The Windows 8 Release
Preview Setup tool is, in theory at least, the simplest way to install
and try out the latest version of Windows on your own PC.
You need to be very careful where you use the program. Although
Microsoft haven't tagged the Release Preview as a beta, that's exactly
what it is: an incomplete, unfinished operating system which will
contain bugs, and can't be uninstalled. In a worst case situation, you
could find yourself left with a PC which won't launch properly, forcing
you to reinstall everything all over again. This isn't likely, but it's
possible, so only use the Setup tool on "spare" systems or PCs which are
fully backed up.
Still reading? The good is that such disasters are unlikely; the
Release Preview is relatively stable, and ought to work on any hardware
capable of running Windows 7. And the Setup tool makes this all very
straightforward.
The program will first check your system for hardware and software
issues which might complicate the installation, reporting on anything it
finds.
After obtaining a product key it'll then download Windows 8 Release
Preview. This may take a while - it's around 1.5GB of data - but you can
pause and resume the download as many times as you need.
Once the Setup tool has the core downloads, it'll expand them into
the Windows 8 Setup files, before offering you three options: Install
(on the current partition), Install to a different partition, or Install
later.
The first two will launch your setup program now. The third, we're
less sure about; it simply closed the Setup Tool without further
explanation, and when we relaunched the program it started from the
beginning, with the initial compatibility scan. This may have been some
issue local to our setup, but for now we'd avoid "Install later", if
possible, and instead choose one of the other installation options to
fire up the final Setup process.
From this point, fortunately, there should be no further issue.
Microsoft have greatly improved Windows setup in recent years, and a few
minutes spent following the installation wizard will be enough to
prepare your own copy of the Windows 8 Release Preview.
Platforms: Windows 7 (32 bit), Windows 7 (64 bit), Windows Vista (32 bit), Windows Vista (64 bit), Windows XP
Version: 8.0
Licence: Freeware
Manufacturer: Microsoft
Version: 8.0
Licence: Freeware
Manufacturer: Microsoft
