Windows 8 build 8330 (fbl_woa)

6.2.8330.0.fbl_woa.120424-2227
	Build of Windows RT
OS family
Architecture	ARM32
Compiled	2012-04-24
Timebomb	2013-01-15 (+266 days)
Works in	QEMU
About
SKUs
	RT (CoreARM)
Key
	NFV72-RG2HG-7FTTP-8FJTB-FF848

Windows 8 build 8330 (fbl_woa) is a build of Windows 8, which was uploaded to BetaArchive on 27 January 2020. It is currently the earliest available build in the ARM32 architecture.

Prior to being shared, a photo of this build was posted on a BetaArchive topic on 16 February 2016 by user Hounsell.^[1] Another three additional screenshots of this build were published afterwards.

Installation[edit | edit source]

Installation guide on QEMU:

Prerequisites[edit | edit source]

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

A copy of QEMU v6.2.0, modified for Windows RT compatibility
A version of the TianoCore EDK II firmware designed for ARM32 emulation (included above), to be placed in the QEMU installation directory under fw/QEMU_EFI_1512_driver1998.fd
One virtual hard disk image (for storing the operating system)

Precautions[edit | edit source]

Certain Windows 8 builds (such as 8330 (fbl_woa) or 8422 (fbl_woa)) may fail to properly load certain binaries on most startup attempts due to an emulation bug that causes the boot environment to read files incorrectly (especially the Hardware Abstraction Layer) causing an invalid checksum error, despite the files themselves being unmodified. This can be worked around by attempting to retry the startup attempt multiple times.

USB emulation is largely unstable and may result in all input 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
device_del mice
device_add usb-tablet,id=mice

Instructions[edit | edit source]

Create the needed virtual disk image through the diskpart utility by running the below script; they will be created under a directory in the C: drive named ARM8. The partitions it will contain will be respectively mounted under drive letters F and P.

create vdisk file="C:\ARM8\HDD.vhd" maximum=65536 type=expandable
select vdisk file="C:\ARM8\HDD.vhd"
attach vdisk
convert gpt
create partition efi size=100
format quick fs=fat32
assign letter=F
create partition primary
format quick fs=ntfs
assign letter=P
exit

Deploy the image and apply the generic product key from the build's installation media by invoking the following DISM commands, then add the boot files to the EFI partition:

DISM /Apply-Image /ImageFile:"X:\path\to\install.wim" /ApplyDir:P:\ /Index:1
DISM /Image:P:\ /Set-ProductKey:NFV72-RG2HG-7FTTP-8FJTB-FF848 /AcceptEula
bcdboot "P:\Windows" /s F: /f UEFI

Eject the currently attached virtual disk from the machine, then paste and run the contents of the below script onto a batch file within the QEMU installation directory, replacing YYYY-MM-DD with the build's compile date:

set MAIN="C:\ARM8\HDD.vhd"

qemu-system-arm ^
    -M virt,highmem=false -cpu cortex-a15 -smp cores=4,threads=2 -m 2048 ^
    -device usb-kbd,id=kbd -device usb-tablet,id=mice ^
    -drive id=SD,if=none,file=%MAIN% -device sd-card,drive=SD ^
    -bios fw\QEMU_EFI_1512_driver1998.fd -device VGA ^
    -rtc base=YYYY-MM-DD,clock=vm ^
    --accel tcg,thread=multi

Continue installing the operating system through normal means.

Changes[edit | edit source]

Hardware compatibility[edit | edit source]

This is the first build of Windows 8 that drops support for processors without PAE, SSE2 and NX, as running on these processors will result in a black screen with error code 0x5D.

Branding[edit | edit source]

This is the first build to feature the new "Windows 8/RT" branding seen in the RTM.

Setup[edit | edit source]

Besides the background color, Windows Setup now resembles that of the RTM.
During the first boot, the message "Setup is updating registry settings" has been renamed to just "Please Wait".
The first logon animation has been updated.

User Interface[edit | edit source]

Desktop[edit | edit source]

The Windows Aero theme was updated.
More items are now squared and flattened to resemble the RTM.
The mouse cursor shadow has been disabled by default.
This build uses one of the two wallpapers seen during Windows 8 development featuring gray overlapping digits of the number 8, using the Segoe UI typeface.