It seems a beta version is “Consumer Preview” these days, well that is just fine for me. I installed the new pre-release version of Windows 8 to an extra partition in my workstation last night, and a couple of notes:
- I ran into problem that appeared to be related to BIOS settings. The error code was “Windows cannot install required files. The file may be corrupt or missing. Make sure all required files for installation are available and restart the installation. Error code 0x80070570.” Actually, what you needed to do was downgrade the SATA settings in the BIOS from “AHCI” to “IDE” (may also appear as “ATA”) to get the installation running.
- Also, the new graphical boot loader of Windows 8 may not play nice with your graphics card. It took me some trial and error to find out that the bootloader insisted on giving the graphics output only through the DVI adapter of the motherboard, not from the graphics card. And, on the other hand, when the Windows 8 booted for the first time, the image could only be found through the HDMI connector in the graphics card, not from the motherboard DVI. Some tweaking may thus be in order.
The new OS itself looks promising — it makes good use of usability and user experience innovations that are coming from mobile devices and Metro UI of Windows Phone 7 OS. The downside of backwards compatibility is that since there are effectively two versions — touch oriented Metro, and traditional Desktop one — of most features and tools in the OS, things can get somewhat confusing. It will be interesting to see how things will look like in about a year, after some new, touch-enabled PC hardware have come out. There are nice videos, and the download area available at the Microsoft site here: http://windows.microsoft.com/fi-FI/windows-8/consumer-preview
frans goes blog 
Thank you so much for posting this. I have been trying to install 8 on my Dell Studio laptop and was getting the corrupt error message.
Ditto. Thanks for the tip on the AHCI to ATA tip. Not too sure about the Metro UI yet. Seems unpolished and more like some kind of kids game to me than a functional interface. Maybe I’ll feel differently after I get a multi-touch screen and have the final version of Windows 8 loaded. Time will tell!
Thanks again for your informative post.
Steve – my pleasure 🙂 As to the interface, what has really started to irritate me over time is that all the basic OS control elements are hidden: there is no start button, and no visible hint on what the user should do. It is difficult to find your way to the settings, and you have to resort to endless try-and-see game, or to reading hints and tips online about the “proper” use of the Win8 interface.
As you say, it may be that it will only be with the touch screen enabled devices when transition to Win8 starts to make proper sense. There are some more advanced features in Win8, but I find myself still logging into Win7 for better overall user experience.
i already have the bios settings to SATA, but i won’t be able to complete the installation. First time when i tried to install Windows 8 it gives me error at 62%. Then i again downloaded the ISO and tried to install it. This time it gives me the error at 28%.wahat should i do. My system config.
AMD FX 8150, mother board 880G, 4 gm ram(Single), hard disk 2gb
Ibrahim, sorry – I only managed to solve my installation problem that I reported. Let’s hope you can find help in the Windows 8 user forums.