Microsoft wasn't joking about the Dev Channel not enforcing hardware checks: Windows 11 pops up on Pi, mobile phone
- Reference: 1625084888
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/06/30/windows_11_pi/
- Source link:
The latter will delight Windows Mobile holdouts, still mourning the death of their beloved operating system and stung by Microsoft's latest take on a telephone, which runs Android.
A video surfaced yesterday showing the operating system running on a Lumia 950XL, inadvertently demonstrating that the operating system is less than ideal on the small screen, even if such wonders as screen rotation appear to work well.
I got asked to make a video of Windows 11 on the Lumia 950 XL, so here you go:
A (very) quick (and rushed) look at Windows 11 running on a Lumia 950 XL after a day of work [1]https://t.co/ziYixQCOZ7 — Gustave Monce (@gus33000) [2]June 29, 2021
"In case you got doubts," [3]tweeted the author ( [4]a Dev botherer of Lumia hardware ), "yes, it does do calls lol."
More usable, however, is Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi. A post on Twitter seemed to show the soon-to-be fussy OS up and running on one of the Raspberry Pi Foundation's finest, which, we're pretty sure, is not noted for being equipped with chippery listed in Microsoft's now infamous compatibility list.
Raspberry Pi 4にARM版 Windows 11をインストールしてみる。 [5]https://t.co/p3PUXkheJ4 [6]#Windows11 [7]#RaspberryPi — 七宮さん (@shichinomiya_s) [8]June 29, 2021
Getting Windows running on phones, Pis, and all manner of Arm-based hardware seems second only to the "does it run Doom ?" question asked by many a tech tinkerer when presented with something new. Windows 10 on a Pi has long been a staple and the ease with which Windows 11 can be coaxed into life is both a tribute to the enthusiasts involved and an indication how little has changed under the hood, from a hardware standpoint, in the current Dev Channel build of Microsoft's new OS.
[9]Microsoft releases Windows 11 Insider Preview, attempts to defend labyrinth of hardware requirements
[10]Developing for Windows 11: Like developing for Windows 10, but with rounded corners?
[11]Happy with your existing Windows 10 setup? Good, because Windows 11 could turn its nose up at your CPU
[12]What you need to know about Microsoft Windows 11: It will run Android apps
After a few hours of play we were also able to persuade a version of Windows 11 to run (somewhat sluggishly) on our Pi-400. Sure, a 16GB SD card was sacrificed in the process and the test mode indicator (along with the odd square window or two and some bits of Windows 10 on show) hinted that some unexpected hoops were being leapt though, but otherwise the experience was relatively painless, if a little slow. Still, at no point during the new Windows 11 OOBE did the operating system complain about the hardware behind the scenes.
As for how it works, the current Windows Insider Dev Channel builds do not yet enforce Microsoft's hardware rules so there is every chance things will stop working once the final incarnation of the Arm version of Windows 11 drops. It also seems very clear that what worked for Windows 10 does not require too much in the way of tinkering to allow Windows 11 to boot (at least at this stage of its development).
[13]
Why any person would want to do such a thing is open to question. We like to think that the motivation is one of simply seeing what can be done with hardware and software, even if we have to admit that our Pi 400 seemed a whole lot happier running the Linux-based Raspberry Pi OS.
[14]
For now, Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi (or phone for that matter) remains an intellectual exercise – a fun thing to try, but you wouldn't use it for serious work. Or to write a contentious hardware compatibilty list. ®
Get our [15]Tech Resources
[1] https://t.co/ziYixQCOZ7
[2] https://twitter.com/gus33000/status/1409880745041084425?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[3] https://twitter.com/gus33000/status/1409889540731543557
[4] https://gus33000.me/
[5] https://t.co/p3PUXkheJ4
[6] https://twitter.com/hashtag/Windows11?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[7] https://twitter.com/hashtag/RaspberryPi?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[8] https://twitter.com/shichinomiya_s/status/1409900795496046595?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/28/microsoft_windows_11_insider_preview_released/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/28/developing_for_windows_11/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/25/windows_11_processor/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/24/microsoft_windows_11/
[13] 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=2YNzpfJdWisviI0jwP2pOlAAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[14] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YNzpfJdWisviI0jwP2pOlAAAABc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[15] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
You're nuts
Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi ? That's crazy. Kudos to the mad engineers who tried that.
That said, Windows hardware requirements have always been a joke. For starters, Borkzilla has systematically tried to make people believe that whatever version of Windows it was pushing, it could run fine on a quarter of the actual memory requirements.
For Windows 95, the official minimum RAM was [1]4MB . If you actually wanted to do anything other than boot the system, you needed 16MB.
For Windows XP, the official minimum RAM was [2]64MB . Again, having at least 256MB made the system actually useful and responsive.
For Windows 7, Borkzilla had the gall to state that [3]2GB was all that was needed (for the 64-bit version). What you actually needed was 8GB at the bare minimum, 16GB was much, much better.
And for Windows 1 0, Borkzilla is still trying to convince people that 2GB for the 64-bit version is enough. If you want to look at the logon screen, maybe, but if you want to work, I'm pretty sure that 16GB is the bare minimum.
[1] https://www.technologytips.com/windows-system-requirements/
[2] https://www.technologytips.com/windows-system-requirements/
[3] https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/windows-7-system-requirements-df0900f2-3513-a851-13e7-0d50bc24e15f
Re: You're nuts
Say what you want, but it's undeniably the case that Windows has been requiring less hardware, not more, as newer versions have rolled out. I'm currently running 10 very happily on hardware on which XP was a bit of a dog.
Re: You're nuts
> For Windows 7, Borkzilla had the gall to state that 2GB was all that was needed (for the 64-bit version). What you actually needed was 8GB at the bare minimum, 16GB was much, much better.
Nah. 8GB for Windows 7 is more than enough for most users doing regular things, including playing AAA gaming titles. 16GB must be the practical minimum really if you want to run VMs but it is not impossible to do that with 8GB.
Pretty much the same for Windows 10.
Much more recently (last couple of years perhaps), 16GB is the recommended amount for most new builds, mainly because RAM is pretty cheap at the moment and some recent games titles run much more smoothly with it. It's not really an OS requirement.
Why any person would want to do such a thing is open to question
Because it's there.
- Sir Edmund Hillary
"As for how it works, the current Windows Insider Dev Channel builds do not yet enforce Microsoft's hardware rules so there is every chance things will stop working once the final incarnation of the Arm version of Windows 11 drops"
When you put in restrictions such as what MS are planning with Windows 11 people will look to get around them, just for the challenge to do so or because they don't like big brother trying control what they do.
And as there are these current developer builds that don't have any hardware restrictions, I am sure some clever people will work out how to use the installer files from these developer builds to get passed the hardware requirement of the final release of Windows 11.
Does anybody
"For now, Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi (or phone for that matter) remains an intellectual exercise – a fun thing to try, but you wouldn't use it for serious work."
Use windows on anything for serious work ?