Microsoft has released a consumer preview of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system.

The release is the most feature-complete yet^[1], ahead of the final product's appearance later this year. Microsoft said on Wednesday that the developer preview^[2] saw over three million downloads.

The launch of the consumer preview took place in Barcelona, at Mobile World Congress^[3] — Windows 8 is the first version of the OS that can run on ARM's architecture, which dominates the mobile industry.

"With Windows 8, we reimagined the different

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