Windows 8 - Released to Manufacturing

Windows 8 is now officially available to download via TechNet and MSDN as the product has been RTMed (released to manufacturing).

Enterprise customers with Microsoft Software Assurance already have access to the final release of the operating system and Volume License customers without Software Assurance will be able to purchase Windows 8 through Microsoft Volume License Resellers at the beginning of September.

If you do not want to wait for the commercial release and are not a subscriber to TechNet of MSDN, Microsoft is also offering a 90-day trial edition of Windows 8 Enterprise.

The 90-day evaluation trial of Windows 8 Enterprise edition is available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions as ISO images in Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), English, English (UK), French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese (Brazil), and Spanish.

Some key points regarding the 90-day evaluation trial of Windows 8 Enterprise edition.

• Microsoft does not provide any technical support for the 90-day evaluation trial software
• The evaluation edition will expire and cannot be upgraded. The only way to change the install on a system that has the 90-day evaluation bits deployed is to uninstall the operating system and perform a clean install of a non-evaluation version of Windows 8 from the original installation media or another operating system (e.g. Windows 7).
• During registration you will be required to login with a Microsoft account and provide your name, e-mail address and country.
• You will be required to activate the product online within 10 days after installing.

Activation and usage guidelines for Windows 8 are as follows:

• You will have 10 days to activate the evaluation version of the software once it is fully installed; from there you will have up to 90 days to use the software. The "watermark" in the lower right corner of the Windows desktop will have a countdown on the number of days of remaining use of the trial version of the software.
• A product key is not required for the 90 day evaluation version of Windows 8
• The evaluation version of Windows 8 must be activated before August 15, 2013
• If you fail to activate this evaluation within the 10-day grace period, or if your evaluation period expires, the desktop background will turn black, you will see a persistent desktop notification indicating that the system is not genuine, and the PC will shut down every hour.
• At the end of the evaluation period you will need to replace the operating system on your test computer and reinstall all your programs and data. To do this you will need to uninstall the trial version of the operating system and perform a clean install of a non-evaluation version of Windows 8 from the original installation media or another operating system such as Windows 7

The minimum system requirements for Windows 8 are the same requirements as were found under Windows 7:

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 20 GB
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver

Recommended system requirements for performance and advanced multitasking are higher than the provided minimum system requirements above.
These are generally outlined as:

• Processor: 1.5 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
• Multicore / Multithreaded CPU
• RAM: 2 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 4 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 40 GB
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver which has it's own, non-shared, memory