How to try Windows 8 without the pain

Here are some free tools you can use to test the Windows 8 trial out without having to completely wipe your computer when the 90 day trial ends.

With Windows 8 Enterprise now available you might be tempted to give it a try. However, if you install the 90 day trial version you'll have to completely wipe your system once the trial period is over. This might be a serious pain in the neck. However, there's a way past the pain using virtualisation.

Virtualisation is a way of getting your PC to allocate some of its storage, memory and processing to create a virtual computer. The nifty thing about virtualisation is that you can create multiple virtual machines on one computer with each operating independently of each other. Think of it as having several computers all contained in one box.

There are free virtualisation tools around that you can use to test the Windows 8 trial out without having to completely wipe your computer when the 90 day trial ends.

One option is VirtualBox. There are Mac, Windows and Linux versions for running other operating systems on your computer. There's plenty of feedback on the web suggesting that Windows 8 runs quite well using VirtualBox. Microsoft's Building Windows 8 blog discusses running Windows 8 on a virtual machine.

Unfortunately, Microsoft's own free virtualisation software, Windows Virtual PC isn't a viable option for testing Windows 8.