The first click is only to enable the feature in the menu, after that it's only 1 click.



Not too hard, at least for those that own a touch screen phone (or Tablet PC). I've Beta tested for MS for a number of years, they stopped listening years ago.

Now I'm getting excited about becoming a tech. I'd like to d/l the Windows 8 Consumer Preview, install it in a VM and start playing with it. And when the Windows 8 for Dummies books hits the shelves at Barnes & Noble, I'll buy a copy.

Now to go on Microsoft's webite and d/l the W8 CP...

Edit - got it.

cruise, be careful how you install this in a VM. Find a good tutorial on line and follow it. Don't try to install it on anything that won't already run Windows 7. Keep in mind that you can't uninstall Windows 8 (or any other operating system, for that matter). So, don't install on top of another OS unless you can reinstall it.

If you're going to use a VM (as I am at the moment) make sure you choose one that supports emulated 3D acceleration, like VMware Player 4.


I may run to Fry's later today and pick up another 1TB hard drive, that way I can set up a dual boot.

That's what I did on two separate drives. Out of an abundance of caution, I disconnected my Windows 7 SATA data cable while installing Windows 8. I later found this was recommended at the Microsoft website. I still ended up with issues on my Windows 7 drive and I have no idea if they are related to the Windows 8 installation or not. Can't imagine they do, but who knows. The drive checked out fine (took it in to the shop where my son worked), but it still won't boot. Hopefully, they can fix the boot sector or whatever is going on with all the magic little tools they use.

I'm installing it on my Win 7 Acer, in a VM under VMware Player 3, and yes, I had 3D acceration already selected.



This is why I'm installing it on a VMWare Player VM, on top of Windows Vista x64, a nwely-created VM special for Win 8 so I won't have to worry about wanting to nor trying to uninstall Windows 8. In my experience, Windows 7 is similar to Vista, both my Win 7 and my Vista are x64 (although I also have a Vista x86 install CD).

EDIT - Turns out the Windows 8 hardware abstraction layer did not initialize, so googled and found where people were getting these HAL errors & suggestion was made to install either in VMWare Workstation 8 (which costs a pretty penny) or Virtual Box. Opted for Virtual Box, which, btw, now has 3D acceration VRAM at up to 256 MB (exactly 1 yr ago when I used VB to install XP on my Acer, VB's 3D VRAM was only up to 128 MB).

So I have to start the whole process all over again. Vista takes a while to install, but the Win 8 CP dosen't take very long to install - b/c either it's a much faster OS, or it's only a sample.

EDIT 2 - Made a mistake the last attempt (made the virtual HDD too small - only 20 GB) so had to delete this VM. Now created a new Win 8 VM this time with a 40 GB VHDD. The Vista x64 disc copied files to VM, now expanding files (currently at 22 %).

Why are you installing Vista first?

I thought I had to - b/c the d/l is not an iso file, it's a sort of a downloader, which checks your VM to see if the specs are compatible with 8, if they are, then it starts the real d/l. In other words, what I initially d/l was the pretend d/l.

That said, since it's not an iso but a downloader/checker, I think if I install it clean on a blank VM HDD I might have trouble getting the VM to recognize it thru a shared folder b/c first I had to install the Additions Pack. So I've installed Vista as the "old" OS, which I'm doing an upgrade to Win 8 Consumer Preview on.

Yes, you're right if you didn't download the ISO file. I would have simply downloaded the ISO and forgotten about the Vista aggravation.

That's why I suggested you find a good tutorial. This is the link that is being given out on the Microsoft Windows 8 forums.

Installing Window 8 in a VM

Thanks, Drac, I never saw that. Will print it out (or save it as a pdf and synch it to my ipad) maybe sometime tomorrow (also I'll make sure I get the Developer Tools iso) after I get my school assignments done and turned in tomorrow after we return from the community college (where I'm going to try to sign up for summer clasases so as to shorten the length of time my schooling is expected to take - have made a projected list of all classes I need to take along with the semester times/years - from the initial projected lemgth of 4 years to roughly 2.5 years or so. That way I likely won't have much time for worrying about things that are none of my concern (to tell the truth, last semester and the first half of this semester I discovered that I was able to find plenty of time for worrying about things that I shouldn't worry about, and if I don't attend school in the summer, I'll likely get bored on days that I don't go out on bus to Barnes & Noble, my super-busy friend's house).


EDIT - just got Win 8 CP installed over Vsta in VB just now.

Don't get the Developer's Preview. You've already got the Consumer's preview installed, so just go with that.

Just curious but didnt this thread used to run to 5 pages? Did I imagine it? Am I confused? :-)

It still runs 5 pages on default settings. If you've set your preferences to show more posts per page, it will run fewer pages -- at least when you're signed in.

Ah that will be it, I can't have been logged in:-) Thanks Jenny

Ok, so when Win 8 is released, I might splurge on this for the Acer laptop: this 1 TB laptop HDD

1 TB HDD

and 2 of these RAM sticks to raise it's RAM from 4 GB to 8 GB:

2 GB RAM

What do you think of this HDD/RAM, Jenny, Inland, are they the right choices for my Acer? My Acer is a Acer Aspire 5745G.

plus a copy of the win 8 os dvd (so as to set the Acer up as a dual boot with Win 7/8), which will amt to a lot of spending, which is why it's even more important to be able to finish school and get a job without too long of a delay/waiting (read, can't wait about 4 yrs) to finish school, so I wouldn't have to be on a fixed, limited monthly income anymore, but making better $$$$, so as to have more to spend on computer stuff, games, in adittion to helping Mom out with the $$$.

I don't know what the CAS latency of your current RAM is, but for a few more dollars you can get faster CL7 memory modules.

What is the maximum speed of your SATA controller? The drive yo linked to is 3 GBPS. If you support 6 GB, you'll slow things down a bit.

Any way to check this out from the Win 7 GUI?

EDIT - here, I found out how to check your bios for RAM cas latency: **here**

and about the sata controller speed, I've found a how-to to check it **here**

so what do you guys think of my googling these? I'm starting to think that I can check the SATA controller speed in the bios settings (just as with the RAM cas latency)?

Why don't you just look at the motherboard specs in your laptop documentation. See if it specifies SATA II or SATA III.

Um, did you guys see this?

More news about Win 8

Yes, I got it a couple of days ago. Some very valid points... We'll see how it all progresses through the process of moving from this VERY early Beta - ahem, excuse me, Consumer Preview - to the final RTM (release to market) version.