The current builds are X86 (32 Bit) There are rumors that it will be the first 64 bit only OS from Microsoft. The basic layout and structure are that of windows 7. There are some features that you can unlock via the "Bluepill". I have it installed on a HP nc6220 with a 60gig hd and 1 gig of memory. The 6220 does not have a powerful enough graphics card to turn on aero, so I am stuck with the non aero interface. After installation, I had about 7 or so drivers that did not go or were unavailable. I had the wired network one so I was able to connect to the INTERNET and run MS update which fixed all the drivers except for the 915 video chipset, which I was able to find by doing a search for Intel915 Windows 7 Driver. You can install MSE, but you have to run it in compatibility mode as windows 7. You can also activate it using the windows 7 beta keys. I would do all of that before you apply the "bluepill". One interesting "feature" is this hideous guy that shows up at the login screen. He looks like clay animation, think Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer, the original Burl Ives edition. It is sort of cool, but it is basically windows 7 with some new features, in fact it installs as windows 7 ultimate. One odd thing in My Computer, it shows two hard drives, the normal C: and then a system reserved D: This is a change from win7. Also one of the things that I had trouble with was removing the MS Confidential message, I ran the remover and after I rebooted i couldn't see the control panel. I had to use the restore feature to revert back to before I installed the MS Confidential remover.
The old XP start menu is gone. I haven't tried to use Classic Start Menu on this build yet. I may play with it more later. I am excited to see a real Beta or at least an Alpha that actually is called Windows 8.
Running M2 Build 7955.
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