Important: On February 29th, 2012 Microsoft has released Windows 8 Consumer Preview. I have already tested it – check this post to read more about the new Windows 8 beta.
Information below is true for earlier Windows 8 Developer Preview
Last weekend I have installed the Windows Developer Preview 32-bit on my Acer Aspire One netbook.
Before I could install Win 8 on my Aspire One I had to replace the tiny and slow 8 GB SSD drive with a 60 gigs HDD from an old media player. I have then restored my Ubuntu from a ghost4linux backup onto the new drive. Then, booting from an Ubuntu live CD I have used GParted to resize the linux partition, and then created another empty ntfs partition in preparation for Windows 8.
Installation went smoothly and without any issues. Windows Installer has matured over they years and the amount of information requested from user is minimal. I could not tell any difference from Windows 7 installer, so I assume this is one and the same. Please mind that this Developer Preview does not run on VMware, and that the Windows 7 bootloader will not boot Windows 8. It is however possible the other way around. Linux GRUB can also be used for multiboot purposes.
Notes:
- When you click “Start”, Metro UI shows up (it’s the one from Windows Phone 7 and Windows Media Center),
- Metro Apps require at least 1024 x 768 resolution. Metro Apps will not start on a 1024 x 600 netbook!
- Windows 8 can use cloud authentication – you can use your Live ID to log on to the system,
- Developer Preview is unstable enough to let you see the new BSOD with the large “:(” symbol,
- System takes about 9 gigabytes on the hard drive after installation.
- All hardware is supported out of the box. The only driver I had to install was for Intel GMA945 (I have used driver package for 32-bit Windows 7)
The new OS runs quite smoothly on my netbook. This is how it looks on an Acer Aspire One:
PS. Unfortunately EVE Online requires SM 3.0 card now, so I couldn’t test how it runs on this hardware. The game did start, but just after going fullscreen it dropped back to the desktop with the “Shader Model 3.0 required” message.