Windows 8 build 8102.101

6.2.8102.101.winmain_win8m3.110830-1739

Build of Windows 8
Release name	Developer Preview Milestone 3
OS family	Windows NT
Version number	6.2
Build number	8102
Build revision	101
Architecture	x86, x64, ARM32 (ARMv7)
Build lab	winmain_win8m3
Compiled on	2011-08-30
Expiration date
Timebomb	2012-03-11 (+194 days)
SKUs
Developer Preview (Prerelease)
Product key
6RH4V-HNTWC-JQKG8-RFR3R-36498
About dialog

Windows 8 build 8102.101 is the official Developer Preview and Milestone 3 build of Windows 8, which was released on 13 September 2011, the first day of the Microsoft Build 2011 conference. Attendees of the conference received an x86-based tablet made by Samsung with the build pre-installed.

The build was officially released in three variants, notably including a x64 release with pre-installed developer tools in addition to regular x86 and x64 compiles. It was only available in English (United States) localization, likely due to the fact that many locale-specific resources for the Metro user interface were hardcoded directly in the DLL files such as shsxs.dll and thus were not affected by MUI. A Simplified Chinese language pack was later leaked by Chinese website cnBeta on 20 September 2011, exactly one week after the build's public release. An ARM compile is also known to exist, as some of its components have been discovered on the Microsoft Symbol Server.

It is notably the only available build to come with the Redpill feature set unlocked out-of-box via the official unlock procedure, therefore having the complete Windows 8 user interface enabled by default. It is also the first available build to come with the full set of pre-installed Metro applications, although the included application set mostly consists of sample applications only built to demonstrate various capabilities of the platform.

Redpill

This is the first public release of Windows 8 to have all of the new Metro features working out-of-box. While the image that was distributed by Microsoft has the new shell enabled, it still utilizes the same internal mechanism of unlocking Metro features through Redpill as seen in earlier builds. A remnant from the Redpill application is present in this build in the form of a redpill.log file in the Windows\System32 directory, giving some insight to the functioning of the official Redpill unlocker.

The contents of the file are listed below:

redpill.log:

Running with /labuseonly
 Running with /restrictedlab
 Running with /privatebinary
 Overriding version check...
 Installing licenses...
 Setting IE activesetup stub
 Setting MIE install state...
 Checking MIE package state...
 Restarting sessionenv...
 Setting IE activesetup stub
 ERROR: Binary version mismatch!
 Enabling via /enable
 Setting MIE install state...
 Checking MIE package state...
 Preparing to install immersive browser...
 Installing MIE OOB...
 Installing MIE complete. Return code: 0
 Finished installing MIE OOB.
 Restarting sessionenv...
 Setting IE activesetup stub
 NoExplorer flag set; skipping explorer restart

As the build was intended to be distributed en masse, the Redpill product policies installed in this build's OS image (RP01-PDC) are only applicable to the Developer Preview and Datacenter Server SKUs. A non-SKU-limited version of the Redpill policies also exist, simply labeled RP01.

Because of the similarities in the way of how features are locked between this build and some earlier builds, the files dropped by the relevant Redpill tool have been used to unlock Windows 8 shell features in several older builds including but not limited to 8056 (fbl_grfx_dev1), 7989, and 7927.

To showcase the abilities of the new Windows 8 user interface, the build includes a set of sample applications that take advantage of various existing Windows Runtime functions.

Disabling Redpill

Setting the value of RPEnabled in SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer to 0 within the HKEY_CURRENT_USER and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE root keys will disable all Metro features, effectively un-redpilling the build and enabling a shell experience similar to earlier leaked builds of Windows 8 and by extension Windows 7, achieved after a full system restart. Special applications were created to suffice for this need.

New features and changes

Desktop UI

Inbox Windows games

The built-in games from Windows Vista and Windows 7 have been removed from the Developer Preview SKU (Prerelease) and its ARMv7 counterpart (PrereleaseARM).

Control Panel

Devices and Printers

The Devices and Printers Control Panel applet no longer prompts the user to enable downloading additional Device Stage metadata over the Internet.

Windows Extended theme

A new "Windows Extended" theme has been added to help showcase multi-monitor support capabilities.

Miscellaneous

• All region-specific themes included as part of Windows 7, as well as Internet Explorer region-specific links for favorites and RSS feeds, have been removed from the operating system.
• A no-warranty disclaimer for Samsung Series 7 Slate tablet PCs has been added to the Contact Support page found within the Help and Support Center.

Metro UI

Charms

The Start charms menu's animation has been updated to fade into view when hovering over its respective hot-corner, rather than sliding from the bottom. The Connect charm was renamed to Devices and no longer prompts the user about the lack of compatible Send applications when attempting to project to other displays.

Start screen

The default Start screen layout has been updated to no longer include common Win32 desktop applications, and now only includes Internet Explorer, Windows Store, Windows Explorer, and the Immersive Control Panel applications as the default pinned tiles, in addition to the "Switch to Desktop" tile.

Semantic view mode on the Start screen has been temporarily disabled.

Inbox applications

Multiple inbox system applications, namely the Internet Explorer, Immersive Control Panel, Remote Desktop Connection, Windows Store, have had their pinned Start screen tiles redesigned and recolored to shades of light blue, yellow and orange, respectively.

Context menus in the tablet-optimized Internet Explorer 10 user interface have been resized to fit all possible options.

The Windows Store has been forcibly disabled in this build as the underlying platform was not yet ready for public use. A "coming soon" message is instead displayed to the user when launched, although all relevant code for the Windows Store is still present in the application.

Boot UI redesigns

The redesigned Windows Boot Manager and Windows Recovery Environment user interfaces are now enabled by default. This functionality is controlled by Boot Configuration Data (BCD) OS loader boolean variable BCDE_OSLOADER_TYPE_BOOT_MENU_POLICY (BOOTMENUPOLICY; 0x250000c2), which controls enablement of the new Windows 8 boot UI behavior. It is set to value 1 (Standard) in this build.

The redesigns may be turned off by setting the value of the aforementioned variable to 0 (Legacy).

Miscellaneous

Sizing adjustments towards Metro dialog modals have been implemented to allow more content to fit properly, and text in dialog modals are now colored properly when drawn in the desktop view.

Miscellaneous

• Third-party trusted root certificates for DigiCert Assured ID Root CA and GTE CyberTrust Global Root have been added to the system.
• The end-user license agreement has been updated for the public Developer Preview release.

Bugs and quirks

Installation

• Upgrades to this build have been disabled by default as it is intended to be a preview release; this behavior is controlled by the presence of an empty noupgrade.txt text document in the sources directory. It can be re-enabled by removing the binary from the installation media.

Desktop Window Manager

• Applications that make use of the DWM extended client area will only properly render translucency effects for 3/4ths of the visible area if Redpill is enabled.
• 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 WindowsAnytimeUpgradeResults.exe with the Aero Lite theme applied will forcibly enable DWM blur effects.

Updates

A number of updates were released throughout the Developer Preview's lifespan:

• 8102.101.winmain_win8m3.110830-1739 (KB2608610) - installed by default
• 8102.105.winmain_win8m3.110907-1505 (KB2616619)
• 8102.106.winmain_win8m3.110908-1424 (KB2616150)
• 8102.108.winmain_win8m3.110911-1502 (KB2617028)
• 8102.109.winmain_win8m3.110912-1733 (KB2617868)
  • Additionally demonstrated during several Build 2011 sessions
• 8102.110.winmain_win8m3.110913-1848 (KB2618032)
• 8102.112.winmain_win8m3.110915-1505 (KB2619246)

Uninstalling the KB2608610 update will revert the OS kernel to build 8102.0.winmain_win8m3.110823-1455.

Gallery

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  Boot screen

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  Lock screen

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  Logon screen

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  Start screen

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  Desktop with the Сharms menu open

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  Desktop with the Сharms bar open

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  Search charm

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  Settings charm

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  Applications list

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  Immersive IE

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  Windows Store

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  Immersive Control Panel

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  Windows Explorer

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  Security options

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  Early system crash

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  Application snapping

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  Help and Support Center with the mention of no warranty

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  winver with extended timebomb

Windows Setup

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  Autorun

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  Initialization

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  Artificial upgrade block

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  End-user license agreement

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  Installation type

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  Hardware detection (second phase of setup)

Out-of-box experience

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  End-user license agreement

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  Initial onboarding animation

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  Personalization

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  Finalizing settings

Themes

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  Aero theme

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  Aero Lite theme

DWM glitches

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  Desktop Gadget Gallery

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  Aero Lite theme with glass effects

Redpill disabled

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  Logon screen

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  Desktop

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  Start menu

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  Windows Explorer

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  winver and System Properties

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  Security options

Out-of-box experience

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  Computer name

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  User name and password

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  Automatic updates

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  Date and time

ARM32 version (unleaked)

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  Desktop

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  Watermark