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Windows 8 Preview & Experience Strategy Without Spending a Dime!

Dennis_St__John
Level 8
Hello Everyone,

If you are like me, you are anxious to take Windows 8 for a spin, but don't yet want to remove and jeapordize your existing stable Windows 7 installation! Here's how you can get the full release of Microsoft Windows 8 Enterprise OS installed on your ASUS laptop without spending a dime!

First, a little intro - I am a freelance IT professional providing related services to many small to medium sized business in my area. It's my job to be "ahead of the curve" so my clients can stay on course (not fall too far behind). That said, I likely won't be deploying Windows 8 within any of my client's businesses for at least a year (if Windows 8 doesn't turn out to be another ME or Vista type OS), but now that the new OS is out, I've really got to dive in and start learning.

Secondly, and the reason I am posting in this forum, is that I am a proud owner of an ASUS G75VW, with a slightly beefed up configuration from factory (I replaced the included 750GB 1st HDD with a hybrid Seagate 750GB SSD / HDD and moved the included 750GB drive to the second bay and re-installed from scratch. Been going on this configuration for about 3 months now. I also added another 4GB of RAM to bring the total up to 16GB.

You can probably already guess where I am heading with this thread but my recommended strategy involves setting up Windows 8 within a VM environment in my currently stable and existing Windows 7 Ultimate installation. I have a lot of programs installed that are working and don't really have time to start from scratch at the moment.

Here's what you'll need:

Windows 8 Enterprise Evaulation Edition (License will be valid for 90 days) - FREE to download from MS here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/jj554510.aspx

Scroll to the bottom and click the "Get Started Now" button (I downloaded the 64 bit edition)

The filename I ended up downloading was:
9200.16384.WIN8_RTM.120725-1247_X64FRE_ENTERPRISE_EVAL_EN-US-HRM_CENA_X64FREE_EN-US_DV5.ISO

Next, go grab VM Player from VMWARE here:
http://www.vmware.com/products/player/overview.html

Note that when I first began this journey, I started out with VirtualBox by Oracle (another free VM solution) but ran into a lot of problems after I got Windows 8 installed with hard locking (not just on the VM but my entire system). I googled the issue to find out many others were experiencing this same issue. Not sure what the cause but I suspect it has something to do with the drivers it installs to virtualize things. Anyway, I'm a few hours down the road now with the virtual experience being in the VMWare environment and everything seems very stable.

I have a 2nd monitor attached to my G75VW and am running Windows 8 in full screen mode as I type this post. Everything is very smooth!

It's beyond the scope, at least for now, for me to provide a step-by-step of the setup experience installing Windows 8 in VMWare Player but given you've got this laptop, I am guessing most people reading this already consider themselves "Power Users" so you should already know how to mount an ISO to boot up from inside the VMWare Player software.

One thing - after you install VMWare Player - DO NOT use the express install. Setup your blank HD first, and then, proceed to attach the ISO to your CD/DVD drive so you can boot from it. Otherwise, you'll get a license error on install.

The aforementioned edition of Windows 8 does not require any key to get installed and will simply expire after 90 days. By then, you'll probably be ready to make the switch, if not sooner.

I just think ASUS users might find themselves waiting a little while longer for ALL of the official drivers for Windows 8 to be released, in addition to waiting for ASUS to get all the bugs worked out.

After getting Windows 8 installed, head over to ninite.com (my new favorite app installer) and download "Classic Start" (among other favorites). You'll really want this as Microsoft decided not to include the start menu on the desktop of Windows 8. This will provide a much needed transition experience so the upgrade is not such a removal from what you are already used to. First thing you'll want to click on is the "Desktop" button from the Windows 8 Start Screen. This will get you working in already familiar territory as soon as possible.

Please feel free to post any questions you may have and I'll be more than happy to answer as best as I can!

Hope this helps someone out there get going with a transitional Windows 8 experience!

All the best!
170 Views
12 REPLIES 12

Woots
Level 11
Thanks for the heads up on the eval guys.

Rep to all.
PC Setup:
Battlestation Setup:

tkolarik
Level 9
I actually did the Windows 8 Enterprise 90-day demo install to a VHD so much better then a virtual machine because you're actually using your own hardware. It's a 90-day only non-upgrade able so you have to reinstall after that. I just completed a clean install removing the GUID and going to my old favorite MBR. So once I get every thing reinstalled and a good backup image, I'll put it back on.

Dennis_St__John
Level 8
I agree tkolarik! It does give you a MUCH better feel for what it will be like when you do decide to take the plunge all out. I'll say that I haven't had a lick of problems still (following the guide to the "T") and have used ASUS's Windows 7 drivers for this unit in Win 8. I'm sure they are going to release official Win 8 drivers for the G75VW at some point, and in time, but for now, all the Win 7 drivers seem to work just fine. Only exception is I download the NVIDIA driver straight from the NVIDIA website for the GTX 670M and it worked flawlessly (did this right after booting up to Win 8 for the first time). Cheers!