Microsoft Launches Windows 8 Release Preview

Microsoft just announced that the Windows 8 Release Preview, the company’s final pre-release version of Windows 8, is now available for download. With this release, Microsoft is also making new versions of its Windows 8 apps for Hotmail, SkyDrive an Messenger available, as well as hundreds of new and updated apps from third-party developers in the Windows Store.

Microsoft says that it will focus its resources before launching the final version of Windows 8 on improving the installation process, security and privacy, as well as device and software compatibility. As Microsoft’s president of its Windows Division Steven Sinofsky noted, his team “will still be changing Windows 8, as we have done in past releases of Windows.”

We will be giving the Release Preview a good spin soon, but we already know that Microsoft has significantly improved multi-monitor support in Windows 8, for example. While this new version still features the Windows 8 Aero theme, we also know that this will be gone in the final release.

You can download the Release Preview here.