Windows 8 build 7652

Windows 8 build 7652 is the earliest known build of Windows 8. It was showcased on a post written by Steven Sinofsky on the Building Windows 8 blog, describing the development of Windows on ARM. It is the earliest known build of Windows that is capable of running on the ARM architecture, specifically on the Asus P835 smartphone in this case, which also reveals early support for ARMv6 processors that was dropped in later builds. One image shown features a watered-down version of the Windows Task Manager, a version of the On-Screen Keyboard applet from Windows XP, and the Command Prompt. Another image shows the classic Windows Solitaire and a basic dial pad.

The metadata for both of these images states the images were last opened or edited on 22 January 2010, the same date as the compilation of build 7700. However, build 7680 was compiled on 24 November 2009, so this build was certainly compiled before then.

On 12 December 2022, former Microsoft employee Aaron Giles recalled that this was indeed a build for ARMv6, and that the port started as a skunkworks project that moved to target ARMv7 only when management decided an official port should be made. He also recalled that the port at this time was complete enough to boot to the desktop and run some applications, but otherwise was very incomplete.