14 DAY TRIAL // Windows Developer Preview is essentially Windows 8 Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3), the first public preview of the platform released last week at BUILD. Being a pre-Beta development milestone, early adopters should not expect this release to deliver a quality level that would recommend it for deployment into production environments.
In fact, both the Windows Developer Preview and the Windows Server Developer Preview should only be used in testing scenarios, and nothing more.
Microsoft has compiled a list of known problems impacting Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 M3 which is available on the Windows Server site on MSDN.
“These release notes address the most critical issues and information about the Windows Developer Preview operating system. For information about by-design changes, new features, and fixes in this release, see documentation and announcements from the specific feature teams,” the company states.
From the get go, the software giant informs early adopters that they might run into problems related to driver incompatibility. This is to be expected, especially considering that original equipment manufacturers have yet to tailor all their products to the next iteration of the Windows client.
“Because this is a pre-beta release, many drivers may not be available yet. Check with the OEMs of your devices for the availability of updated drivers,” reads a piece of advice from Microsoft.
There are a variety of other issues listed on the page, from bugs affecting Windows Update, to glitches in multitouch, Windows Explorer, server storage, server roles, desktop search and even Internet Explorer 10.
As Windows 8 will hit Beta, testers can bet that the list of known issues will also change, with Microsoft boosting the quality of the operating system as it’s getting it ready for release.
The software giant has yet to reveal a specific availability deadline for Windows 8 Beta, although the Build is expected in the next few months.
Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 Milestone 3 (M3) is available for download here.