You can now run Windows 11 on your Microsoft Surface Duo 2, because why not
Qualcomm has been building laptop processors for a while now, designed for always-on Windows on Arm ultraportables. But little did we know that some aftermarket developers would be a step ahead of Microsoft in terms of reaping the benefits of Windows on Arm-powered devices. Gustave Monce aka XDA Senior Member gus33000, for instance, already coaxed Windows 11 to run on the original Surface Duo, but now he has ported Microsoft’s latest operating system to the Surface Duo 2 as well.
This is Windows on Surface Duo 2 as it currently stands. (Snapdragon 888 device). Windows sort of boots up, with only one cpu core. UFS works and can display something on the left. This is really it for now. And there are still a ton of issues to tackle. pic.twitter.com/WfDwPs7RHI
— Gustave Monce (@gus33000) October 9, 2022
In a series of tweets and replies, Monce showed off Windows 11 booted to the desktop and somewhat working on a Microsoft Surface Duo 2. It’s noted, though, that most of the core components of the device are not functional. While the display panel runs in a partial manner, the OS can recognize only one out of the eight cores of the underlying Snapdragon 888 SoC as of now.
The foundation of booting an alternative OS on the second-gen Surface Duo was laid down back in August, when Gustave and other WOA Project contributors added preliminary support for the device in the open source Windows UEFI firmware bootstrapper project called SurfaceDuoPkg. While Monce did not share any glimpse of the installation phase, the idea of a full-fledged instance of Windows running on a smartphone made by Microsoft is utterly intriguing for anyone who cared about either Android smartphones or Windows or both.
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 XDA Forums
If you’re feeling adventurous, this port can be installed on the both the European and the US variants of the Microsoft Surface Duo 2 after unlocking the bootloader. Keep in mind that Windows 11’s kernel will try to read an unsupported register on this device during bootup, so it would be better to wait for the additional patches before attempting to install it on your own to avoid unforeseen errors. It goes without saying that this comes with the risk of bricking your phone or worse.
It’s always fun to see operating systems running on devices they weren’t intended to run on. Some might find it almost poetic that Microsoft itself is struggling to actually release Android 12L for the Surface Duo family — a task that, at this point, is coming more than seven months after the operating system debuted.
