你现在就可以下载Windows8消费者预览版（阅读：public beta），虽然我们担心你无法将其安装在ARM平板电脑上，但最近内存中的任何x86台式机、笔记本电脑或平板电脑都应该能够运行新的操作系统。您只需要一个1GHz的处理器、1GB的RAM（或2GB的64位）、16GB的存储器（或20GB的64位）和一个支持WDDM 1.0的DirectX 9图形卡。也就是说，如果没有更多的规范，您将无法充分利用Windows 8的所有新功能，而官方的Building Windows 8博客刚刚发布了一篇文章，详细介绍了其他指南：

• "One new element to Windows 8 is the requirement that Metro style applicati*** have a minimum of 1024x768 screen resolution, and 1366x768 for the snap feature. If you attempt to launch a Metro style app with less than this resolution (e.g. 800x600, 1024x600) you will receive an error message."
• "With the C***umer Preview, if you want to support touch, you will need a screen that supports multi-touch."
• "Secured Boot requires a new UEFI BIOS, which is not available broadly on PCs yet, but is starting to be made available. If your machine does have UEFI, you can enable it via BIOS settings."
• "BitLocker does not require but performs more seamlessly if your PC has a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). Machines that have this sometimes require it to be enabled via BIOS settings. BitLocker To Go requires a USB flash drive that meets performance criteria evaluated at installation time."
• "Hyper-V requires a 64-bit system with second level address translation (SLAT) capabilities and an additional 2 GB of RAM. You can also enable SLAT via a BIOS setting."
• "Some games and other software require graphics capabilities compatible with DirectX 10 or higher (including some games available in the C***umer Preview and in the Windows Store. We will continue to improve the verification of your system prior to downloading or running software with these requirements). Some games and programs might require a graphics card for optimal performance."
• "If you clean install instead of upgrade (see below), you should check your PC manufacturer's website to make sure you install any specific drivers that they provide there. Many laptops will get better battery life with a power-optimized driver that is specific for that PC (often known as ACPI, Power, or Chipset driver)."

撇开这些不谈，即使是去年的上网本也应该能够处理这个问题：微软表示，它已经成功地在戴尔Inspiron二人组（Dell Inspiron Duo）等平台上对操作系统进行了实质性的测试。正在安装副本？请在此处或下面的源链接查看Microsoft的常见问题解答。