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Maybe Windows 8 will end up a raging success after all. Power users and many in the media have criticized Microsoft's next generation operating system for being a perhaps too radical of a departure from Windows as we've known it for the past several years, changing up not only the interface in drastic fashion, but even altering the familiar logo. And maybe it's for those very reasons that so many people are flocking to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, to peek if things are truly as bad as they fear. Whatever the reason, Windows 8 is off and running to a large crowd.
Just 24 hours hours after being made available to the public, the Windows 8 Consumer Preview has notched more than a million downloads, Microsoft proudly announced in a Twitter post.
"One day later...one million downloads of the [Windows 8] Consumer Preview," @BuildWindows8 tweeted.
Windows 8 introduced what Microsoft calls a Metro user interface that looks different than any previous version of Windows on the desktop. It's designed to take advantage of today's obsession with touch technology. In between the time Microsoft launched the Windows 8 Developer Preview and the Consumer Preview, there have been over 100,000 changes to the OS's codebase, Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky said earlier this week at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.
If you want to give the Windows 8 Consumer Preview a test drive, you can download the distro here. While you're at it, be sure to check out our guide, "How To Try Windows 8 Out Today With a Dual Boot Installation or Virtualization."
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Windows 8 Consumer Preview Coming On February 29 17 Comments + Add a Comment 
damicatz March 02, 2012 at 11:56am For the love of all that is sane, Steve Ballmer needs to be fired. And he needs to take Steve Sinofsky with him.
This is a pathetic attempt to Microsoft to leverage their desktop operating system monopoly for the purposes of taking over another market. They did the same thing with Internet Explorer and got in big trouble for it because it's illegal.
Microsoft could never compete in the tablet or smartphone market on its own accords so they are instead railroading desktop users into using a tablet operating system so that they have an instantly large user base.
kixofmyg0t March 02, 2012 at 5:41pm Exactly! Microsoft is using their Windows monopoly to take over the Windows market. THEY SHOULD BE HUNG!
Btw what size tinfoil hat do you have?
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TechLarry March 02, 2012 at 11:44am 900,000 downloaded to see is the Metro Interface is as bad as the first 100,000 reported.
It is. It's pathetic. Has no business being on a desktop/laptop machine.
austin1789 March 02, 2012 at 10:18am I'm torn at this point. I like the new metro style, I just wished applications launched in it would run in it instead of dropping me back to the same old Windows 7 desktop view. It's kind of like playing Gears of War 3 and between levels playing a single level of Contra on the NES. It's a little jarring going back and forth. New or old, doesn't matter to me. Just pick one please. Preferably new.
kixofmyg0t March 02, 2012 at 9:57am From the time I've spent with it I can say this is the most welcome change in 20 years(besides the NT kernel). For 99% of people this will be a faster easier way to navigate a PC.
I love Metro, but then again I've been using Android as my daily driver PC wise for a year now so I'm used to the experience.
damicatz March 02, 2012 at 11:59am "For 99% of people this will be a faster easier way to navigate a PC."
No it won't.
Forcing everyone to relearn everything by constantly changing around the interfaces doesn't make a PC easier to navigate.
A lot of people use PCs for this thing called work. They want to be able to sit down at their computer and get their work done. They do not like it when everything is constantly changing because they do not have time to relearn things.
I *still* have people asking me questions about the Office ribbon interface and how they can't figure out how to do something anymore because it's changed.
kixofmyg0t March 02, 2012 at 5:39pm This is the first major redesign of the Windows "experience" in almost 20 years guy. Yeah "constantly changing" alright.
You are right alot of people use their PC's for work, but they will be using Windows 7 for years and YEARS to come. By the time the corporate world finally decides to update to Win 8 people should know how to use it from their personal PC's.
Btw cool story bro about people asking you about the Office ribbon interface. Windows 8 is moving towards that so it'll be familiar to them. What's the problem?
DoctorX March 02, 2012 at 10:49am let me know when you actually use a pc for more than the web. Like work and gaming.
kixofmyg0t March 02, 2012 at 5:34pm OK I do.
Actually I don't use my PC for web browsing anymore. That's what my tablet is for. Gaming on the other hand....yeah not so much. I have a FX-4100 and Radeon 7770 and the only games I play are StarCraft 2 and Red Alert 2 Yuri's Revenge.
I just prefer to game on PS3.
DoctorX March 02, 2012 at 7:18pm well some of us that prefer more than a 5 year old pos to game on. ps3, xbox360,wii are all crappy systems. I do everything on my pc: movies, tv, gaming, internet, sports, and most importantly work. I do a bunch of things at once... for instant, I am downloading, websurfing, watching tv, and im'ng at the same time. Can you do that on a PS3? I can tell you that you cannot on Windows 8 as of this time. Unless someone can put a different interface on it, i will pass. Besides, metro is freaking ugly. Looks like my damn commodore 128.
DoctorX March 02, 2012 at 8:26am i tried using it for over 3 hours on download day... and the verdict is meh! I tried to like the interface, but it just gets in the way. Thurrot said all the problems have been fixed, but i see it only got worse. Metro still sux and it is just too hard to do the simplest things. On a touch screen interface, it would not be as bad, but horrid for a desktop still. Reminds me of the braindead moves on linux of Unity and Gnome3. Who are you writing this for microsoft,gnome project, Ubuntu? I will say this.... it is a damn shame on the interface choices because the underlying improvements are must haves... but I still need to be able to use the damn thing.
I actually love the start menu... but I would prefer the old xp style, but the win7 one works fine. To everyone who asks how many times a day do you actually go the the start menu? 10-50 times.. maybe several times in a few minutes.
kixofmyg0t March 02, 2012 at 9:53am I remember people saying almost the exact same thing close to 20 years ago.....
Everyone and their brother complained about the "New" Start menu in Windows 95. Now Microsoft is making another dramatic change and yet again people are so resistant to change.
DoctorX March 02, 2012 at 10:48am uhhh... no... I never heard any complaints about windows95 outside of it being unstable as hell. Windows 95 was a big improvement over win3.11. Windows 98 was a little better... 98Se was the benchmark for a long time.
I am not hesitant to change. In fact I embrace it, but I do not like change for change sake. Hell, I have an android ICS tablet, Gingerbread phone, and a Gingerbread tablet. Not one has the same interface, but they are all touch. Android it totally horrid for a keyboard and mouse. Win8 is in the same boat as with Ubuntu and Gnome3. The interface for touch has no place on a desktop and conversely, a desktop interface has no place on touch.
Espresso77 March 02, 2012 at 4:00pm I have an Asus transformer. I'd liked to see windows installed on it or something similar. Windows 8 looks like it's trying to straddle all the way from desktops to tablets. Maybe in a couple generations we'll have something intelligent enough that it adapts depending on platform and the hardware you connect. But for now, meh...
I Jedi March 02, 2012 at 6:28am I tried to get a CD key from Microsoft for Windows 8 on day one. Jeez, talk about timing out constantly. I had to wait until about 1 A.M. my time before I could even attempt to try to get a CD key.
Keith E. Whisman March 02, 2012 at 7:30am did you get one or did you get it the way I got mine? By installing windows 8 and having it give you one automatically as it was preparing to install.
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