Windows 8 Build 8102 A.K.A Windows Developer Preview

**Windows 8 build 8102** is the official Developer Preview build of Windows 8. This build is the first released build to have a fully functional Start Screen, and also have Charms (Windows 8/8.1) out of the box and an updated BSoD. It was shown to the public on 13 September 2011.

 Compiled
 Timebomb

## Redpill

This build was the first build released to the public to have all new Metro features working out of the box. While the image that was distributed by Microsoft has all Metro features enabled, internally it still uses the same mechanism of (un)locking Metro features through Redpill as seen in earlier builds. A remnant of the application of Redpill is present in this build in the form of a 'redpill.log' file in the System32 directory. This file gives some insight into the application of Redpill. Contents of the file:

```
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

```
Because of the similarities in the way of how features are locked between 8102 and some earlier builds, the files dropped by Redpill in build 8102 have been used to unlock Metro features in several older builds, such as builds Windows 8 Build 8056, Windows 8 Build 7989, and Windows 8 Build 7927.

### Disabling Metro

As this build still utilizes Redpill, setting HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\RPEnabled to 0 will disable the Metro features like the start screen or hot-corners, effectively un-redpilling the build and resulting in an experience similar to earlier leaked builds of Windows 8, and thus Windows 7, after Explorer is restarted. Special applications were created to suffice for this need. Note that setting RPEnabled to 0 will also result in the Microsoft Confidential Watermark appearing on the desktop, just like in earlier leaked builds of Windows 8. In cases where Explorer was not restarted after disabling Metro, a hybrid between classic and Metro may occur where part of the Metro interface still shows on top of the classic shell.

### Removed features

Despite being the first build to come unlocked by default, some features have been removed in this build. Those include accent colors and the ability to zoom out of the start screen.

## Bugs and quirks

### Aero

With Aero enabled, the lower half of the window background of some applications which use Aero for the entire window (e.g. Desktop Gadget Gallery or Mozilla Firefox) have a gray square.

### Transparency effects in Windows Basic theme

You can enable transparency effects in the Windows Basic Theme in this build by switching to that theme and then run `WindowsAnytimeUpgradeResults.exe`.

### Compatibility

To install or run this build in VMWare, you must set the hardware compatibility to versions 8.x or 9.x; otherwise, a black screen with an error code will appear.

SetupEULABoot ScreenMetro OOBEStart Menu

## References

1. ↑ https://forums.mydigitallife.net/threads/windows-developer-preview-build-8102-classic-interface.29431
2. ↑ https://www.howtogeek.com/80171/use-the-windows-7-start-menu-explorer-and-task-manager-in-windows-8/