Windows 8

The wait is finally over as official .ISO DVD image file links for Microsoft Windows 8 Developer Preview Build is now available for public downloading (as posted at the end of this post), to get started with the new operating system user will require a minimum hardware specs of - 1 GHz or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor, min. one Gigabyte RAM , 16 GB available hard disk space, DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver.

A complete list of final major features and images with direct download links posted after the jump.

Microsoft has officially announced that their upcoming major operating-system release Microsoft Windows 8 will feature Windows Explorer with "ribbon" interface with sleuths of new features to improve basics of file-management including copy, move, rename, and delete operations.

To incorporate the new functionality and design Windows 8 dev-team took inspiration from existing explorer addons like TeraCopy, FastCopy and QTTabBar2, the dev-team designed the new Windows Explorer ribbon interface taking into consideration the fact that the top 10 commands represent 81.8% of total use via Windows usage telemetry data.

New Windows 8 Ribbon Interface

The team also improved the basic file-management across the platform with new features like the new unified interface to manage all jobs, ability to pause operations, accurate process completion time data, easier file-name conflict resolution and much more. New features images and de,o videos after the jump.

We have seen leaked images and downloads of Windows 8 OS but this time Microsoft has finally unveiled the very first video demonstration showing us what's in the store for upcoming major upgrade to Windows platform.

The video demos the next generation of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8”. According to the official announcement the "Windows 8" based PC is really a new kind of device completely revamped from the chip to the user-interface, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

The demo shows the metro tile based user-interface for a new generation of touch-centric hardware. Fast, fluid and dynamic, the experience has been transformed while keeping the power, flexibility and connectivity of Windows intact - watch the full video after the jump.

While KMS Activator For Windows 8 allows users to not only bypass the time-bomb and activate Windows 8 but also unlock hidden features, there are few other tools available to get the job done.

"RedPill" was one of the very first tool allowing users to unlock hidden Windows 8 features but involved manual hacking, a better alternative "BluePill" is now available allowing easy Windows 8 activation and unlock. Want more, try "NoPill" yet another Windows 8 Activator and Unlocker supporting Automatic ownership and full control of files, genuine Windows 8 activation, Ribbon Explorer UI, Touch Pattern Login, Enable Full DWM (No blur on Aero), Immersive Browser, Modern Webcam (MoCam), Modern PDF Reader, Metro UI for Welcome OOBE, Login, Lockscreen and System Settings, Aero Auto Colorization and Theme Login Screen Image (buggy) unlocks.

As Windows 8 download leaked, new utilities and features are getting revealed every few days. This time a new video has surfaced demonstrating the pattern based logon screen as seen on android mobile platform, this sort of pattern based logon interface is certainly aimed at touch screen devices and will definitely come in handy.

While Microsoft is trying every bit to fight piracy by new innovations and contain wide-spread use of their work-in-progress Windows 8 leaked builds by implementing a 30 day time-bomb which makes these copies obsolete after that period, crackers have now came up with a new utility "KMS Activator For Windows 8" which allows users to remove the desktop watermark, 30 day timebomb and the WGA activation limitations in a single shot from the leaked Windows 8 copies.

The crack is also being actively developed adding new features like activation of hidden features in Windows 8 like RibbonUI, Modern Task Manager, PDF Reader and WebCam support.

Leaked images of Microsoft Windows 8 displayed the new user image tile in system-tray area, another cosmetic change to the theming system "Aero Auto-Colorization" automatically changes the color of Aero elements based on the desktop wallpaper and launched application. Thanks to talented developers, users need not to wait for any leaked installer of Windows 8 to try these two new features as they have now ported both functionalities to Windows 7.

Microsoft did a great deal of user-interface overhaul in Internet Explorer 9 and the same trend might get continued in future version of Internet Explorer (Internet Explorer 10) as evident from the freshly leaked web-browser screenshot of "Windows 8 Internet Explorer".

Possible Internet Explorer 10 User Interface

Crackers stroked a major blow to Microsoft anti-piracy efforts by releasing a BIOS SLIC based Windows 7 Activation Crack days before the official release of the software, while there are many other cracks and hacks like RemoveWAT used to pirate Windows 7 the BIOS SLIC hack allowed pirates to hide from Windows anti-piracy measures identifying itself as an OEM install.

According to a tweet by sp3ciali5t this is going to change with "Windows 8" as it will feature the next version of OEM Activation (OA 3.0).

WinRumor is reporting that Microsoft has started sending early access invitation of Windows 8 pre-build to OEMs via their Microsoft Connect program. The newly launched program named “Windows 8 and Server vNext Pre-Release Program” provides download access to Windows 8 build 7971.0.110324-1900 to selected OEM partners via personalized access links which look like http://connect.microsoft.com/site1094/InvitationUse.aspx?ProgramID=5474&InvitationID=XXX-XXXX-XXXX where XXX-XXXX-XXXX is the unique invitation code. A fresh set of complete step-by-step installation screenshots (posted after the jump) of Windows 8 also confirms the news.