Windows 8 Previews

An article about pre-release versions of Windows 8, including alpha, Developer Preview, Consumer Preview, and Release Preview builds.

Builds 8102 and earlier
[todo: table] Early builds alternate between using the Windows 7 Beta default wallpaper or the one featured in the RTM release. By build 7788, this would be replaced with an infamous blue-green gradient wallpaper with the text "shhh... let's not leak our hard work" at the top. Between builds 7927 and 8064, the wallpaper changed several times, each featuring a fractured wordoku puzzle that says "Start me up", with more letters being added in each revision of the wallpaper.[add ref here] During this stage, 7's leftover wallpapers were removed. By 8095, the puzzle is no longer present, with the default wallpaper being set to 7's logon background, while a panoramic lake wallpaper has been added as an alternate option.

Builds 8128 to 8161
[todo: table] With the 7 wallpapers being removed, new themes were added, consisting of photography taken by an unknown Microsoft employee. These wallpapers were not cropped, so most of them remain at 4:3 aspect ratios rather than 16:10. By build 8148, it was cut down to using two themes; several wallpapers were removed, while a few new ones were added.

Builds 8176 to 8520
[todo: table] By build 8176, Theme1 was removed and replaced with a new Nature theme. The default wallpaper was replaced with a Metro version of the 7 Beta wallpaper by build 8186, although several non-winmain builds in 81xx to 83xx feature the previous wallpaper. By build 8195 (fbl_dnt3_wireless), Theme2 was also removed, although not replaced with another theme yet, however this theme still appears in some builds up to 8520. The default wallpaper was changed to one consisting of grey "8"s by build 8330, and one featuring a field of roses by build 8382.

Builds 8513 onwards
By build 8513, the wallpapers that appear in the final release were added.

Lock Screen Wallpapers
[todo]