500,000 downloads of Windows 8 developer preview

By Tom Warren, on 14th Sep 11 5:45 pm with 56 Comments

Microsoft’s Windows 8 developer preview has been downloaded 500,000 times in less than 24 hours.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer took to the stage on the second day of Microsoft’s BUILD developer conference to discuss the reaction to Windows 8. “There have already been 500,000 download off the website of Windows 8,” said Ballmer. The figure reveals just how much interest and demand there is for Windows 8. Microsoft’s initial Building Windows 8 video has racked up nearly 6 million views on YouTube since it was originally unveiled on June 1.

Ballmer also discussed the reaction from blogs and the media. ”I’m struggling to think of anything that would make Microsoft devs happier? Stunning news from #bldwin,” said one commenter on Twitter. Another said they loved Microsoft because Microsoft loves its developers. Ballmer also mentioned a comment I made in our BUILD group live blog on Tuesday (thanks Steve!). The quote sums up the feeling around Windows 8, it’s an exciting time and it just feels that Microsoft has got this right. It’s now up to developers to push this forward and make Metro something truly unique and beautiful for end users.

Ballmer's Windows 8 quotes

Image Credit: Long Zheng (Flickr)

  • Hassan Ali

    Surely MS Rocks.

  • Tim Fox

    So you just download it and it works? No MSDN account required?

    • Anonymous

      No MSDN account required.

    • Anonymous

      No MSDN account required.

    • Chris

      Yep. microsoft was smart this time around. 

  • http://twitter.com/mohapatraj Jayanta Mohapatra

    Hello, I just opened winrumers.com on IE-10 on Windows-8 running on my old laptop. To my surprise I can see the same Metro UI which comes in iPad….  Looks great on my laptop.

    • Wyspa65

      Yeh, totally digging the metro look.. looks great.. its gonna take some getting use to when this finally reaches market but i’m all ready to give this bad boy a good run..

  • Anonymous

    Wow 500,000…that a guud figure…

  • Anonymous

    Wow 500,000…that a guud figure…

  • Anonymous

    So there are (or will be very soon) more people with W8 developer preview version than Android tablets?

    • rsgx

      LMAO!

    • Pinna

      Question: Is Win8 installable on a Android-Tablet? ^^
      That would be cool :D

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000369278419 Chris Licata

      It is technically possible, although you would have to write drivers. Also it could run on the iPad too. Bootcamp for iPad… 

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1618268197 Timothy Neinheart

      Ohhhh, I can see that future.

    • Anonymous

      Reminds me of the carpool video MS made not too long ago, when one of them said “I love passing Google”.

    • Test1ngi23

      If only WP7 was as successful…

    • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1618268197 Timothy Neinheart

      Which will be.

  • Anonymous

    So there are (or will be very soon) more people with W8 developer preview version than Android tablets?

  • http://www.searingarrow.com AlienSix

    My god, thats amazing

  • http://www.searingarrow.com AlienSix

    My god, thats amazing

  • Guest

    WinRumors looks Awesome on IE 10

  • Guest

    WinRumors looks Awesome on IE 10

  • http://twitter.com/TheGeek411 Jd Carey

    Anyone know if you install on top of win 7 if old files stay or does it require a format before it will install?

    • Pinna

      Old files stay, Win7-sys-files will be moved to C:Windows.old

    • The Boss

      or you can format lol it’s what I did. Runnin’ win8 as my main OS now.

    • Pinna

      Sometimes people just don’t want to format :) – like me this time
      no time and no space for a backup (since the actual files on my laptop are not very important to me)
      i use to format before installing a new os, but since this is a test version i will format and install win8 properly when its RTM

    • Guest

      ballsy!

    • http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

      Create a new partition.  Boot from DVD and install on said partition.  You’ll have a dual boot machine.  At least that’s how it worked for me. :)

      I should note that I’ve yet to go back to Win7 on my laptop.

    • http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

      Create a new partition.  Boot from DVD and install on said partition.  You’ll have a dual boot machine.  At least that’s how it worked for me. :)

      I should note that I’ve yet to go back to Win7 on my laptop.

  • Delta470

    It moves the old files to a folder called windows.old  after it installs.   It doesn’t format

    • http://www.facebook.com/dreyer.smit Dreyer Smit

      All Windows Versions since Vista did this on a clean install. :)

    • Chris

      You want this to happen. This is so you can have access to your files. Been this way since Vista.

  • Sarpreet4842

    windows 8 are very good graphics and apps features ….http://24x7newtechnology.com/

    • Guest

      FO Apple shill.

  • Anonymous

    already more than honeycomb users.

    • Guest

      Honycomb *users*. W8 won’t ship for 9-12 mths. By then, ice cream sandwich will have shipped, at least.

  • Vik

    Install it in your VM…get the vhd. Don’t install it over your win7.

  • Test

    Steve Ballmer shows quotes from Tom warren! Thats great to know. Good work Tom!

    • Guest

      Steve Ballmer also thought iPhone wouldn’t be successful.

  • Anonymous

    anyone else having driver issues? I cant get my wifi usb adapter to work, even after installing the driver from the cd :(

    • Anonymous

      I had some issues with some hardware on an old Dell D400 that I am testing on. I got the video, some chipsets, etc to work by using Vista drivers. Give that a try.

  • Anonymous

    I’m tempted to get one of these to try the beta on
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152278

    It runs the AMD APU so it should have nice GPU accelerated UI..  i’ll have to watch ebay though, 599 is still steep

    • Justin

      I’d hold off on that. Looks like it says the resolution is 1280×800 but Metro apps won’t open on anything less than 1366×768.

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      Correction:  Side By Side or Snap functionality won’t work in anything under 1366×768. 

      However metro apps do run on 1024×768 so he would be fine.

    • http://twitter.com/oolong2 oolong2

      Correction:  Side By Side or Snap functionality won’t work in anything under 1366×768. 

      However metro apps do run on 1024×768 so he would be fine.

  • Anonymous

    I had to download it twice! since i didn’t have DVD double layer. but its been a good OS, i cant install 3dsmax and such but i like it so far

  • http://twitter.com/pierrerv Pierre Venescar

    and the ipads are getting shipped back to apple. All android tablets OEMs are rethinking their productions. HP is saying “shoot, I think we’re back in business with this new OS

  • Kay

    What I was afraid of has become true! The Windows 8 is completely shi**y! :(  

    • jyo208

      I completely agree. It needs work. It took me awhile last night just to figure out how to shut the damn thing down. 

    • http://twitter.com/laserfloyd Lewis McCrary

      windows+c > settings > power

      Nothing has taken me more than a few seconds to figure out.  It’s buggy for sure but the overall feel is smooth. :)

  • Anonymous
    • Anonymous

      I got a really good chuckle from that. What made it even funnier is that its true. LOL

  • Guest

    And here is what makes Win8 a winner.

  • Guest

    And here is what makes Win8 a winner!

  • http://thommck.wordpress.com Thom McKiernan

    I prefer @thurrott’s reply to that tweet ;)

  • http://twitter.com/EduardoMLD EduardoMLD

    Really awesome! Keep up the work Microsoft!