Windows 8 'release preview' due in early June

Windows 8 "release preview" coming in June          

Microsoft will release a "release preview" version of Windows 8 will be released in the first week of June, the company announced this evening.

Microsoft President Steven Sinofsky made the announcement during an on-stage appearance at Japan's Windows 8 Dev Days and more broadly on the Build Windows 8 Twitter feed.

The release preview follows a beta and is the last stage before a product's final version. The beta, or consumer preview, of Windows 8, came out on February 29. A recent report suggests that the final version of Windows 8 will launch this October.