Windows 8 build 8102.101

Windows 8 build 8102.101 is the official Developer Preview build of Windows 8 which was released on 13 September 2011. It is the only available build to come with the official Redpill, thus having the Start screen and the Charms bar enabled by default.

Installation
Normally, it is not possible to fully upgrade to this build as the only option is to keep. However, by using an external program called, it is possible to select the option to keep   allowing a full upgrade to take place without issues.

Redpill
This build was the first build released to the public to have all new Metro features working out of the box. While the image that was distributed by Microsoft has all Metro features enabled, internally it still uses the same mechanism of (un)locking Metro features through Redpill as seen in earlier builds. A remnant of the application of Redpill is present in this build in the form of a 'redpill.log' file in the  directory. This file gives some insight into the application of Redpill.

The contents of the file are listed below:  Running with /labuseonly Running with /restrictedlab Running with /privatebinary Overriding version check... Installing licenses... Setting IE activesetup stub Setting MIE install state... Checking MIE package state... Restarting sessionenv... Setting IE activesetup stub ERROR: Binary version mismatch! Enabling via /enable Setting MIE install state... Checking MIE package state... Preparing to install immersive browser... Installing MIE OOB... Installing MIE complete. Return code: 0 Finished installing MIE OOB. Restarting sessionenv... Setting IE activesetup stub NoExplorer flag set; skipping explorer restart

Because of the similarities in the way of how features are locked between 8102 and some earlier builds, the files dropped by Redpill in build 8102 have been used to unlock Metro features in several older builds, such as builds 8056, 7989, and 7927.

Disabling Metro
As this build still utilizes Redpill, setting  to 0 will disable the Metro features like the start screen or hot corners, effectively un-redpilling the build and resulting in an experience similar to earlier leaked builds of Windows 8, and thus Windows 7, after Explorer is restarted. Special applications were created to suffice for this need. Note that setting  to 0 will also result in the Microsoft Confidential watermark appearing on the desktop, just like in earlier builds of Windows 8. In cases where Explorer was not restarted after disabling Metro, a hybrid between classic and Metro may occur where part of the Metro interface still shows on top of the classic shell.

Removed features
Despite being the first build to come unlocked by default, some features have been removed in this build. Those include accent colors and the ability to zoom out of the start screen.

Themes
This build has some bugs with theming and DWM:
 * Application windows that use the DWM to expand the glass frame into their client area might appear broken, with the transparency effect failing to render for the lower half of the window.
 * Switching to a High Contrast theme and then switching back to Aero or Aero Lite might result in a fully transparent taskbar. The navigation bar may also appear black.
 * Running  with the Aero Lite theme will enable the glass effect for that theme.

Compatibility
To install or run this build in VMware Workstation, you must set the hardware compatibility to versions 8.x or 9.x; otherwise, a black screen with an error code will appear such as the code 0x0000001E or 0x0000001A with text that says "Your computer needs to restart. Please hold down the power button.".