14 DAY TRIAL // Windows 8 was officially released on October 26, 2012, but plenty of users are still running a preview build of Microsoft’s newest operating system, obviously because it’s available at no cost.
All three preview versions of Windows 8, namely Developer, Consumer and Release, will go dark today, so users who wish to stick with the new software have no other option than to purchase a fully working license.
The Developer build of Windows 8 was initially supposed to expire on April 8, 2012, but Microsoft released a patch to extend its testing lifetime to January 15, 2013.
Starting tomorrow, all these three versions of Windows 8 will display alert messages urging users to buy a license, with an automatic restart coming into effect every hour until a genuine product key is provided.