My team is hosting Windows 8 Boot Camps / Hackathons to help get developers up to speed on Windows 8 Development.  I may not be a developer, but I can still help the developer community get their machines up and running on Windows 8 today without having to wipe out their existing Windows 7 installation.

Since the actual RTM bits are not quite available yet, I will have bootable thumb drives with Windows 8 Release Preview and Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate.  In addition, I will also provide VHD files that have Windows Server 2012 Release Candidate and Windows 8 Release Preview preinstalled so that we can configure your machine with Boot to VHD (no repartitioning required and keeps your existing OS intact).

With the next Windows 8 Boot camp taking place in the Tempe office on September 7, 2012, this is a great opportunity to get your machine configured and ready to go in advance.

The only requirement for your computer is that you have Windows 7 or higher installed (required for Boot to VHD) and no drive encryption enabled (e.g. bitlocker, etc.).

If you would like to grab the files prior to arriving at the event, I have put the preinstalled VHDs here: http://aka.ms/hwitcampfiles.  Please download the ISO images here: http://aka.ms/hwws2012 and http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download.

The event will take place at the Tempe Microsoft Office located at 60 E. Rio Salado Pkwy., Suite 1200, Tempe, AZ 85282.

Date: Monday, August 27, 2012

Start Time: 2:00 PM

End Time: 4:00 PM