See Windows 8 in Action – official Microsoft promo video for Windows 8.
See Windows 8 in Action
See Windows 8 in Action – official Microsoft promo video for Windows 8.
If you’re interested in downloading the beta (betta) fish wallpaper, or any of the other high resolution nature photograph wallpapers that are seen in the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (Build 8250), look no further. They can all be downloaded in a single zip file hosted here: Windows8_8250_Wallpapers.zip
Also, if you miss the good old days, you can still grab all of the wallpapers from the Windows 7 beta build 7100 released years ago in another zip file: Windows7_7100_Wallpapers.zip
For the full blown experience, don’t forget to download the consumer preview and install it (may I suggest you do this on a ‘spare’ computer or a virtual machine)!
So, the consumer preview of Windows 8 launched two days ago. I took some time yesterday to sit down and tinker with the Xbox Live features found within the application. Let’s begin with the “Xbox Live Games” tile seen on the new Start Menu of Windows 8. Continue reading “Xbox Live in Windows 8 Previewed”
When you first begin booting from the CD, an abstract version of the Windows 7 “BETA” (betta) fish image appears. You know you’re in for a treat. This is the Windows 8 “Consumer Preview” – or what most are calling “public beta.” You can download it from Microsoft, in an easy to use ISO format here:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso
On this page you can choose your language, decide if you need 32 or 64-bit, and get the product key which will be required to install.
The installation is extremely straight forward and simple. At one point I was asked to login with my “Microsoft account.” This, for those who may not be certain, is any existing Windows Live ID. If you’re on Xbox Live, you’ve got a LiveID. When it asked for my phone number, I clicked next without providing one. This is a password recovery feature also provided on account.live.com.
I installed to a VMWare image, so I could avoid any potential data loss or the need to move my data around at all. So in my virtualized Windows 8 environment, I immediately went for Xbox Live. I have no intentions of doing performance testing as my desktop is actually a few years old and doesn’t support hardware based virtualization. In other words it’s functional, but not very fast. Although I had a few programs close out on me when trying to get them to load, I’ve been able to play a little bit of Cut the Rope so far. Yes, it’s still fun, even with a mouse.
I’ll have more to say tomorrow, but if you want to check it out, now’s the time! Get downloading and enjoy!