The mail application acts as a fully functional email client with access to Exchange, Google, and Hotmail accounts. Windows 8 Consumer Preview users can simply add an account in without any setup, and get access to the powerful functionality of Exchange accounts without the need for Outlook — a big move for Microsoft in what is essentially a core free Mail product. The Messaging application shows no signs of rumored SMS integration but it does provide a simple way to message Facebook and Windows Live Messenger contacts. Similar to Windows Phone, there is also a way to switch accounts in the interface to chat between the different services. Contacts are populated from the People app of Windows 8 for use in Messaging.

Microsoft's Photos application includes access to SkyDrive, Facebook, and Flickr photos. The application will automatically pull in these photos providing you have linked a Windows Live ID to your local Windows 8 account. The same applies to the rest of the preinstalled Windows 8 applications that use Microsoft's online services, they will all open preconfigured. Although the applications are fairly basic right now, we expect their functionality to be extended by the time Windows 8 is ready later this year.

Be sure to read our complete hands-on of the Windows 8 Consumer Preview here.