This article was published on August 16, 2011

Microsoft likely set to distribute developer preview, not beta, of Windows 8 at BUILD


Microsoft likely set to distribute developer preview, not beta, of Windows 8 at BUILD

Yesterday, we brought you the news that Microsoft had made new comments that pointed to a quickly approaching publicly available build of Windows 8.

We called it a beta, but new information seems to point to it being a developer preview edition of the forthcoming operating system instead. To refresh your memory, Microsoft said that it would deliver a “pre-release version over the coming months.”

That ‘coming months’ time frame is widely expected to occur at the upcoming BUILD event in September. As the ‘Windows 8 build at BUILD’ notion has become so entrenched, and as Microsoft has not contested it, the company has all but confirmed the rumor.

Today, WinRumors uncovered a post on a Chinese website called PCBeta, which indicates that the Windows 8 version that will be shown at BUILD, compilation 8064, is in fact a developer preview and not a beta. In other words, we should not see a public beta of Windows 8 for some time yet.

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The following is the screenshot that PCBeta posted, purported to be the developer preview in question:

What is gratifying about all of this is that the curtain is soon to be lifted, and we all will soon get to, if not all play with Windows 8, read lengthy reviews from those who do. BUILD itself should contain more than just Windows 8 news. Over the weekend we dug into just what might be announced at the BUILD event, and so if you haven’t read that article yet, we recommend that you do so.

It’s almost Windows 8 time. Strap in.

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