Windows 8 build 7867

6.2.7867.0.fbl_core1_kernel_npc_ext.101101-1728

Build of Windows 8
OS family	Windows NT
Version number	6.2
Build number	7867
Build revision	0
Architecture	ARM32 (ARMv7)
Build lab	fbl_core1_kernel_npc_ext
Compiled on	2010-11-01
Expiration date
Timebomb	2011-02-05 (+96 days)
About dialog

Windows 8 build 7867 is an internal build of Windows 8. It was first shown running on an ARM-based Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8660 SoC and NVIDIA Tegra 250 development kit at the CES 2011 trade show to demonstrate the capabilities of the then-evolving ARMv7 architecture, along with builds 7898 and 7900. A low-quality camera recording of the build which showed the Paint application running on the same Qualcomm SoC prior to the event was later uploaded by former Windows division president Steven Sinofsky on 30 October 2022, along with video footage of builds 7792 and 8090 in issue 104 of their account of events during his time at Microsoft, titled Hardcore Software.

The original partner drop for both the retail and debug client releases of this build's unstaged ARMv7 installation media and Preinstallation Environment, including software development kits and raw symbol sets for Nvidia were eventually uploaded on 8 September 2024.

Installation

QEMU installation guide:

Prerequisites

The following requirements used in order to install this build onto a virtual machine are listed below:

• The QEMU v6.1.0 Tegra 2 WoA fork that simulates a real-world Nvidia Tegra 250 development kit, modified to run early Windows on ARM builds
  • As of 2024, continuous integration (CI) is currently only set up to automatically produce Windows builds. The fork must be manually compiled from source by using a different operating system like macOS or Linux.
• The required patched EFI firmware capsule images (originally from build 7822), to be placed in the QEMU installation directory in a new folder named fw
• Two virtual hard disk images (for storing the installation media and the OS install)

Precautions

• The emulator may quit when a system reboot is initiated. This is an intentional design decision implemented by Microsoft as restarts are treated as full shutdowns by the Tegra 250 HAL, and cannot be worked around.
• In rare edge cases, Secure Digital MultiMediaCard (SDMMC) emulation may not be reliable and can possibly corrupt the main OS disk partition midway through image deployment or feature staging. Re-attempting the below instructions by first formatting the main OS partition and then modifying the setup BCD store to use one CPU core (located as EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD in the installation media) via the command below may help significantly improve the chances of a successful installation, at the expense of additional time due to the lack of multi-threading:

  bcdedit /offline /store M:\EFI\Microsoft\Boot\BCD /set {default} NUMPROC 1
  

• USB HID device emulation is unstable and will occasionally result in devices failing to register any user inputs. To restore input, switch to the QEMU compatibility monitor (Ctrl+Alt+2) and run the following commands:

  device_del kbd
  device_add usb-kbd,id=kbd
  

• For builds prior to 7957 (excluding builds 7792 and 7822), it is critical that the Windows Setup boot image be substituted with the Windows Preinstallation Environment image from the original partner drop (ordinarily located in the winpe or woape directories), as the Setup boot image does not contain the required hardware abstraction layer (HAL) extensions, and will therefore cause the operating system to immediately bugcheck with code HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAILED as soon as the boot sequence starts.
• This guide is not for build 7915 due to it being designed to run on Texas Instruments OMAP4 and won't run on the Tegra 2 QEMU. It is required to use QEMU-woa instead.

Instructions

These instructions assume that the user has an elevated command prompt window open.

Create the needed virtual disk images through the diskpart utility by running the below script; they will be created under a directory in the C: drive named ARM8. The INSTALL, MainOS and EFI system partitions will be respectively mounted under drive letters F and P.

create vdisk file="C:\ARM8\Setup.vhd" maximum=4096 type=expandable
select vdisk file="C:\ARM8\Setup.vhd"
attach vdisk
convert gpt
create partition primary
format quick fs=fat32 label=INSTALL
assign letter=M
create vdisk file="C:\ARM8\Main.vhd" maximum=65536 type=expandable
select vdisk file="C:\ARM8\Main.vhd"
attach vdisk
convert gpt
create partition efi size=100
format quick fs=fat32 label=EFIESP
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs label=MainOS
assign letter=P
exit

Depending on the users' desired build flavor (free or checked), copy the contents of the installation media over to the INSTALL partition. Extract the needed EFI boot manager (\Windows\Boot\EFI\bootmgfw.efi) from the Windows PE or Windows Setup boot image to INSTALL, as EFI\Boot\bootarm.efi.

Eject all currently attached virtual disks from the machine, and paste and run the contents of the below script onto a batch file within the QEMU installation directory, replacing FWType with either the 78xx variant firmware (for early builds up to 7898) or the multi variant (for builds 7898 through build 7996):

set BL=".\fw\HARMONY.fd.FWType"
set MAIN="C:\ARM8\Main.vhd"
set SETUP="C:\ARM8\Setup.vhd"

qemu-system-arm ^
    -M tegra2-qemu -m 1G -accel tcg,thread=multi ^
    -bootloader %BL% ^
    -device usb-tablet,id=mouse -device usb-kbd,id=kbd ^
    -drive if=sd,index=0,format=vpc,file=%SETUP% ^
    -drive if=sd,index=1,file=%MAIN% ^
    -serial null -nic none ^
    -s ^

Start installing the operating system. Setup must be directly invoked from the original installation media as the version in the OS boot image does not function. The following command may be used to start the installation process:

start D:\sources\setup.exe

Immediately after completing the first phase of setup, remove the SD slot for the installation media and boot into the operating system by using the below batch script configuration:

set BL=".\fw\HARMONY.fd.FWTYPE"
set MAIN="C:\ARM8\Main.vhd"

qemu-system-arm ^
    -M tegra2-qemu -m 1G -accel tcg,thread=multi ^
    -bootloader %BL% ^
    -device usb-tablet,id=mouse -device usb-kbd,id=kbd ^
    -drive if=sd,index=0,file=%MAIN% ^
    -serial null -nic none ^
    -s ^

Continue installing the operating system through normal means.

Editions and keys

The following SKUs are installable in this build:

Edition / SKU Name	Key
Starter	7Q28W-FT9PC-CMMYT-WHMY2-89M6G
Starter E	BRQCV-K7HGQ-CKXP6-2XP7K-F233B
Starter N	D4C3G-38HGY-HGQCV-QCWR8-97FFR
Home Basic	YGFVB-QTFXQ-3H233-PTWTJ-YRYRV
Home Basic E	VTKM9-74GQY-K3W94-47DHV-FTXJY
Home Basic N	MD83G-H98CG-DXPYQ-Q8GCR-HM8X2
Home Premium	RHPQ2-RMFJH-74XYM-BH4JX-XM76F
Home Premium N	76BRM-9Q4K3-QDJ48-FH4F3-9WT2R
Professional	HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487
Professional E	3YHKG-DVQ27-RYRBX-JMPVM-WG38T
Professional N	BKFRB-RTCT3-9HW44-FX3X8-M48M6
Enterprise	H7X92-3VPBB-Q799D-Y6JJ3-86WC6
Enterprise E	H3V6Q-JKQJG-GKVK3-FDDRF-TCKVR
Enterprise N	BQ4TH-BWRRY-424Y9-7PQX2-B4WBD
Ultimate	D4F6K-QK3RD-TMVMJ-BBMRX-3MBMV
Ultimate E	TWMF7-M387V-XKW4Y-PVQQD-RK7C8
Ultimate N	HTJK6-DXX8T-TVCR6-KDG67-97J8Q

New features and changes

HAL extension support

This is the earliest available build of Windows to support hardware abstraction layer extensions, which allow platform developers to quickly provide support for system-on-chip devices by adding interfaces for interrupt timers and controllers, as well as direct memory access (DMA) controllers.

Driver management

System drivers now use a dedicated registry database located in the Windows\System32\config directory (as DRIVERS). It is used by the Windows servicing stack to facilitate driver installation, and contains a list of relevant driver components, hardware IDs, references to driver metadata (INFs) and definition data for each installed driver package.

CES 2011 demonstration differences

Various aspects of this build were either changed or disabled during the CES 2011 demonstration, two of which are likely a result of file replacement originating from later builds originating from shell development branches:

• The User Tile seen in builds 7785 through 7866 is disabled.
• The branding observed within the watermark was temporarily changed to "Microsoft Pre-release Windows Operating System", in a stark contrast to its predecessors' branding commonly seen in builds such as 7779 and 7850.
• The Windows Fingerprinting Service is disabled, as evidenced by the lack of the Microsoft Confidential leak warning in the watermark and the missing EULA hash.
• The desktop background was changed to the one seen in the RTM build of Windows 7, in place of the blue-green gradient Milestone 1 wallpaper that was used since build 7762.

Bugs and quirks

ARMv7 port differences

Due to the earliness of the ARMv7 port, aspects of the operating system that exist in x86 do not exist on ARM:

• The older CMIv2-style component store (containing the binaries used to assemble the Windows Foundation base image) is present alongside the newer Windows side-by-side (SxS) component store.
• The .NET Framework is not present, despite components depending on the Common Language Runtime (such as PowerShell) being included.
  • Most applications that rely on .NET Framework such as the Snipping Tool and Windows Media Center do not exist.
• The Warbird obfuscation layer was not yet ported at this stage in development - components relying on it, such as the Metro shell (provided by twinui.dll), security components (such as the Next-Generation Secure Computing Base (NGSCB) security processor drivers) and software licensing components are not obfuscated.
• The Windows Search indexing engine does not exist at this stage in development.

Gallery

UI-Interface

• 

  Setup

Internal recording

• 

  Snapdragon SoC running this build's Paint application

• 

  Closeup; full build tag visible

CES 2011 still frames

• 

  Desktop

• 

  Ditto, without DWM

• 

  Command Prompt

• 

  Start menu

• 

  Windows Media Player