Windows Server 2008 build 4028

6.0.4028.Lab01_N.030701-2000
	Build of Windows Server 2008
OS family	Windows NT
Version number	6.0
Build number	4028
Architecture	x86
Build lab	Lab01_N
Compiled on	2003-07-01
Expiration date
Timebomb	2003-12-28 (+180 days)
SKUs
	Enterprise Server
Product key
	TCP8W-T8PQJ-WWRRH-QH76C-99FBW
About dialog

Windows Server 2008 build 4028 is the earliest available build of Windows Server 2008, which was shared at OSBetaArchive.com on 14 June 2006.^[1] It resembles Longhorn client builds and is the first server build to use the WIM installation method.

This is one of the only four available Server builds that are based on pre-reset code, the others being builds 4031, 4038 and 4066. It is also mentioned in the setup of all pre-reset builds starting with build 4038, where this build is the minimum required to upgrade.

New features and changes[edit | edit source]

This build contains many significant changes compared to its predecessor, making it more similar to build 4029 of its client counterpart:

WIM installation[edit | edit source]

This build is among one of the first server builds to use a new WIM-based setup routine, one of the first radical departures from the previous Windows NT codebase. The WIM-based setup routine works by having all of the setup files stored within a single WIM disk image, INSTALL.WIM. When the installation media is booted directly, the WinPE (Windows Preinstallation Environment) loads into the graphical user interface itself. After it images the WIM file to the system partition, the system reboots to finish the setup by installing the hardware and running the OOBE. Microsoft stated that their goal with this routine was to allow installations of Windows to finish in as little as 15 minutes.^[2]

Interface[edit | edit source]

It is the first available build of Windows Server 2008 to use the winver banner found in Windows Server 2003 builds 3590 to 3663. This persists up to build 5112, with the exception of the early post-reset builds, which instead uses the final banner from Server 2003.
The login screen and shell has been updated to be identical to the interface from build 4029 of its client counterpart.
This build includes the Libraries system. Although the Games Library is included in this build, games are not installed by default on server editions.
Like the client build 4029, this build uses the Pig Latin strings, in this case "onghornLay erverSay nterpriseEay erverSay".
Sync Manager is included. It was used to help sync WinFS files to other systems.

Bugs and quirks[edit | edit source]

General[edit | edit source]

On some machines, the Windows logo on the start button will be incorrectly cropped.

Installation[edit | edit source]

This build will often hang or crash during setup in newer versions of QEMU or VMware. Using VirtualBox or Virtual PC is recommended.
This build will cause a CPU fault when booting on VMware if more than 776MB of RAM is used.
On some machines and virtualizers, after accepting the EULA, Setup crashes with an assertion error. This happens only when Setup is started from Windows PE. Start Setup from an existing installation of Windows to avoid this error.
The hardware setup tends to hang easily, after a while, you can press ⇧ Shift+F10 to open the Command Prompt. Then, run taskmgr and terminate the process setup.exe to log in.
Normally, it is not possible to upgrade to this build as setup complains about requiring build 4000 or higher. However, by using an external program called ShowHideControls you can bypass the restriction and successfully perform an upgrade.