RTM... already?!

Wow, I knew it was already in pre-RTM stage, but RTM Candidate? I just can't believe how far Windows 8/Server 2012 has come in its development, I mean, it seems not that long ago that we were lucky to even receive our first leaks of Windows 8 with the already several months outdated Build 7850, and now, it's nearing completion of testing.

So, basically, this means that Microsoft is starting to prepare for the final RTM build of Windows 8/Server 2012, which will be used as the final shipping release for when the product hits store shelves, and is finally authorized to be released with new systems by OEMs.

Are there any differences between the Release Preview build (Build 8400), the pre-RTM builds, and the RTM Escrow/RTM Candidate builds?

Microsoft 'moved' the new theme (new ui) from the fbl_uex to the winmain branch and they fixed some bugs. Remember also that the Release Preview (Release Candidate) was 'Feature Complete', so don't expect a lot of changes more.

Ultra it was feature complete but a lot of em were locked down.

Examples being:

Virtual PC
Some explorer stuff
other minor stuff

RTM Escrow \ Candidate
6.2.8501.0 (winmain_win8rtm.1206xx-xxxx) (?)
6.2.8501.0 (winmain_win8rtm.1206xx-xxxx) (?)
6.2.8502.0 (winmain_win8rtm.1206xx-xxxx) (?)
6.2.8503.0 (winmain_win8rtm.1206xx-xxxx) (?)

It seems that the compiled builds with the buildstring 8500.0, were just 'fork' builds (7200.0 was also a 'fork' build) for new branches (e.g. win8sp1_rtm). Microsoft will probably finish the development of Windows 8 with the builstring 8800.1638x (8800/16 and 8800/4).

Source (1 / 2 / 3)

I concur Ultrawindows this seems like the lead up to the actual RTM Gold build.

Btw Windows 8 is supposed to go gold this month.

6.2.8432.0.fbl_woa.120611-2000

Source

==========
Correcting/updating my previous post:

RTM Escrow
6.2.8500.0.winmain_win8rtm.120623-2000

RTM Candidate
6.2.8501.0.winmain_win8rtm.120625-1904
6.2.8501.0.winmain_win8rtm.120625-1904-1
6.2.8502.0.winmain_win8rtm.120626-1905
6.2.8503.0.winmain_win8rtm.120627-1905
6.2.8504.0.winmain_win8rtm.120628-1900
6.2.8505.0.winmain_win8rtm.120629-1900
6.2.8506.0.winmain_win8rtm.120630-1900

I wonder what that bump strip is for where the "launch Metro" corner is.

The taskbar isn't locked, and they probably used a custom toolbar...

Updated the list I get around to it and sometimes I'm a bit late lol.

I usually just look at the fb group I'm part of and not really so much canouna.

According to win8china, Microsoft reached 8600.0 in the winmain branch ...

Hmm, but I thought they were on 850x? In any case, I'm always skeptical whenever the date string is covered up.

The jump does sound weird, even if they had bumped the RTM build number it was usually for several hundreds, not just 100 builds... :/

When will they start calling the kernel version "8.0"? I found it odd that windows 7 didn't have the kernel version listed as "7.0", now Windows 8 seems to be following the same path.

Well, XP jumped from 22xx to 24xx and basically followed through until 2600. Vista jumped from 58xx to 6000, and 7 jumped from 72xx to 7600. They did say that Windows 8 would be similar, but not identical to Windows 7's development process.


Probably when the kernel changes enough to warrant a bump to 8.0.

As far as I know Windows 8 has not gone RTM guys.

Its supposed to hit RTM next week according to the following sources:

Nawzil
Canouna
Wzor

I cannot however validate any time table for a leak of the RTM at this time.

Windows 8 RTM Candiadate build 8508 was build at 1900 hours. Add that information from canouna.

@smartboyhw just changed it man.

General availability will be October 22nd or sometime in that week I concur with the ppl I've been chatting with.

I'm definitely interested in any "tweaks" Microsoft has put in place in these RTM Candidate builds, infact, I can't even believe that we're at this stage already. Just seemingly "yesterday", it was 2011, and none of us even had a Windows 8 build with the Start screen enabled, and now the product is nearly finished.

I'll definitely read up on all of the information provided here.

Time does pass very quickly, doesn't it...?

Could you please post the screenshots here? I'm not a registered member of WinUnleaked.tk Forums, so I couldn't see them.

There's no screenshots linked there worth bothering with.

Well, I'm still interested in seeing them, since from what I've heard, at least some of them were of the Metro UI, and being that I actually still have some interest in the Metro UI, I would still like to see them anyway, even if it's not a major step up from the Release Preview.

Thank you, Smorgan. Ah, BTW, since RTM is releasing at first week of August, I think they will need to sign-off the build before 20th July, since they need to vote on it.

RTM will be released to OEMs in August, general availability is planned for October. So unless you buy a new computer in September, you won't see the RTM before October...

Updates please:8507.0.winmain_win8rtm.120702-1900 (RTM Candidate)
8507.0.winmain_win8rtm.120702-1900-1 (RTM Candidate)
8508.0.winmain_win8rtm.120703-1900 (RTM Candidate)
8509.0.winmain_win8rtm.120705-1900 (RTM Candidate)
8510.0.winmain_win8rtm.120706-1900 (RTM Candidate)
8511.0.winmain_win8rtm.120708-1220 (RTM Candidate)