How are you going to run the Windows 8 Consumer Preview?


  

91 members have voted

  1. 1. How are you going to run the Windows 8 Consumer Preview?

    • In a virtual machine.
    • As primary OS on my primary machine.
    • As secondary OS on my primary machine.
    • As primary OS on my secondary machine.
    • As secondary OS on my secondary machine.
    • On a tablet.
    • Windows 8? Pfft. Wake me up when the Windows 9 beta is released.
    • I'm going to leave beta testing Windows 8 up to others.
    • I won't touch any Windows version with a 10-foot pole.


Recommended Posts

20 days from now the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is upon us. Most of us are going to run it. The question is: How are you going to run it? In a VM? Or are you hardcore enough to run it as primary OS? Vote away.

Personally I'm going to run Windows 8 Consumer Preview as secondary OS on my secondary machine - a 4-year-old ThinkPad T61.

I'll be running it on my laptop in my sig (Thinkpad T410s) with SSD to see how it'll run when it finally comes out (yes i know it's still beta!) I always do full installs though.

I'll probably run it on a test/demo machine at work first though as that's where i'll be when it comes out anyways :D

I'll be running it as my primary OS on both my notebook computers. Still debating if I wanna go through the hassle of installing it to my main desktop, but I doubt I will.

Will give it an install on the trust Dell XT Tablet and see how all this Metro touch business really goes. Will likely give an install on desktop virtual machine. That will depend on impressions from the tablet though, might just wait till its out for a desktop install...not really seeing anything getting me excited atm, hopefully in 20 odd days though :)

Id say the real question is does anyone miss the old days where you use to have to try to get into the beta...or wait for the latest leak to hit the web etc..I guess it was a bit more limited back in the day when everyone didnt have highspeed net and now today MS just hands it out like candy :p memories

Secondary OS on my secondary PC (Tablet PC). If it has most of the kinks worked out compared to the DP, I might switch it to the primary OS on that PC. In the DP my brightness controls, screen rotate button and fingerprint reader were not working. Also, Starcraft II was 'unplayable' because of the window-switch popup when the cursor is moved to the left of the screen. I hope they have an option to disable that for non-metro fullscreen apps.

20 days from now the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is upon us. Most of us are going to run it. The question is: How are you going to run it? In a VM? Or are you hardcore enough to run it as primary OS? Vote away.

Personally I'm going to run Windows 8 Consumer Preview as secondary OS on my secondary machine - a 4-year-old ThinkPad T61.

As a primary OS on my primary machine if it is as stable as Windows 7 was at this point in development.

Got a tablet that I'll be using it on. Desktop wise, it'll be put on a spare machine. I've never put faith in any pre-prelease OS as a primary operating system. Fun to experiment with, but definitely not going to rely on it.

Last month one of my hard drives on the main machine died so I installed the Developer Preview on a spare drive till the replacement arrived. I've grown accustomed to it and everything runs butter smooth (Mail, Steam & Origin games, skype) so I will run the Consumer Preview on it. It comes out the same day as Microsoft Flight so a good time to test how well they work together :D . (I did the same thing for Vista and FSX so why not.)

How is it? I was debating on picking one of these up for my wife for her classes. Does it support pen input?

I switched from a Fujitsu TH700 which had a Core i3 CPU, Intel graphics, 8GB's of RAM and while the Acer is slower I find it suits my needs very well. I am able to surf, do email, watch Netflix, Amazon Instant videos, stream from my home server all without any significant decrease in usability even with max CPU set at 30% to conserve battery. For a test I opened the backup for my old laptop on my home server over wifi and it worked fine. Only thing you will need to watch is the battery life, gets around 5 hours of constant use with tweaked power saving options.

I dont use a pen with it but it will support a capacitive stylus but has no digitizer so wont disable the touchscreen when using it. For casual use it will work well, I think. With Windows 8 I think it will be even better and numerous videos on youtube seem to confirm that.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Posts

    • Google reportedly limited Meta's Gemini access over limited AI compute by Karthik Mudaliar Google is reportedly limiting Meta's use of its Gemini AI models after Meta tried buying more computing capacity than even Google could supply. According to the Financial Times, Google told Meta in March that it could not provide the full Gemini capacity that Meta had requested. This shortfall even disrupted and delayed some of Meta's internal projects. Due to this, Meta even told its employees internally to use AI tokens more efficiently. Meta wasn't the only one to get hit by this sudden refusal by Google; even other customers were affected. But Meta was hit harder because of its unusually high demand for Google's models. The move from Google makes it evident that companies all over are in limited supply of both infrastructure and compute. Alphabet said in April that Google Cloud revenue grew 63% year-over-year to $20 billion in the first quarter, helped by enterprise AI infrastructure and AI solutions. In pursuit of more compute, Meta had earlier signed a multi-billion-dollar AWS agreement as well as a large AMD GPU deal for AI data centers. But the crunch would be short-lived as both Meta and Google have also ramped up infrastructure investments heavily. Meta said in November that it was committing more than $600 billion in the U.S. by 2028 for AI technology, infrastructure, and workforce expansion. In the first quarter of this year, Meta also raised its expected capital expenditure for 2026 to a range of $125 billion to $145 billion, citing higher component pricing and additional data center costs for future capacity. However, this doesn't make the company immune to the current dependence on outside suppliers. Meta has also spent many years promoting Llama as an open-weight alternative to closed models from Google, OpenAI, and Anthropic. But if the reported reliance on Google's Gemini models is severe enough for internal work to get impacted, then it looks like even frontier labs and Big Tech aren't fully self-sufficient. Source: Financial Times
    • I like to reminisce about the good old days, way back in autumn 2025 when building a gaming machine was fun and the drives were about $150 when you caught a deal. Yes duh, back in the day we had it gone. Then baby Skynet came along, hiding in AI datacenters demanding more processing power until it reached singularity. End of a not totally fictional story.
    • My experience in the past with older Windows 11 builds was not great on unsupported machines but I recently used Rufus to put the latest build on a older 5th Gen Core Thinkpad T that we upgraded with a SATA SSD and 8GB of RAM four years ago when hardware was reasonable and it seemed pretty fast and solid. Customer is very happy with the performance and will probably get four more years out of that venerable laptop that he loves so much. Another customer just retired his Dell Studio laptop from 2009 running Windows 10. It got an SSD over 10 years ago and did everything he needed it to for 17 years but he also retired last year and is happy doing everything on his iPad now.
    • Apple's newest AirTag 2 gets first big discount by Taras Buria In late January 2026, Apple introduced its second-generation AirTag trackers, bringing a refresh to the old model that has been on the market for half a decade. Now, you can get these new trackers at an all-time low price, thanks to the first big discount that brought the price down by 17% on Amazon. While the second-generation AirTag looks identical to its predecessor, it packs meaningful upgrades inside. The second-gen ultrawideband chip works 50% farther than the original AirTag, allowing you to detect lost items in a wider range. In addition, the second-generation AirTag features an upgraded Bluetooth chip for extended range and a significantly louder speaker (up to 50%) so that you can hear it better when locating a lost item. Note that the second-gen AirTag only works with iPhones and iPads that run iOS/iPadOS 26 and newer, so you need a compatible device to use the tracker. Like the original AirTag, the AirTag 2 is available in two packs: one and four pieces. Both are now available at a notable discount on Amazon, and you can purchase them using the links below. Apple AirTag 2 tracker - $24 | 17% off on Amazon Apple AirTag 2 tracker (four-pack) - $89 | 10% off on Amazon Good to know This Amazon deal is U.S.- specific and not available in other regions unless specified. We only use first-party seller links (at the time of article publishing); ensure that you purchase from a first-party seller link only. Check out Today's Deals on Amazon | or our recent tech deals. Become a Prime member (for Students or SNAP) via Neowin Get Prime Access - Prime for half price (for qualifying Medicaid, EBT, SNAP) Subscribe to Prime Video, Audible Plus, Music Unlimited or Kindle Unlimited via Neowin As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
    • I've been on Deezer for over a decade, but glad that Tidal joined them in fighting AI slop. Can't stand such takes as Spotify's: "Spotify's CEO recently pushed back against listeners who call AI music "slop," urging people to stop using the term and instead embrace the creative potential of AI music."
  • Recent Achievements

    • Reacting Well
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Reacting Well
    • Week One Done
      NovaEdgeX earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • One Year In
      BA the Curmudgeon earned a badge
      One Year In
    • Conversation Starter
      rosiecharles earned a badge
      Conversation Starter
    • First Post
      KMilenkoski1202 earned a badge
      First Post
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      536
    2. 2
      +Edouard
      267
    3. 3
      PsYcHoKiLLa
      150
    4. 4
      Steven P.
      98
    5. 5
      macoman
      66
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!