Microsoft has inadvertently spilled the beans on when its Windows 8 Release Build is expected to hit, and it's today (31 May). A blog posting heralding its arrival, by Chuck Chan, corporate vice-president of the Windows Development Team,  was accidentally posted a day early. It was subsequently removed, but not before eagle-eyed visitors to the site spotted it.

In his posting, which appeared on a brand new Windows Hardware and Driver Developer Blog, Chan wrote: "We’re very excited to make available today the Windows 8 Release Preview on the Windows Dev Center." He also signed off as "Chuck Chan, May 31 2012".

The post detailed how to get a copy of the Windows 8 Release Build, with links (broken) to the relevant files.

"To get started, download and install Windows 8 Release Preview, the Windows Driver Kit 8 and Visual Studio Professional 2012," it said.

"The Windows 8 SDK is also included with Visual Studio. As you begin using Windows 8, you’ll notice that we’ve added new features and improved existing ones. In addition to providing a modern tool set, we’ve also been hard at work improving power management and refining the way you provide a great user experience for devices with Metro style device apps. We’ll share more details in future posts."

At present, the original blog entry is still down. But we now fully expect it to go back up again today, with the correct links to the actual Windows 8 Release Build.

Pic: (cc) BUILDWindows