Introducing Windows on arm. And by arm, we mean wrist
- Reference: 1743850812
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/04/05/windows_smartwatch_hack/
- Source link:
We appreciate some good creative insanity at Vulture Towers, and the idea of getting Windows running on an Android smartwatch certainly qualifies. Enter [1]Windows on ARM , an inspiring project by [2]Gustave Monce .
He has titled his project "Windows on ARM (ARM as defined by the cambridge dictionary, not the cambridge based firm)." We reckon the block capitals on "arm" are a bit misleading, but we respect the dedication to the joke on display here.
[3]
The project was, naturally, announced on April Fools' Day, but since then he's added a note to the top of the page:
EDIT 4/1/2025 - 10:20 PM UTC+2: This is/was serious, and is not a joke. This is UEFI on Pixel Watch 3 with ability to boot Windows and Linux.
See [4]mu_seluna_platforms if you are interested in the code making this *tick* (badum tss)
Monce is a PhD student in Bordeaux, and has prior form for getting Windows running on devices never intended to run it. He previously launched DuoWOA, a project to run Arm64 Windows 11 on [5]Microsoft's Surface Duo – a dual-screen device that originally shipped with Android. The Register [6]reported on his efforts in May 2022 with an October update when [7]he got Wi-Fi and cellular data working . He also has another project, called [8]LumiaWOA , which aims to get a full, unrestricted copy of Windows 10 or 11 running on the [9]Nokia Lumia 950 and 950XL . This shipped with Windows 10 Mobile, the final descendant of Windows Phone.
[10]Cell, Wi-Fi can work for Windows 11 on Surface Duo
[11]Engineer gets Windows 11 working on a Surface Duo
[12]First they came for Notepad. Now they're coming for Task Manager
[13]Microsoft wasn't joking about the Dev Channel not enforcing hardware checks: Windows 11 pops up on Pi, mobile phone
Although it doesn't look like it does very much at all yet, we think he means it. Monce is using an Arm64 build of [14]Windows PE . The abbreviation stands for Preinstallation Environment – it's the Microsofty equivalent of a Linux live ISO. (Possibly the best-known derivative of WinPE is [15]Hiren's Boot CD , which The Reg has [16]mentioned before as a useful rescue tool.)
Rather than being a fully installed local copy of Windows, he's persuading his Google Pixel Watch 3 – a fairly well-specced Android watch that Mountain View [17]announced last August – to boot a WinPE image from UEFI. That meant [18]installing UEFI first, then [19]enable USB mass-storage mode . Sadly, the tricky third stage, installing the OS on the watch, is as yet undocumented. As he says:
Yes this is an april fools project, and like with every april fools project I personally do its real and goofy and its not finished either. You can try it now. But honestly, you really should not lol.
Even so, it's quite impressive. Impressively useless, maybe, but impressive all the same. We don't hate the idea of being able to root a smartwatch and install our own firmware on the thing. Then again, you could just buy a [20]Pine64 PineTime . ®
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[1] https://gus33000.me/fish/
[2] https://gus33000.me/about/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Z_FTnOvH73AXWV_L7pXnJAAAARE&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://github.com/WOA-Project/mu_seluna_platforms
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2020/12/16/surface_dual_international_release/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/04/windows_11_on_duo/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/11/duo_windows_11/
[8] https://woa-project.github.io/LumiaWOA/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2015/12/08/microsoft_lumia_950_review_lumia_950xl_review/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/11/duo_windows_11/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/04/windows_11_on_duo/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/20/windows_11_build/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/30/windows_11_pi/
[14] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/manufacture/desktop/winpe-intro
[15] https://www.hirensbootcd.org/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/01/24/systemrescue/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2024/08/13/google_gemini_ai_pixel/
[18] https://github.com/WOA-Project/PixelWatch-Guides/blob/main/InstallUEFI.md
[19] https://github.com/WOA-Project/PixelWatch-Guides/blob/main/GetMassStorageOnYourWrist.md
[20] https://pine64eu.com/product/pinetime-smartwatch-sealed/
[21] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Windows on Arm has been around since the Surface RT
Hm, [1]Windows CE 2.0 from 1997 lists arm. Windows CE 7 lists "ARMv7". Windows Mobile 2003 was ARM. Pocket PC 2000 was ARM. Windows Phone was, since first release 2010, ARM.
If MS wouldn't have nuked Windows Phone, it could have been real and not just an April fools joke :D. Just when it was working so very well Satya took over and it went steep downhill.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_CE#Releases
Re: Windows on Arm has been around since the Surface RT
"Windows on Arm has been around since the Surface RT"
Except, you know, not in a smartwatch form that attaches to one's arm.
"Just when it was working so very well Satya took over and it went steep downhill."
"When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount, not to provide additional funding to increase the dead horse’s performance."
Windows Phones were Ballmer's project and he probably would have continued pouring money into it.
First read about this in the Android Authority article: https://www.androidauthority.com/pixel-watch-windows-3540368/
While technically interesting (as is the prior Windows-for-ARM work), I was more interested in whether AsteroidOS could be ported to the Pixel Watch 3 and asked if this could be ported in the AsteroidOS Matrix channel (as I have two smartwatches running it). Response was porting to the Pixel Watch 3 was subject to time and priority considerations with the Developers which is a fair point. My hope is to see AsteroidOS on a current Pixel Watch and this work for Windows-for-Arm seemed like a good launching point so we'll see.
> Monce is a PhD student in Bordeaux
So did he use WINE?