Windows 8 build 8330 (fbl woa)

Windows 8 build 8330 (fbl_woa) is a build of Windows 8, which was uploaded to BetaArchive on 27 January 2020. It is currently the earliest available build in the ARM32 architecture.

Prior to being shared, a photo of this build was posted on a BetaArchive topic on 16 February 2016 by user Hounsell. Another three additional screenshots of this build were published afterwards.

Installation
Installation guide on QEMU: 1. Download this pack on QEMU 6.2.0

2. Download a patched Linaro UEFI 15.12 32-bit and copy this file to the QEMU installation folder.

3. Create a VHD by using the  utility. For this, run the following commands. (Note that these files will be created in a directory on your C drive called "RT", and they will be mounted under the drive letters P and W).

create vdisk file="C:\RT\hdd.vhd" maximum=65536 type=expandable select vdisk file="C:\RT\hdd.vhd" attach vdisk convert gpt create partition efi size=100 format quick fs=fat32 assign letter=p create partition primary format quick assign letter=w exit

4. Apply the  to VHD, and then create boot files:

dism /apply-image /imagefile: /index:1 /applydir:W:\ bcdboot W:\Windows /s P: /f UEFI

After that, eject P or W. Once ejected, P remains and disappears after a reboot.

5. Run QEMU by going to your QEMU installation folder, saving the following text to a batch file, and then running it to start the emulator:

qemu-system-arm ^ -M virt,highmem=false ^ -cpu cortex-a15 ^ --accel tcg,thread=multi ^ -m 2G ^ -bios QEMU_EFI_1512_driver1998.fd ^ -device VGA ^ -device usb-kbd ^ -device usb-tablet ^ -drive id=mydrive,if=none,file=C:\RT\hdd.vhd -device sd-card,drive=mydrive ^ -rtc base=2012-04-24,clock=vm

6. If you want to change the screen resolution, press F2 to enter EFI settings, enter  and then. Change the resolution to the desired one then commit the changes and exit. Choose  in the QEMU menu and then reset the emulator.

'''Important note: The startup process is highly unstable and recovery errors are possible. You must bypass them, to do this, press the Enter key. BSOD errors are also possible. To bypass them, reset the emulator every time you get a BSOD error. After several attempts, you should successfully boot into the system.'''

Hardware compatibility
This is the first build of Windows 8 that drops support for processors without NX, as running on these processors will result in a black screen with error code 0x5D.

Branding
This is the first build to feature the new "Windows 8/RT" branding seen in the RTM.

Setup

 * Besides the background color, Setup now resembles that of the RTM.
 * During the first boot, the message "Setup is updating registry settings" has been renamed to just "Please Wait".
 * The first logon animation has been updated.

Desktop

 * The Windows Aero theme was updated.
 * More items are now squared and flattened to resemble the RTM.
 * The mouse cursor shadow has been disabled by default.
 * This build uses one of the two wallpapers seen during Windows 8 development featuring gray overlapping digits of the number 8, using the Segoe UI typeface.

Metro

 * All accent color choices from the RTM are included with this build.
 * New Start screen wallpapers have been added.
 * Windows Explorer is no longer pinned to the Start screen by default.
 * Menus on the Charms bar now resemble the RTM.

Control Panel

 * Family Safety received its final icon.
 * The Recovery applet has been redesigned.