Although you may not be jumping for joy at this fact, I'll wager you're at least a little curious. Could the new OS make your computing life any better? Is the new interface a boon, or more of a boondoggle?

Fortunately, you don't have to sacrifice your current PC to find out -- nor do you have to buy a new one. You can install the alongside Windows 7 and take it for a full test-drive. It's simply a matter of setting up a dual-boot configuration.

Before you go one step further, make sure you have a complete backup of your hard drive, just in case things go wrong. This is a pretty safe operation, but you never know.

The first step is to create a partition on your hard drive, a chunk of space that's reserved exclusively for Windows 8. You'll need at least 16GB, or 20GB if you're loading Windows 8 64-bit, but I recommend giving the OS plenty of breathing room: at least 30-40GB.