The Windows 8 Consumer Preview (build 8250) was released by Microsoft in early 2012 and still proves that the small things can still have an impact today. It was shipped by Microsoft with upgrade media that allowed users to test it, but it isn't 2012 anymore and we can't test it on modern hardware anyway!
This guide will help you test the Windows 8 Consumer Preview (unfortunately, this only applies to the 32-bit version) in QEMU and Hyper-V. If you didn't know that Hyper-V could run this OS… neither did I.
Most guides use hypervisors such as Broadcom VMware or Oracle VirtualBox, while the QEMU side of this guide goes into a more technical perspective, emulating the Sandy Bridge CPU's IA-32 instruction set for an accurate touch. Don't worry, non-techies, we still have Hyper-V! (spoiler: it's super simple to use)