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Another Pre-Release of Windows 8 Is on the Way

On Monday, the President of Windows and Windows Live, Steven Sinofsky, announced that Microsoft is planning to offer another pre-release of Windows 8 during the first week of June.

A pic of the announcement appeared on the @BuildWindows8 twitter feed, but the company did not share much more than that.

The Windows 8 Release Preview was announced at Microsoft's Windows 8 Developer Days conference in Japan, an event attended by roughly 2,000 people, according to the company. It is expected to contain more device drivers, and some major fixes, among other enhancements, but Microsoft hasn't confirmed those reports. It will be free to the public for download.

The Release Preview follows the Consumer Preview, which was available at the end of February, and the Developer Preview, which was released at the BUILD conference last September. Microsoft said this week that the number of downloads for the Consumer Preview is double that of pre-release versions of Windows 7.

The final release date of Windows 8 is expected in October, but the company has not announced an official release date. That timeframe may be ambitious considering the new Windows 8 Metro paradigm for tablets and related software.

The company offered a Release Candidate of Windows 7 in May 2009, released Windows 7 to manufacturing in July and delivered it to retail in late October. Microsoft is already behind that schedule, which could jeopardize the timeframe required to target holiday shoppers.

However, the company has indicated that devices with the new operating system will be out before the end of the year. With so much riding on Windows 8, it's hard to believe Microsoft would miss that date.

Express your thoughts on the Windows 8 previews. Is Microsoft on track to deliver the final version of Windows 8 in time for the holiday sales period, based on what you've seen so far? Reach me at krichards@1105media.com or on twitter @RichardsKath.

Posted by Kathleen Richards on 04/24/2012 at 5:01 PM


Reader Comments:

Wed, May 2, 2012 Tom

@Roman97: I agree putting the start btn back would be a major plus - why they chose to remove it is beyond me. Also agree that there should be a way to completely hide the Metro UI as well as set the default desktop. But then again a lot of the decisions made by MSFT are just odd. Some examples follow. VS 11 beta: Essentially eliminated all color from the buttons, change the iconography and reduced their size - now the UI just blah. MSE 4: number of config options avail via the GUI have been reduced needlessly (e.g. granular real-time protection options are no longer). Skydrive: reduction from 25GB to 7GB, a questionable decision since that really set them apart. Live Mesh Beta: Much of the cool functionality of Live Mesh Beta disappeared with its replacment Windows Live Mesh. WHS: Removal of Drive Extender (a primary reason people used it) just baffling. Flight Simulator: Elmination of the entire project - even people who disliked MSFT loved flight sim. Silverlight: Clearly one of the best things ever to come out of MSFT and now a lack of a clear roadmap leading some to speculate its demise. Courier tablet: Looked like a great device but was canned thus giving the iPad a huge lead. Netdocs: Anyone remember this? It was Google apps years before Google was even a verb, and it was binned. Zune hw: acutally a pretty cool device which was just not given the proper support nor love, what a shame (though the original brown one was indeed ugly). And let me not even begin to vent my frustration with their official responses on blogs and such to these things, which are clearly marketing babble. I mean what the heck is going on!?!?! Maybe the marketing/MBA people need to cede some ground here, I dunno. I say these things because I've been a huge supporter of MSFT for decades and believe in the people working there who have fantastic ideas and ability. I think they need one person (like a Bill G or Steve J) who can rally the masses. Someone who is well respected by the dev community, who we can all relate to and has the energy, vision and drive to bring back the MSFT I remember (I can certainly think of one or two who already work for MSFT).

Tue, May 1, 2012 Roman97 Bern

Microsoft is targeting tablets. Therefore, another UI is necessary. Having used Win8/Metro for some time, I must say: Win8/Metro is not an intuitive UI. Many functions are just hidden. No more hints. Some effort needs to be done by MS to take Metro more usable. Besides that, MS should provide a possibility to completly hide Metro for PCs (not for tablets). Working should be possible just like it is in Win7. And please: give us back the Start Menu with the integrated search feature!

Thu, Apr 26, 2012 PokeADonkey Wales, UK

@TOM, thanks for that. Another classic example of change for the worse is accesing the Event Log in Windows, simple in XP but for some reason takes 200% longer to get at the information you need now!! Bad stuff.

Wed, Apr 25, 2012 Tom

@PokeADonkey: I'm with you, we just want to get on with our work and jarring changes such as these are going to be somewhat of an impediment for us. I do not at all like the metro exp on my desktop and think this whole 'metro' bonanza has gone way too far. I think Win7's UI is fantastic. I mean just look at what they did to the VS UI with the beta release of VS 11,, totally depresses me to no end. Not to be melodramatic, but I think new words need to be invented to describe my dislike. Anyways regarding that 'grandpa' dude, I'd just ignore him. It's not worth your time.

Wed, Apr 25, 2012 PokeADonkey Wales, UK

I don't consider myself as a "grandpa" simply asking for an OS that lets me get on with my job. I have four development environments in daily use, Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 8 for R&D purposes and I always find I can do things a lot quicker in XP as everything is where it should be and straightforward to use. Configuring network settings etc is far easier etc. etc. etc. My point is I appreciate the need for change but not at a cost of slowing experienced users down! For the person calling me grandpa, what real experience do you have in using a computer all day every day?? Just use Windows XP versus Windows 7/8/2008 in your daily life as I do as a professional programmer and you'll see my point! Anyway, rant over – I’ll ignore any further comments unless constructive.

Wed, Apr 25, 2012

Drivers can be released separate of a new "preview". Bug fixes maybe, maybe not. This makes me curious if a new preview is Microsoft taking a 2nd whack at classic desktop/Metro integration which has caused a major ruckus. Which would explain why the semantics have changed and this isn't just another release candidate which usually is bug fixes, drivers and performance tweaks to an already accepted feature set.

Wed, Apr 25, 2012

Since the Windows team is not an agile team, quality, functionality and delivery is still up in the air. If they make the dates, it will be due to heroes killing themselves. If they can't make the date, features will likely be cut. Old school approach.

Wed, Apr 25, 2012

Stop pining for XP, grandpa!

Wed, Apr 25, 2012 PokeADonkey Wales, UK

As a professional developer using .NET I appreciate the need for new versions of Windows. However, I wish we could have a “Windows XP” theme that allows us to just get on with our day to day work without having to learn how the latest incarnation of Microsoft Windows has re-invented the wheel. Vista, Windows 7 and now Windows 8 no doubt have very attractive visual and usage features. Many of us that want to get on with our daily tasks as simply and as efficiently as possible simply want to be able to navigate around a familiar landscape that’s been established around the visual look and feel of Windows XP. Granted XP has been well and truly superseded, but XP has the strength of being simple to use and as such represents (present tense given that it’s still one of my main working environments) the easiest environment to work in. I know where my applications live via the Start/Programs menu and have a plethora of quick launch icons hosting 60+ of my most used shortcuts.

Windows 8 may offer an easier path of use for non-computer users, however please do not make life complicated for existing users who immediately become unfamiliar with the new versions of Windows sometimes for nothing more than change-for-change sake: “Add Remove Programs” changing to “Programs and Features” is a good example!

Moreover, corporate end-users of Windows also suffer the same culture shock of discovering how they can do things in the latest version of Windows with every new release.

Please therefore consider how existing users would interact with new versions of Windows and how they can retain existing visual interactive skills. This also applies to other Microsoft products; the classic culture shock that was moving from Office 2003 to 2007 is also an example of how to interrupt usability (I’ve been using Office 2007 for a while now and still have trouble finding how to do things that were straightforward in 2003!).

Put simply, don’t alienate your existing business users who simply want to get on with their jobs by presenting enhanced visual styles that server to only get in the way!

Tue, Apr 24, 2012

DOA..................

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