Illustration: Gordon McAlpin

Windows 8 is a radical new operating system from Microsoft that completely re-thinks how a PC’s desktop is supposed to work. And you can try it out now, if you like. It’s a developer preview version, and only works as an upgrade to Windows 7, so you’re going to want to back up your stuff first.

To try out the new Windows 8:

1. Go to dev.windows.com
2. Follow the instructions from there

Remember that this is an early version and a lot of stuff won’t work. Still, it’s a free preview. How neat is that?