Few months back, we covered the launch of Windows 8 Developer Preview edition and how to install Windows 8 on your system. We also covered some of its top features and what we should look forward to. Microsoft has now released Windows 8 Consumer preview edition and is available to everyone for download now.
Unlike Developer Preview edition, this consumer preview edition needs a Product key for activation. The product key is provided by Microsoft on the Downloads page of Windows 8.
This is a consumer preview edition or Beta, which means that its almost stable and can be tested by normal public users instead of just developers.
Download Details
You can download the ISO images of 64-bit (x64) and 32-bit (x86) Windows 8 Consumer preview edition directly from the Microsoft servers. Check out the Link below to Download.
English
64-bit (x64):Â Download (3.3 GB)
Sha 1 hash — 1288519C5035BCAC83CBFA23A33038CCF5522749
32-bit (x86): Download (2.5 GB)
Sha 1 hash — E91ED665B01A46F4344C36D9D88C8BF78E9A1B39
Product Key:Â Â Â DNJXJ-7XBW8-2378T-X22TX-BKG7J
Download links and Product keys for other languages can be found here.
System Requirements
Windows 8 Consumer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows 7:
- Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
- RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
- Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
- Graphics card: Microsoft DirectXÂ 9 graphics device or higher
How to install Windows 8 Consumer Preview from an ISO image
We have already covered how to install Windows 8 Developer preview edition using an ISO image file. The steps are still the same for this Co9nsumer Preview edition too. Check out the posts below for details on How to Install Windows 8 Consumer Preview.
- How to install Windows 8 to dual boot with Windows 7 [guide]
- Create bootable USB flash drive to install Windows 8
March 1, 2012 @ 6:20 PM
and when i finished having a trial run with this how do i un-install? do i just delete the partition?
March 1, 2012 @ 7:22 PM
 @briancarr99 Well, its basically a new and full operating system. You cannot uninstall it just like any other application.
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You need to either install a different operating system or you can format the partition if it is installed as dual boot along with other operating system. Both these options need some precautions and hence you should do that only if you are fully aware of what you are doing.
March 1, 2012 @ 7:44 PM
i was going to install it on a partition i made on the c drive that has windows 7 installed  @Avinash Kumar (i have 3 partitions on c drive 1 empty, 1 windows 7,1 data )
March 1, 2012 @ 10:36 PM
 @briancarr99 You need a fresh or new partition with atleast 20 GB of space to install Windows 8.