Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102.winmain_win8m3.110830-1739 was compiled on August 30, 2011, some two weeks ago, and still belongs to the Milestone 3 stage of the development process.

According to Steven Sinofsky, President, Windows and Windows Live Division, a lot of work has already gone into building Windows 8, including 2 million installs internally, 9.3 million performance tests, 1 trillion telemetry data points analyzed, and in excess of 380,000 hours of compatibility testing.

Just a reminder, Windows 8 will deliver the same full PC experience whether it’s running on traditional computers or tablets / slates and additional next-generation form factors.

Featuring support for ARM-based chipsets, but also for x86 and x64 CPUs, Windows 8 is optimized for touch devices and that’s why the new Metro UI Start Screen takes center-stage pushing the desktop to the background.

Windows 8 comes with Internet Explorer 10 (IE10), a new Metro platform for immersive applications, enhanced performance, its own Windows Store, and so much more.

Sinofsky made it clear that there are hundreds of new features in Windows 8 that await to be discovered, so early adopters should download Windows 8 Developer Preview Build 8102 M3 as soon as it becomes available and start testing.
System Requirements

Windows Developer Preview works great on the same hardware that powers Windows Vista and Windows 7:

   1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor
   1 gigabyte (GB) RAM (32-bit) or 2 GB RAM (64-bit)
   16 GB available hard disk space (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
   DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM 1.0 or higher driver
   Taking advantage of touch input requires a screen that supports multi-touch

"You can’t upgrade this prerelease version of Windows"