Malcolm Owen
A developer has managed to get a version of Windows 11 running locally on an iPad Air, but don't expect an official release anytime soon.
The nature of Apple's mobile devices means you can't install any other operating systems on them other than iOS or iPadOS. However, as one developer has worked out, it's possible to get Windows to run on an iPad.
In a video posted to YouTube on Sunday, a developer under the pseudonym "NTDev" shared how he got Windows 11 going on an iPad Air, equipped with the M2 chip. Normally not possible under typical conditions, the video shows that the PC operating system can be set to run as a virtual machine.
Running UTM with Just-in-time emulation via StikDebug, installed from the AltStore third-party app storefront, the video shows the launch of a virtual machine. After a 50-second wait, the virtual machine is up and running, with a Windows 11 desktop on display.
In a tweet, it is revealed that the version of Windows 11 running in the instance is tiny11 arm64. It is an unauthorized stripped-down build that eliminates almost all extra features, so that only the essential elements for operation are included.
Intended for older systems with lower available resources and smaller storage capacities, it's actually a good fit for running on an iPad. One screenshot reveals it is running at a clock speed of 1GHz, and using only 3 gigabytes of memory.
Not an alternate OS option
While the project is impressive, it's more an experiment than a serious attempt to get Windows running on Apple's hardware. Technically it is an operational operating system, but part of a virtual machine running within another operating system, iPadOS, instead of Windows being the main operating system itself.
The process of sideloading is also not available for the typical user, outside of places like the EU where secondary app stores are allowed to exist and sideloading is more of an allowed practice permitted by law.
You're also not going to see Windows as an app in the App Store either, as it's highly doubtful that Apple would allow Microsoft to submit an official version in the future. That's before even considering the actual use of an iPad running Windows with so few spare resources.
Besides, if you want Windows in a portable form, there's a few Windows tablets on the market available for purchase.
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Christine McKee
Charles Martin
William Gallagher
Marko Zivkovic
7 Comments
Why would anyone run windows on an iPad? What is the point? Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
Pretty cool that someone could make this happen. Would love to see Mac OS done too. If only there was a way to make the iPad boot from a usb c drive…
A lot of these efforts are not really intended to result in a sellable product. Similar efforts like getting a form of Windows 11 ARM running on a Raspberry Pi fall into the same category. These challenges provide a means for highly capable and driven developers to push themselves to accomplish a non-trivial test of their skills and learn new techniques in the process. The developers who can pull these challenges off would be very high on the list of engineers that I would want on my team. The skills demonstrated in these proof of concept and experimental challenges can be very useful to have on real product development projects, of course when applied appropriately and not too hacky.