 rpm SATA hard drive.

I am using a desktop without a touchscreen monitor, so I cannot speak to the touch aspect of the Windows 8 preview. The controls for Windows 8 are very good, but they do take a little getting used to with a keyboard and mouse. Figuring out how to bring up the different toolbars and menus took tome time and some trial and error, but once you have the controls down, they are easy to use and seem well thought out. Windows 8 is chromeless, so all toolbars and menus are out of sight until you make some kind of gesture or mouse movement.

Pinning and resizing screens and apps is very intuitive. To scroll through your open apps, just pull from the left side of the screen and snap it to the side to open it side-by-side. (Note: this option is only available on higher resolution screens.)

The Start menu is the new Windows Phone-esque Start screen. Even when you are in classic Windows mode, pressing the Start button simply brings you back to your tile Start screen, so that takes a little getting used to. Programs and apps will populate automatically on your Start screen, but it is up to you to decide how they are to be positioned and displayed.

Every device I attached to my PC just worked with the preview. I tried a number of mice, keyboards, cable modems, monitors, usb drives, external hard drives and a webcam. All installed behind the scenes and worked flawlessly. I had zero issues with drivers and devices not working.

While I did come away with many positives with my time in Windows 8, I did find some issues and bugs, which is to be expected in a developer preview. I would often run into issues with Metro IE. Desktop IE worked fine without any problems, but some flash sites had trouble loading (radio.com for example). I would also experience some small freezing within the IE window, which would cease once I scrolled back through my available apps.

Overall, I am extremely excited about Windows 8 and cannot wait for the beta. I was worried about navigation in Windows 8 with a mouse and keyboard, but my worries were, for the most part, laid to rest as the process felt right after learning the navigation controls. I would have liked to see Microsoft ship the preview with more available features and apps, but this is just a dev preview, so I can’t hold that against Windows 8 at this point. Because of the limited functionality, I would never recommend that a user have this as their primary OS, but if you do have an extra hard drive lying around, it is certainly an experience worth having. Feel free to let me know what you guys think about what you’ve seen thus far as well as sharing any issues or hiccups you may have had.

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Windows 8 Developer Preview To Come Tonight

Right guys, it’s the news we’ve all been waiting for! Microsoft have announced today that a Windows 8 Developer Preview will be coming along “later this week” They’ve now said that it’s coming tonight! for us to play around with. We’re being told that developers will be able to download the Windows Developer Preview via the new Windows Dev Center later this week. tonight.

The Microsoft Build conference kicked off a couple of hours ago now and you can still watch the presentation live at the moment here. There’s been tons of news and demonstrations coming from the conference which we’ll get to you once it’s over. We’ve got a great look at the new Metro UI, there’s a cool new picture password which really amazed the crowd and the demonstration of apps is pretty impressive.

Now of course it will just be a developers preview build so that means that it will have bugs and things that still need to be sorted out. Even watching the demonstration, there was several times when links didn’t work and touch gestures went out of control much to the amusement of the audience. I’m sure we can expect Microsoft to work out all these little things by the time Windows 8 finally is released, but it will be nice to be able to play around with Windows 8 and get a feel for it.

The download will be available from this page 

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Windows 8 Developer Preview Keyboard/Mouse Shortcuts

When I first made it to the Windows 8 Start screen desktop, I was a little confused about the different navigation shortcuts and techniques for finding my way around the menus and screens. While many of the old Windows shortcuts still work, there are some new ones to use. This is my next… has posted an article that details Windows 8 on a laptop with a keyboard and mouse as the means for navigation. What’s even more helpful is the list of shortcuts they have compiled which may help you guys with navigation. Here is the list:

The Start button takes you to Start Screen and lets you toggle between open appsAlt-Tab cycles through apps in sequence, as usualArrow keys allow you to move through the Start screenWindows + C brings up the Charm menu, as does hovering over the lower-left hand corner of the screenWindows + F brings up the Search screen, though simply typing (when on the Start screen) is more convenientWindows + Z in a fullscreen app brings up the contextual menusWindows + D takes you to the desktopWindows + L locks the PC, invoking the lock screenWindows + P pulls up multi-monitor settingsWindows + I brings up the Settings charmWindows + E invokes Windows Explorer, as everWindows + R brings up the Run promptWindows + Y makes all your open windows (and the Metro UI) transparent, so you can see the desktop beneathWindows + X shows Windows Mobility Center, which appears to serve much the same role as the Settings charm but on the desktop insteadThe Scroll wheel pans across Start screen, slowlyRight-click brings up contextual menus in a full screen appLeft-click on the Start screen brings up options to unpin, resize and uninstall appsCtrl-Alt-Delete summons a screen with options to shut down, switch users, log off or quickly open the Task Manager

Hopefully these shortcuts help you guys. I know I needed a few of them to help with navigation. Feel free to post some of your own in the comments below.

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Microsoft Could Release A Windows 8 Preview Next Week

Next week Microsoft is holding its Worldwide Partner Conference from July 11 through July 14. This conference is designed to prep developers for what Microsoft has in plan for the future, so obviously Windows 8 is a big part of that. As a result it is quite possible that Microsoft will release an early developer preview of Windows 8 at the conference.

It’s a bit of a long shot however so don’t count on it, I’d take this rumor with a pinch of salt. The news comes from the Twitter account of MSFTtm, who have actually proven fairly accurate in the past when it comes to Windows 8 build details in the past. They say Microsoft will release a Community Technical Preview (CTP) at the conference.

Zdnet did also recently report that a CTP build of Windows 8 could be released towards the end of July which would coincide somewhat with this report as well. It’s important to remember however that even if these reports do prove to be true, a CTP build of Windows 8 will not be available to the consumer, it’s aimed at developers, IT pros and the technical community.

We recently covered a story here at Windows8News that Microsoft will be unveiling Windows 8 at Build 2011 in September. So it would be kind of surprising if Microsoft took the covers off of it’s latest OS next week with that event planned. I say we may get another little teaser or a bit more information but nothing substantial. I reckon Microsoft will save that for the Build 2011 conference in September

Microsoft did give us a good look at the new tablet interface for Windows 8 a while back, but no more than that. So it’ll be interesting to see if Microsoft have more to show us behind that fancy tablet UI

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Windows Server 8 Sneak Preview

We have not really heard a lot about Microsoft’s upcoming server operating system Windows Server 8. Information are hard to come by at this point in time. Microsoft recently published a sneak peak video on their website that gives businesses, system administrators and tech savvy users a sneak peak of things to come.

The presentation “Realizing Your Opportunity in the Cloud” by Robert Wahbe, Corporate Vice President Microsoft Corporation, is not completely about Microsoft’s new server operating system. In fact, the reference to the system may have been overlooked by many viewers of the video, as it appears after the 36-minute mark in the video. Before that, it is more about cloud based computing and Microsoft.

The next version of Hyper-V is revealed at the 36 minute mark.

At 36:50 of this online video we demonstrate how Windows Server 8 virtual machines will help you build private clouds of greater scale by supporting (at least…) 16 virtual processors fully loaded with business critical workloads like SQL Server. Then we show you how you can deliver improved fault tolerance and flexibility, without the added tax or complexity of additional hardware, tools and software licenses, by using the new built-in Hyper-V Replica feature. All it takes is a few clicks, a network connection and Windows Server 8.

You can watch the full Windows Server 8 sneak peak video at the Digital WPC website. Please note that your browser needs to have the Microsoft Silverlight plugin installed to play the video.

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