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.

Redpill
This is the first publicly released build of Windows 8 to have all new Metro features working out of the box. While the image that was distributed by Microsoft has all Metro features enabled, it still uses the same internal 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  file in the   directory, giving some insight to the functioning of the official Redpill unlocker.

The contents of the file are listed below: :

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.

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.

Updates
Uninstalling the KB2608610 update will revert the system to build 8102.0 (winmain_win8m3.110823-1455).

Metro

 * New lock screen backgrounds have been introduced.
 * The default accent color has been changed to green. However, it can no longer be changed.
 * The ability to zoom out on the Start screen has been removed. It would return in the next build.
 * To showcase the abilities of the Metro UI, this build includes sample apps which are not included in later builds.
 * Store received a new icon. However, it still doesn't work in this build.

Desktop

 * The Start orb has been replaced with a flat Start button.
 * The Aero theme has been updated with redesigned caption buttons.
 * When User Account Control launches, the user interface now will be completely hidden, showing only the desktop wallpaper and icons.
 * This is the first build to include Metro-style notifications. This can be easily seen when installing a third-party app, as Windows will inform that  or when inserting removable media.

Findings
Apparently, it was planned that  should be removed with Windows 8. When launching it, you will see a notice that  is deprecated and will be removed in a future build.

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  or   with text that says.

Installation
The option to perform a full upgrade is disabled by default, although it is possible to enable it to keep the user profile's files or perform a clean installation. Through the use of external tools (such as ShowHideControls), it is possible to select the option to keep all data including installed applications, allowing a full upgrade to take place without issues.
 * Setup strings in  have been changed again to remove most of the informality introduced in build 8056.
 * has been removed from the setup boot screen after being removed from the regular boot screen in build 8064.

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 (for example, Desktop Gadget Gallery, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Windows Mobility Center or apps with the Ribbon interface) 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.