Watermark

The Watermark is the common name for a label bottom-right corner of the Windows desktop identifying the operating system version, which overlays the desktop wallpaper. It is most commonly seen in pre-release versions as well as unactivated Windows 8 and 8.1, where it is enabled by default with no option to disable it without tampering with system files, however, it is also possible to enable it on release builds with a registry entry. A distinctive form of watermark is also visible when a Windows system boots in safe mode, which overrides any other forms of watermark, if any.

Watermarks were originally displayed on debug builds only. However, during the development of Windows 98 and Windows 2000 they have become widely used to mark pre-release builds regardless of the build type.

History
The first Windows build known to display a kind of watermark is Windows 3.0 Debug Release 1.14. However, this was later removed in the lead up to the RTM. Watermarks also appear - centered at the top of the screen - in very early checked builds of Windows NT 3.1, such as builds 175 and 196. In this case, the watermark displays the string "NT 32-bit Windows", followed by the build server and architecture - in both cases "NTX86BLD" and then the early, OS/2-style build number. These are hardcoded in USERSRV.DLL.

Watermarks were reintroduced during the development of Windows 3.1 as seen in the SDK debug kernel, which when applied on top of an already installed copy of Windows displays a shaded label in the bottom right corner identifying the current operating mode and the Windows version. With the removal of Standard mode, the operating mode part was removed, however, watermarks didn't appear on non-debug builds until Windows 98 build 1351 and Windows 2000 build 1989.1. However, enabling Active Desktop would remove the watermark until it was disabled.