Windows 8 developer preview: when and where to download -- Engadget
Just in case all you curious programmers aren't keeping up, the x86 developer build of Windows 8 is going live tonight at 8PM PT. It's a great opportunity to tinker around with the new OS and get used to developing for the new interface.
I'm personally pretty excited about this as I'm still convinced that it looks like nothing more than a wrapper around Windows 7 (in appearance, anyway).
Sent from my iPadŽ
Can someone please summarize the situation with classical Win32/64 API code that is out there and regular C# applications created in the last several years. What is still compatible, what isn't? I hope, all of it should work just fine on W8?!
Windos API is always complete since, by definition, it is the sum of every public function in Windows.Originally Posted by idelovski
Until Microsoft announces otherwise, Windows 8 will follow the same backwards compatibility rules of Windows Vista. Meanwhile, so far, no changes to the WinAPI have been announced on msdn. I think your only concern should be WinAPI constructs tagged as deprecated in Windows XP and beyond, if you are using them in your PInvokes. Windows 8 -- being a new release -- could have some of them removed. However, you can always run the application in Compatibility Mode, if that's the case.
As for straight .Net development, there's nothing to worry about. The framework will always abstract the WinAPI and remain backwards compatible with other .net versions within reason. Meanwhile, the point behind the framework is to always make available the runtime of the clr version the application was compiled with. So any compatibility issues that could arise from a .Net 1.1 or 2.0 application won't exist if you install the 1.1 or 2.0 runtime on the customer machine.
Originally Posted by brewbuck:
Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.
For those who wish to try it but do not have a spare computer or dont want to partition their current setup this might be a good alternative: Windows 7
This guide is for windows 7 but from what I read on reddit it works with windows 8 aswell.
This requires, like, Windows 7 Enterprise or higher, I believe?
The way i understood it is you would perform those steps from the windows 8 installer, but as i said, not sure. I just tested to create a vhd file from diskpart on my own Windows 7 home premium and that was no problem so...
Edit: Since you also would boot directly from the vhd file i doubt windows 7 enterprise or professional or so is required, since the bootloader would load the file for you.
Last edited by Shakti; 09-14-2011 at 09:06 AM.
I dunno... unless you guys want to prepare ahead your Windows 8 development roadmaps (particularly where it comes to WinRT and Metro development), I don't see the point. I'm not even sure this release already includes the new USB 3.0 driver stack or that you can trust the current implementation of the Hyper-V client to reflect the final build in Windows 8. In my humble opinion you'll be wasting your time gawking at a new interface that will get you bored after 5 minutes.
Originally Posted by brewbuck:
Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.
I am pretty sure you need Windows 7 Enterprise to actually boot from the vhd file.
I could google it quickly.
EDIT:
I was right:
Source: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials...tart-boot.htmlWhile all Windows 7 editions can create and attach a VHD, only the Windows 7 Ultimate and Enterprise editions support booting from a VHD.
I stand corrected
