Today’s the day, folks. All preview versions of Windows 8 are set to go dark today (January 15, 2013). For all practical purposes, this is the final development milestone of Microsoft’s newest OS.
From the initial announcement to early builds, even leaks, and then the final release.
My, how times flies!
Microsoft’s latest (and technically, greatest) operating system officially saw the light of day on October 26, 2012, but a number of users are still said to be running the preview builds of Windows 8 — for obvious reason that it was available at no cost.
But as indicated by Redmond, all three versions of Windows 8 (Developer, Consumer and Release) are set to expire today leaving users no option but to purchase and install the full version if they want to continue using it.
The Developer build of Windows 8 was initially set to expire on April 8, 2012, but you may recall that Microsoft released a patch to extend the lifetime of the test version to January 15, 2013.
Expiration in this case does not mean that users will not be able to run the OS at all. They can.
But starting tomorrow, all three versions of Windows 8 will display alert messages urging users to buy a license. And as is the case with any Microsoft operating system that is not activated, an automatic restart comes into effect every hour until a genuine product key is provided.
Be interesting to hear if any of you are still on a preview version of Windows 8. And if so, will you be upgrading to the full version? Sound off in the comments section below.
