Windows 8 build 7957 (fbl_core1_kernel_npc)

6.2.7957.0.fbl_core1_kernel_npc.110302-1700
	Build of Windows 8
OS family	Windows NT
Version number	6.2
Build number	7957
Build revision	0
Architecture	ARM32 (ARMv7); x86
Build lab	fbl_core1_kernel_npc
Compiled on	2011-03-02
Expiration date
Timebomb	2011-07-01 (+121 days)
SKUs
	Starter (N); Home Basic (N); Home Premium (N); Professional (N); Enterprise (N); Ultimate (N)
About dialog

Windows 8 build 7957 (fbl_core1_kernel_npc) is a build of Windows 8. 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 uploaded on 11 September 2024 along with build 7898. Prior to its leak, a screenshot of this build was shared on the BetaWiki Discord server on 23 September 2021. The x86 free and checked compiles of this build was shared on 3 November 2024, along with build 7960's Windows Preinstallation Environment in the x86 architecture. The Qualcomm drop was later uploaded on 5 December 2024.

This build is also referenced in an installation guide for an Atmel touch screen driver package found within the 2022 Nvidia source code leak, which stated that the package is not compatible with this build. Build 7969 is also referenced in the same document.

It is notable for being one of the few Windows builds to be made available in the form of unstaged installation media^[a]; all client editions available in the Windows 8 source tree at the time of compilation (albeit labeled as Longhorn, a holdover that was never corrected internally) are available for the user to pick from and install during setup, in turn building a complete Windows image from scratch from a set of components through the use of the Windows Component-Based Servicing (CBS) stack.

Editions and keys[edit | edit source]

The following SKUs are installable in this build:

Edition / SKU Name	Key
Starter^[b]	7Q28W-FT9PC-CMMYT-WHMY2-89M6G
Starter N^[b]^[a]	D4C3G-38HGY-HGQCV-QCWR8-97FFR
Home Basic	YGFVB-QTFXQ-3H233-PTWTJ-YRYRV
Home Basic N^[a]	MD83G-H98CG-DXPYQ-Q8GCR-HM8X2
Home Premium	RHPQ2-RMFJH-74XYM-BH4JX-XM76F
Home Premium N^[a]	D3PVQ-V7M4J-9Q9K3-GG4K3-F99JM
Professional	HYF8J-CVRMY-CM74G-RPHKF-PW487
Professional N^[a]	BKFRB-RTCT3-9HW44-FX3X8-M48M6
Enterprise^[c]	H7X92-3VPBB-Q799D-Y6JJ3-86WC6
Enterprise N^[a]	BQ4TH-BWRRY-424Y9-7PQX2-B4WBD
Ultimate	D4F6K-QK3RD-TMVMJ-BBMRX-3MBMV
Ultimate N^[a]	HTJK6-DXX8T-TVCR6-KDG67-97J8Q

readme.txt[edit | edit source]

Usage instructions for Amtel 1386 Driver

Requirements:
Windows builds 7969 and higher (will NOT work on 7957)

1. Copy your c:\windows\system32\drivers\mshidkmdf.sys to the same directory as the driver/inf.
2. Modify the INF and replace all instances of TOUCH_ID with your Hardware ID.  For example, if your Hardware ID for touch is ACPI\VENDOR_TCH, replace all instances of TOUCH_ID with VENDOR_TCH
3. Ensure that GPIO and I2C drivers are loaded before installing the driver.
4. Work with Atmel and Microsoft to adjust the calibration values in the INF to match your hardware.

Installation[edit | edit source]

Expand

QEMU installation guide for the ARM32 compile:

Prerequisites[edit | edit source]

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[edit | edit source]

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[edit | edit source]

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 YYYY-MM-DD with a date which is prior to the build’s built-in timebomb expires and FWType with either the 78xx variant firmware (for early builds up to 7898) or the multi variant (for builds 7898 through build 7996):^[d]

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 ^
    -rtc base=YYYY-MM-DD,clock=vm ^

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:^[d]

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 ^
    -rtc base=YYYY-MM-DD,clock=vm ^

Continue installing the operating system through normal means.

Bugs and quirks[edit | edit source]

In the ARM32 compile, Chess Titans and Mahjong Titans are listed as "Unspecified" in the Game Explorer.

Private builds of core components[edit | edit source]

The NVIDIA drop of the ARM32 compile contains privately built ntoskrnl.exe and kdusbtga.dll files of the free and checked flavor, complete with private symbols, in the cardhu directory of the drop, likely an attempt to support early cardhu-based development kits. The free/retail files have a buildtag of 6.2.7957.0 (fbl_core1_kernel_npc(adamg).110118-0015), the checked/debug files have a buildtag of 6.2.7957.0 (fbl_core1_kernel_npc(adamg).101217-1230).

Gallery[edit | edit source]

ARM32 variant[edit | edit source]

Interface[edit | edit source]

Login screen
Game Explorer
winver

Screenshot(s) shared prior to publication[edit | edit source]

System Properties

Notes[edit | edit source]

↑ ^{Jump up to: 1.0} ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 Only available for the ARM32 variant.
↑ ^{Jump up to: 2.0} ^2.1 The Starter edition (and its N counterparts), last included in Windows 7, had since been internally repurposed during Windows 8 development to act as a base for new and existing Windows client SKUs. The Web Server edition would also be identically repurposed during development of its server counterpart for both Desktop Experience and Core editions, although Standard Server would later take its place as the base for Server Core editions during the late development phases of Windows Server 2016, specifically during Redstone 1 development.
↑ Only available for the ARM32 variant or via manually staging it on the x86 retail or debug image.
↑ ^{Jump up to: 4.0} ^4.1 If utilizing the quad-core variant of the Tegra 2 WoA fork, the machine configuration in the batch script must be modified to address 2 GB of RAM, and the patched 2g EFI firmware capsules must also be used to start up the virtual machine. The multi2g combination can be used to immediately boot into builds 8020 through 8061; if this combination is not being used, then necessary registry modifications against the SYSTEM hive to load Tegra 2 HAL extension IDs VEN_ra2.&DEV_0002 (HalExtTegra2.dll) and VEN_ra2.&DEV_0003 (HalExtTegra2Dma.dll; in later builds, HalExtTegraDma.dll) are required.

[ARM32-1] {Jump up to: 1.0} ^1.1 ^1.2 ^1.3 ^1.4 ^1.5 ^1.6 Only available for the ARM32 variant.

[StarterExpl-2] {Jump up to: 2.0} ^2.1 The Starter edition (and its N counterparts), last included in Windows 7, had since been internally repurposed during Windows 8 development to act as a base for new and existing Windows client SKUs. The Web Server edition would also be identically repurposed during development of its server counterpart for both Desktop Experience and Core editions, although Standard Server would later take its place as the base for Server Core editions during the late development phases of Windows Server 2016, specifically during Redstone 1 development.

[ARM32OrStaging-3] Only available for the ARM32 variant or via manually staging it on the x86 retail or debug image.

[quad2g-4] {Jump up to: 4.0} ^4.1 If utilizing the quad-core variant of the Tegra 2 WoA fork, the machine configuration in the batch script must be modified to address 2 GB of RAM, and the patched 2g EFI firmware capsules must also be used to start up the virtual machine. The multi2g combination can be used to immediately boot into builds 8020 through 8061; if this combination is not being used, then necessary registry modifications against the SYSTEM hive to load Tegra 2 HAL extension IDs VEN_ra2.&DEV_0002 (HalExtTegra2.dll) and VEN_ra2.&DEV_0003 (HalExtTegra2Dma.dll; in later builds, HalExtTegraDma.dll) are required.

[a]

[b]

[c]

[d]