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[Q] [question]Windows 8 on Iconia?

Today at Build Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would launch with ARM support. Does this mean someone could potentially port it for the Iconia to be used in those times when a Window based software is needed but neither PC nor VLC is unavailable?
Please save "why would you want to use Windows" comments. This is a mature developer website, send those comments to Engadget.

brady.wassam said:
Today at Build Microsoft announced that Windows 8 would launch with ARM support. Does this mean someone could potentially port it for the Iconia to be used in those times when a Window based software is needed but neither PC nor VLC is unavailable?
Please save "why would you want to use Windows" comments. This is a mature developer website, send those comments to Engadget.
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Click to collapse
This being a "mature developer website" has a search function and q&a section. Both would lead you to this thread:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1259742
Anyway, only time will tell if win8 will be ported to the iconia (or any other android tablet). I haven't heard of wp7 being ported to an android phone, so I wouldn't bet on it. Still I can see the potential in it and would gladly try it (especially if it can be made as dual-boot).
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

Downloaded and installed the "Developers Preview" of Win 8 last night. Remember this is a pre-beta release, and for certain it's in it's infancy relatively speaking. As of this moment in time, Android has a much smoother interface for touch. Win 8 still feels a bit sticky for lack of a better word. I installed it on my HP Touchsmart TM2 2150 US laptop (core i3 with 8Gb ram), so it's not exactly a slouch in terms of hardware. It's a total touch screen laptop that has a screen that folds down onto the keyboard to create a tablet. As of this moment, Win 7 has a much better touch screen experience, but I fully expect that to change as the builds mature.
There are very few apps that come with it (28 I believe), and no app store as of yet obviously.
I read last night that typical Windows apps will not run on the ARM version of Win 8, and that MS is going to do it's best to prevent side loading of apps on the ARM version to keep people purchasing apps, instead of loading them from a USB stick or SD card, but that is just rumor as of right now.
Long story short, you're not missing much yet.

tkolev said:
only time will tell if win8 will be ported to the iconia
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I appreciate this is in the A500 forum, but the Iconia also comes in a W500 variant which does indeed run Win8:
http://youtu.be/_CNQVk7nok0

twisticles said:
I appreciate this is in the A500 forum, but the Iconia also comes in a W500 variant which does indeed run Win8
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Click to collapse
Some of us already have an a500. No need to bring up another piece of hardware. "Yeah your Honda s2000 can fit a Corvette engine, but why not get a Corvette instead"
Sent from my A500 using xda premium

I don't think Microsoft will be releasing a beta for ARM chips and we will see Windows 8 run on ARM only during retail. After that XDA will not port Windows 8 simply because it would be considered illegal.

twisticles said:
I appreciate this is in the A500 forum, but the Iconia also comes in a W500 variant which does indeed run Win8:
http://youtu.be/_CNQVk7nok0
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Click to collapse
The OP was asking about the ARM version of win8, so I seriously doubt that it is about the w500.
Sent from my A500 using XDA Premium App

I installed Windows 8 on my pc a few hours ago. It is very smooth! But my DVD burner doesn't work... Anyway, I would love to see it on the A500.

Here's a preview of Win 8 tablets. Acer's is running an AMD chip instead of a Tegra:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/4811/windows-8-tablets-running-on-ti-qualcomm-nvidia-amd-intel-silicon

Windows 8
Windows 8 *might* just support ARM. Everyone on the net is talking about it but no one is really sure. But as for now if you want something similar to Windows 8 there's always WinCE7 :-D Cheers.

masands said:
I don't think Microsoft will be releasing a beta for ARM chips and we will see Windows 8 run on ARM only during retail. After that XDA will not port Windows 8 simply because it would be considered illegal.
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Look at HTC HD2, illegal?! I think no retail arm based version. No retail maybe dev can port. Maybe it is hard to port and that is the be ass.

emo-dudes said:
Windows 8 *might* just support ARM. Everyone on the net is talking about it but no one is really sure. But as for now if you want something similar to Windows 8 there's always WinCE7 :-D Cheers.
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Click to collapse
There's no "might" about it. Microsoft confirmed ages ago that there WILL be an ARM version of Windows 8, and recently clarified that it will NOT run native x86 applications. It's conjectured that that .NET applications should run with either minimal changes, or straight off the bat.
It's also been demoed running on Tegra 3 hardware.

FloatingFatMan said:
There's no "might" about it. Microsoft confirmed ages ago that there WILL be an ARM version of Windows 8, and recently clarified that it will NOT run native x86 applications. It's conjectured that that .NET applications should run with either minimal changes, or straight off the bat.
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Pure .NET applications should run just fine as long as they're using the same .NET framework as W8 does, but Microsoft is encouraging devs to use HTML5 for anything simple enough. They're aiming for HTML5 support to be top-notch and W8 and to be all-encompassing.
And yes, I concur with FloatingFatMan: why do people even think an ARM W8 would be able to run x86 binaries? That's just plain stupid. ARM applications will run on ARM W8, x86 applications will run on x86 W8, that's that.

WereCatf said:
Pure .NET applications should run just fine as long as they're using the same .NET framework as W8 does, but Microsoft is encouraging devs to use HTML5 for anything simple enough. They're aiming for HTML5 support to be top-notch and W8 and to be all-encompassing.
And yes, I concur with FloatingFatMan: why do people even think an ARM W8 would be able to run x86 binaries? That's just plain stupid. ARM applications will run on ARM W8, x86 applications will run on x86 W8, that's that.
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There was some rumour that Ms would my providing some transcoding layers as part of the ARM kernel, much like Apple did with the first x86 versions of OSX, but that would be horrendously slow and open the ARM platform to x86 malware.
Pure .NET apps SHOULD run fine, unless MS ship the compact framework instead of the full one. As for HTML5... URGH! (I'm a C# programmer, and after being shafted by MS over first WPF and now Silverlight, they can blow HTML5 out their asses! )

FloatingFatMan said:
There was some rumour that Ms would my providing some transcoding layers as part of the ARM kernel
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Click to collapse
I know there was such a rumour, but anyone with half a braincell should've realized that it was just wishful thinking from people who don't know what they're talking about.
ARM devices are first and foremost mobile devices so an emulation layer would eat horribly on the battery. Not to mention that I am not aware of a single ARM processor sporting any kind of hardware virtualization features or transcoding mechanisms, so the performance would be really poor, too.
And if Microsoft did make such an emulation layer it would be Microsoft that would get all the blame for horribly low battery-life and poor performance because people wouldn't understand the underlying problem. Microsoft saves themselves a lot bad PR just by avoiding the whole thing altogether.
Pure .NET apps SHOULD run fine, unless MS ship the compact framework instead of the full one. As for HTML5... URGH! (I'm a C# programmer, and after being shafted by MS over first WPF and now Silverlight, they can blow HTML5 out their asses! )
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They're already churning lawyers at full speed from their arses, there's no more capacity for HTML5 there, too.

Windows 8 on x86 android devices?

Before anyone says anything, no, this is not another topic asking the stupid, worn out question "can I haz w8 on my kindle fire/nook/transformer prime/galaxySII/ect"
At CES there are several android devices being shown off with x86 processors: Intel atom CPUs. Would it be possible, provided internal storage is big enough, to be able to run the full version of windows 8 on these pieces of hardware? I can't think of any reasons why not, and being able to run full versions of x86 windows off of a cell phone is just amazing. IMHO it'd be worth the price of a seat of windows 8, and dual booting with android ICS sounds incredible. So, is there anything I'm missing? Or would the hardware support it fairly easily? I can't think of any roadblocks, other than the annoyance of installing off of microSD.

I think this must be a new kind of Atom-CPUs that are built for the ARM-architecture on which Android runs? I red somewhere that they wanted to release that Kind of CPUs this year.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App

No, they're definitely x86 chips.

If it has BIOS/EFI it will be done

mtmerrick said:
Before anyone says anything, no, this is not another topic asking the stupid, worn out question "can I haz w8 on my kindle fire/nook/transformer prime/galaxySII/ect"
At CES there are several android devices being shown off with x86 processors: Intel atom CPUs. Would it be possible, provided internal storage is big enough, to be able to run the full version of windows 8 on these pieces of hardware? I can't think of any reasons why not, and being able to run full versions of x86 windows off of a cell phone is just amazing. IMHO it'd be worth the price of a seat of windows 8, and dual booting with android ICS sounds incredible. So, is there anything I'm missing? Or would the hardware support it fairly easily? I can't think of any roadblocks, other than the annoyance of installing off of microSD.
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Click to collapse
Why bother about it being on x86, windows 8 will run on ARM architecture too if I'm not mistaken

Because putting W8ARM on existing devices is probably impossible and quite likely to be illegal.

Not sure why it would be illegal. If you own a license of the OS, you should be able to run it on whatever you want - unless, like the Apple stuff there's some kind of EULA that states that you specifically can't. I seriously doubt MS would bother to screw with people who tried anyway.
The Developer Preview of W8 is x86/x64 only anyway. Hopefully the beta coming in February will Feb will have arm support. I'm hoping to get it working on a Galaxy Tab 10.1 but who knows?
One potential caveat. I've heard that the ARM version will only work with Metro apps. If that's the case, it will be far less useful. Forget running all that excellent software you already have and know an love.
Greg

Microsoft (and the hardware manufacturers of current Android devices) don't want this to happen on ARM devices, because having an open bootloader and a myriad of Linux distributions would hurt their ecosystems. All ARM W8 tablets will come with locked bootloaders by specification, just like Android ones. Existing Android devices and others like the TouchPad will be very difficult to port this to because the bootloader security is different from current devices. But who wants ARM Windows 8 as the old apps and desktop don't work on it?
Regarding x86: If it's possible on the HTC Shift, it will sure be possible on Medfield (next-gen Atom for phones) devices, especially if the bootloader is open. If it's closed the scene will figure out how to unlock it and install Windows 7/W8/Ubuntu/etc. on it just like on a regular PC, which would mean having access to all legacy apps. Of course dual boot would also be possible.

geebake said:
Not sure why it would be illegal. If you own a license of the OS, you should be able to run it on whatever you want - unless, like the Apple stuff there's some kind of EULA that states that you specifically can't. I seriously doubt MS would bother to screw with people who tried anyway.
The Developer Preview of W8 is x86/x64 only anyway. Hopefully the beta coming in February will Feb will have arm support. I'm hoping to get it working on a Galaxy Tab 10.1 but who knows?
One potential caveat. I've heard that the ARM version will only work with Metro apps. If that's the case, it will be far less useful. Forget running all that excellent software you already have and know an love.
Greg
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Click to collapse
Since only OEMs will be able to buy W8 ARM liscences, and liscences are not device transferable, you will not be allowed to port it to a non-liscenced device, just like Windows Mobile or WP7.
And no, W8ARM will not be able to run x86 programs.

I think there's an excellent chance that private users will be able to get a copy of W8 for arm.
And whether or not x86 code will run in the arm version is definitely not settled.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/07/desktop-apps-may-run-on-win8-for-arm-after-all-maybe/

I read that article and laughed. Never once did they mention ARM - they were reffering to the 'classic desktop' UI, and they can't decide if W8ARM will be metro only, or have the (for ARM) near useless classic desktop.
Give up all hope that W8ARM will have an emulator built in. Its not going to happen, performance will be so terrible it would alienate customers. W8ARM will not be available to consumers for the same reason WP7 isn't - Microsoft would loose too much control and non-techie customers would be too confused.

Not sure but does this mean windows 8 on a Cisco Cius is possible cause it has an Intel atom processor?
Sent via Samsung Skyrocket with Sky ICS

if it has an atom processor, it should be. as with anything cross-platform, drivers would be an issue, but that shouldn't be too hard to overcome.

That's pretty awesome
Sent via Samsung Skyrocket with Sky ICS

yes right, i am agree with u

I personally hope intel medfield kills off any arm competitors in the windows 8 tablet business. I am not happy with how closed arm can be compared to x86.

The arm architecture is more open than x86. But indeed you can do more on x86 based hardware as there is more software available for it.

moved to general

As long as your x86 Android netbook can boot from USB storage and isn't locked into the OSes that it came with, I guess it could be possible as long as the amount of RAM and internal storage meet the minimum requirements.
Sent from my LS670 using XDA

x86 instruction sets are one thing but drivers are a whole different ball game.
But in theory yes, Win 8 x86 could run on x86 android hardware, with several very large assumptions being made
as for ARM, I think we can forget x86 emulation, the overheads would cripple it. To be honest, I personally wouldn't have a use for an ARM tablet, an x86 tablet however would be very useful, so come on Intel, get your finger out and give us some affordable ultra low watt x86 SoCs, keep it cheap an OEMS will trip over them selves buying them, after all, backward compatibility means les overheads for companies and less hassle for users.

Win 8 on Asus Transformer TF101

Is There any port?
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalk

no, and there most likely never will be.
read the freakin forum, its in at least 3 threads in W8 D&H, several more in general.
the answer is no. move along.

^And you'll stand behind that line of logic despite the fact that it's being developed for ARM architecture as well?

mtmerrick said:
no, it won't be.
W8ARM will not be available to consumers, only manufacturers, making liscences for ports almost, if not completely impossible to obtain. It will also require an encrypted bootloader and specific hardware, which the iPad 2/3 quite possibly won't meet up with. Even if those were able to be worked around, you'd need to create drivers for windows, and, as the idroid project as shown, creating new drivers for iOS devices is incredibly hard.
So no. give up all hope of W8ARM on existing Android/iOS/WebOS hardware now.
it MAY be possible to get W8ARM on a WP7/WP8 device, maybe even the HD2, seeing as they (should) have compatible drivers and since they're all Microsoft, there are theoretical loopholes for the licence. but that's still going to be difficult, and may never work properly.
TL;DR version - if you want Windows 8 ARM, buy a device that comes with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
bunch of other threads that all say the same thing. this is established fact.
W8ARM will not be available to consumers, only OEMs. Porting to non W8ARM hardware will be illegal because W8ARM licences will not be transferable across devices. Porting will also be impossible because you will need to have a highly encrypted and specially signed by microsoft bootloader Since W8ARM is closed source, creating HW drivers for existing hardware from scratch will be incredibly difficult, if not impossible. Even if you were somehow able to get a W8ARM ROM created and running, it would be all sorts of violations to use it, and it would be removed from XDA before Microsoft's legal team started suing.
So no, give up hope for W8 on existing ARM devices.

As stated in my past (kindle fire) thread
Your first challenge will be the legal one, Microsoft is well known for employing a never ending batch of bloodthirsty lawyers to sue the pants off of anyone who infringes on them. Of course this can be avoided if you simply post "instructions to install your own copy of windows 8 on the kindle fire".
Your next one will be Drivers, well these can be reverse engineered and built if you are skilled enough.
Followed by Storage. I would assume the ARM version of Windows would use around 4-6 GB of Space. Is 2 GB enough to store your music and 3rd party apps?
Next is the Processor, I would hope that Windows 8 tablets use a Quad Core (Tegra3 for example) rather then the Dual Core of the Fire. Not a deal breaker but OUCH.
RAM is not a concern here. The ARM Chipset is a bit more efficient, thats without saying that 2-4 GB would not hurt.
Finally, the bios will be the final hurdle. Windows 8 will require a secured uEFI (Locked/Encrypted bios). This is HARDWARE, you would need to open your kindle and solder one in (its not that easy). Microsoft has already openly stated that this will be a REQUIREMENT on the ARM Chipset and optional on x86/x64.
Here is my advice, WAIT about a year after Windows 8 comes out... Just like Android, the market will eventually get flooded with cheap (and I do not mean inexpensive) Windows 8 tablets. They should retail between $300-$1XXX. Its not $200 like the fire, but those MS License Fees can hurt.
Now, You may have noticed, I did not say it was impossible to RUN Windows 8 on the Kindle Fire, just not as the primary OS. If I was forced into it, I would run QEMU (There are Android Ports), Install Windows 8 in the VM and RDP into the VM. I will warn you it will be VERY Slow and most likely unusable.

moved to general

[Q] Running Windows on Nexus 10

Hi All,
Has anyone tried to load Windows XP or Windows 7 on the Nexus 10. I know that this could be done due to several articles found even on this forum that this could be done, but I was wondering if anyone tried this on the Nexus 10. See this link for further details: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1139694
I've also heard that the Bosch isn't working on jellybean. Can someone confirm this please?
At the moment, I can't try this out is my Nexus 10 is still being delivered.
Thanks for your time!!

Why, just why.

fixyourtech said:
Why, just why.
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I was going to try and install visual studio...
Edit:
I'm open to ideas on this one. For example, I know that windows 7/8 could be run from a USB drive. Can I load them from the Nexus 10? Is this even possible?

Hmm, wasn't even aware of a virtual machine being able to be ran on Android lol, this is interesting. An idea I had in the past was to install Windows 98 from aDosBox
fixyourtech said:
Why, just why.
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Click to collapse
Why not? It's a Nexus device, running Android, your open to a lot of experimenting and customization

espionage724 said:
Hmm, wasn't even aware of a virtual machine being able to be ran on Android lol, this is interesting. An idea I had in the past was to install Windows 98 from aDosBox
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have successfully booted to Win 95 and Win 98 on an Orange San Francisco.
My final aim is to be able to use visual studio though...

This would run incredibly slow. I can't imagine that Visual Studio would be usable for editing much less compiling.
You really should try to learn a new ide or become comfortable with just an editor.
I do almost all of my programming over ssh. When I do have to write Microsoft programs I usually use a mix of Visual Studio and Mono Develop or vim when I'm not close to a PC.

OP DUDE!!! CANCEL THE NEXUS 10!! QUICK before its delivered!!! What you need isn't a fast and powerful flagship android device. You need the ViewSonic Viewpad 10"!!!!!!

Another idea might be to setup a dedicated computer (or a regular computer) and install Splashtop 2, and just remote control it

Cinizzz said:
Hi All,
Has anyone tried to load Windows XP or Windows 7 on the Nexus 10. I know that this could be done due to several articles found even on this forum that this could be done, but I was wondering if anyone tried this on the Nexus 10. See this link for further details: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1139694
I've also heard that the Bosch isn't working on jellybean. Can someone confirm this please?
At the moment, I can't try this out is my Nexus 10 is still being delivered.
Thanks for your time!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Get a Surface.

dalingrin said:
This would run incredibly slow. I can't imagine that Visual Studio would be usable for editing much less compiling.
You really should try to learn a new ide or become comfortable with just an editor.
I do almost all of my programming over ssh. When I do have to write Microsoft programs I usually use a mix of Visual Studio and Mono Develop or vim when I'm not close to a PC.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your suggestions. I like your ideas, especially ssh. Are there ready made applications for that or you're doing that through a linux os?

Windows 7/8 require x86 CPUs, so you won't be able to run WinXP/7/8 natively on your Nexus 10 due to the ISA differences between ARM SoCs and Intel/AMD x86 CPUs, plus you won't find any drivers for the integrated ARM components. Windows RT is designed to run on ARM-based tablets (like the Surface), but I'd be surprised if you could get it running well (if at all) on any Android tablet- it's not open source and not meant to be modified by the community. If it weren't for the locked bootloader, I believe it would be much easier to start with an RT tablet and port Android to it, but that's not a possibility.
As far as running Visual Studio natively, your best bet is to use RDP (remote desktop), VNC, or similar (Splashtop) to connect to a separate PC. I have actually done this with my HP touchpad as well as my Atrix (via webdock).
Or if you're willing to forgo Microsoft completely, you could wait to see if there's any progress for Ubuntu on the Nexus 10. If Ubuntu can be loaded, you could use the package manager to install development tools like gcc, Eclipse, etc. I know there's plenty of Ubuntu ports for the Tegra3 tablets (Nexus7, Asus Transformer, etc), but whether the Ubuntu community embraces the Exynos processor (inside the N10) remains to be seen.
---------- Post added at 03:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:11 AM ----------
I forgot to answer your original question: Bosch is SLOOOOW, since it's virtualizing the x86 hardware on top of ARM. I remember trying to run Windows 98 on my Nexus One and it was practically unusable (but still cool). I would imagine that the A15 processor is several times faster than the old single-core scorpion core in my N1, but still not fast enough to make Windows7 work, and certainly not fast enough to make compiling something in VS.NET worthwhile.
A cheap (<$200) Atom-based netbook will run Win7/8 much better than the N10.

corneliusm said:
Windows 7/8 require x86 CPUs, so you won't be able to run WinXP/7/8 natively on your Nexus 10 due to the ISA differences between ARM SoCs and Intel/AMD x86 CPUs, plus you won't find any drivers for the integrated ARM components. Windows RT is designed to run on ARM-based tablets (like the Surface), but I'd be surprised if you could get it running well (if at all) on any Android tablet- it's not open source and not meant to be modified by the community. If it weren't for the locked bootloader, I believe it would be much easier to start with an RT tablet and port Android to it, but that's not a possibility.
As far as running Visual Studio natively, your best bet is to use RDP (remote desktop), VNC, or similar (Splashtop) to connect to a separate PC. I have actually done this with my HP touchpad as well as my Atrix (via webdock).
Or if you're willing to forgo Microsoft completely, you could wait to see if there's any progress for Ubuntu on the Nexus 10. If Ubuntu can be loaded, you could use the package manager to install development tools like gcc, Eclipse, etc. I know there's plenty of Ubuntu ports for the Tegra3 tablets (Nexus7, Asus Transformer, etc), but whether the Ubuntu community embraces the Exynos processor (inside the N10) remains to be seen.
---------- Post added at 03:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:11 AM ----------
I forgot to answer your original question: Bosch is SLOOOOW, since it's virtualizing the x86 hardware on top of ARM. I remember trying to run Windows 98 on my Nexus One and it was practically unusable (but still cool). I would imagine that the A15 processor is several times faster than the old single-core scorpion core in my N1, but still not fast enough to make Windows7 work, and certainly not fast enough to make compiling something in VS.NET worthwhile.
A cheap (<$200) Atom-based netbook will run Win7/8 much better than the N10.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot for this useful explanation!! Some sort of RDP over the web would be enough for me

According to ExtremeTech Samsung is one of the Microsoft's OEMs for Windows RT.
So, if Samsung does release a Windows RT device running on exynos 5250, there is a chance the RT binary could be loaded on Nexus 10..., no?

Why would anyone want to run Win RT on top of Android? For the great selection of Win RT apps?
It's funny, because peeps in the Surface RT forum are excitedly jabbering about getting Bluestacks so they can run Android apps. The grass is always greener on the wrong side of the fence.
Now, if someone were to get iPad apps running on Android, then you've got my interest.
Anyway, I think the grand plan for MS is to get apps to run on all three of their platforms, PC, tab, and phone. The PC will drive app development, and hopefully those apps will also work on the smaller devices. It's kind of Android in reverse, where phones are driving development for tablets--well, in theory at least. The diff is that Android is entrenched in phones, while MS still can't get traction anywhere in mobile.

Windows RT doesn't support Active Directory so it's more or less useless in the corporate environment.
But one reason I would still be interested in running RT on Nexus 10 is it's powerful RT Office 2013 suite.
Of course, MS is working on Office for Android. Hopefully, it will be released soon.

advShor said:
According to ExtremeTech Samsung is one of the Microsoft's OEMs for Windows RT.
So, if Samsung does release a Windows RT device running on exynos 5250, there is a chance the RT binary could be loaded on Nexus 10..., no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most likely if Samsung releases a Windows RT Tab, it will run with an X86 cpu, as as far as I know, what I read on Technet, Microsoft is not going to compile for anything other than X86/X64 ..

Watcher64 said:
Most likely if Samsung releases a Windows RT Tab, it will run with an X86 cpu, as as far as I know, what I read on Technet, Microsoft is not going to compile for anything other than X86/X64 ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting... Seems Windows RT future has too many unknowns at this point.
Anyway, those who are interested in the subject, may want to check out this long MSDN thread that starts with Sinofsky letter describing, among other things, what OE partners have to do to bundle WOA (Windows-on-ARM) with their chip implementation.

Watcher64 said:
Most likely if Samsung releases a Windows RT Tab, it will run with an X86 cpu, as as far as I know, what I read on Technet, Microsoft is not going to compile for anything other than X86/X64 ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows RT is solely for ARM devices. Windows 8 is x86/x64. That said, it will take some serious hacking to get RT to run on not sanctioned devices.

Watcher64 said:
Most likely if Samsung releases a Windows RT Tab, it will run with an X86 cpu, as as far as I know, what I read on Technet, Microsoft is not going to compile for anything other than X86/X64 ..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows RT = ARM. Windows 8 = x86/64.
Microsoft is relying on the confusion to market RT. It has more in common with Windows Phone 8, except with the same UI as Windows 8. None of the same capability as the desktop version- can't join a domain, no active directory support, mandated locked bootloader (no flashing other OSes), signed executables that can only be installed from the official app store. This means that there's no compatibility whatsoever with running apps and games made for previous versions of Windows (ie- no executing exe files). No ability to run Steam and your existing game library. I'm not even sure if it will connect to Samba file shares on the network natively (it may require apps like Android and iOS to do this).
In short, Microsoft crippled RT to the point where it has no real advantages over Android or iOS. Of course, it's not bad, but the Surface and other WinRT tablets are pricing themselves out of the market while relying on market confusion to catch unsuspecting [legacy] Windows users.

You can't install/run a x86 OS on a ARM processor. Not sure why anyone would want to anyways. Windows on tablets has been around for years and guess what it's a big failure. I like Windows and have a triple monitor system at home, and a dual monitor at work, and a personal ultrabook however Windows 7 and earlier were not touch friendly and made for a bad experience on touchscreen computers. If you want "Windows" on your Nexus 10 just RDP into your Windows workstation...

ASUS has no plans for Windows 10 Mobile on ZF2

https://www.reddit.com/r/zenfone2/comments/3lv999/good_newssort_of/cv9mn3a?context=3
Someone from Asus posted a thread on reddit regarding updates and I asked about Win10 and he said look to XDA for help.

http://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/general/zf2-running-windows-7-using-kvm-t3153299

mogrith said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/zenfone2/general/zf2-running-windows-7-using-kvm-t3153299
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Those are VMs running full Windows versions. I'm specifically talking about Windows 10 Mobile.

xbbdc said:
Those are VMs running full Windows versions. I'm specifically talking about Windows 10 Mobile.
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Windows 10 Mobile seems largely pointless compared to Android without the ability to run "legacy" (desktop Win32, or even Win64) apps - I forget where I read this, but Windows 10 Mobile has been confirmed not to support the Windows desktop. Admittedly, that would only really be useful with a dock/external display and input devices anyway, but Metro apps generally suck.
On a more technical note, the reason ASUS is unlikely to even consider developing Windows 10 for the ZenFone 2 is twofold. Firstly, Intel apparently has no intention to develop non-Android drivers for their Moorefield Atom chips (the Z3500 series SoC in the ZenFone). They have never advertised Moorefield as being comptible with Windows. Additionally, they seem unwilling to admit they are to blame for the lack of open source drivers for the PowerVR graphics technology they licensed from ImgTec - this means they are also unlikely to develop a Windows driver for the PowerVR Rogue GPU in ZenFones. Secondly, UEFI firmware is a requirement for WIndows certification if I recall correctly - the ZenFone and presumably all Intel Android devices utilizing PowerVR GPUs use something called SFI, short for SImple Firmware Interface. Linux supports SFI, but I highly doubt Windows does.

DrGit said:
Windows 10 Mobile seems largely pointless compared to Android without the ability to run "legacy" (desktop Win32, or even Win64) apps - I forget where I read this, but Windows 10 Mobile has been confirmed not to support the Windows desktop. Admittedly, that would only really be useful with a dock/external display and input devices anyway, but Metro apps generally suck.
On a more technical note, the reason ASUS is unlikely to even consider developing Windows 10 for the ZenFone 2 is twofold. Firstly, Intel apparently has no intention to develop non-Android drivers for their Moorefield Atom chips (the Z3500 series SoC in the ZenFone). They have never advertised Moorefield as being comptible with Windows. Additionally, they seem unwilling to admit they are to blame for the lack of open source drivers for the PowerVR graphics technology they licensed from ImgTec - this means they are also unlikely to develop a Windows driver for the PowerVR Rogue GPU in ZenFones. Secondly, UEFI firmware is a requirement for WIndows certification if I recall correctly - the ZenFone and presumably all Intel Android devices utilizing PowerVR GPUs use something called SFI, short for SImple Firmware Interface. Linux supports SFI, but I highly doubt Windows does.
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I forgot about the drivers, but you are forgetting the power of Windows 10, which is supposed to run iOS and Android apps.

xbbdc said:
I forgot about the drivers, but you are forgetting the power of Windows 10, which is supposed to run iOS and Android apps.
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But the question at this point is how well will they run at initial release?

Windows 10 for phones is still targeted for ARM devices only. The ZenFone 2 is designed as an Android device. We will not support anything other than the official Android releases. And no, Windows 10 for phones will not run iOS apps, just Android.

thank god for that i already have to deal with windows on my pc wouldnt want it on my phone aswell hell no only on pc for one main reason direct x and leading os for game support

Tuanies said:
We will not support anything other than the official Android releases.
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This makes sense for ASUS' business interests, that I do not dispute - it's a little disappointing for XDA though, @Tuanies. You did seem interested in asking around about graphics drivers which would enable faster virtualization - was that successful? I ask because I got 64-bit Arch Linux (and Ubuntu) to boot natively on my ZenFone, and I've been meaning to get KDE Plasma Mobile into a usable state, but I'm stuck with a lot of closed drivers from Android which are 32-bit-only and unusable with libhybris. WiFi, unaccelerated graphics, multitouch input, battery status, and screen brightness controls are about the only things that do work - no sound, Bluetooth, calls/texts/data, or almost anything else works currently. Open source drivers from Intel would be amazing, but I might be able to get by with closed 64-bit libraries. Of course, no ETA for that from ASUS leads me to believe Intel isn't going to supply 64-bit Android binaries for their Moorefield chips. I haven't seen 64-bit Android on any other Atom Z35xx device yet, so I have a feeling it's not within the control of any OEM.
TL;DR, it would be great to know that Intel still actually supports their Moorefield Atom SoCs and is committed to 64-bit Android. I would ask them if I knew who to talk to, but alas I don't. @Tuanies, if you are able, please let us know if you can glean anything from Intel regarding 64-bit Android drivers or whether they are able to open up any other components. I'd greatly appreciate documentation for writing an oFono driver for the XMM7262 (LTE) and XMM2230 (2G GSM) modems, although like with the PowerVR drivers, I'm not holding my breath. Thanks!

I was not able to get PowerVR drivers for Moorefield, unfortunately . No updates on the 64-bit binaries either :-\.

Tuanies said:
Windows 10 for phones is still targeted for ARM devices only. The ZenFone 2 is designed as an Android device. We will not support anything other than the official Android releases. And no, Windows 10 for phones will not run iOS apps, just Android.
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Did something change about Windows 10 and iOS?

xbbdc said:
Did something change about Windows 10 and iOS?
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Microsoft has tools for Android & iOS developers to "easily" recompile their code for Windoze 10.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/29/8511439/microsoft-windows-10-android-ios-apps-bridges
Basically, the developers need to recompile their existing code and make some minor changes to bring the apps to Windoze 10.

ycavan said:
Microsoft has tools for Android & iOS developers to "easily" recompile their code for Windoze 10.
http://www.theverge.com/2015/4/29/8511439/microsoft-windows-10-android-ios-apps-bridges
Basically, the developers need to recompile their existing code and make some minor changes to bring the apps to Windoze 10.
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So that's a no, nothing's changed on what's already been announced. I'm pretty sure if developers don't do it themselves, someone will find a way to make them work.

I owned many different phones, tablets and in my opinion the Android OS is the best for phones. I would not mind installing Linux (mint) on my tablet tho

I still don't get why you'd want windows on this phone other than as a "just because you can" exercise. Windows isn't suddenly going to have better mobile apps than android, and the android apps that are probably/possibly going to run on windows obviously already run on your android phone which they were designed for. And if you are talking full windows, the screen is too small, the phone has only one USB port, and while improved over previous generations, the atom in our phone is still no match for a proper full power desktop or laptop CPU. Oh, and most people only have 16 or 32 GB on-board storage.

If I could dual boot Windows and Android, I'd have the best of both worlds... but the Windows thing's important so I can consolidate my needs into a single device.
So that I can plug in a USB host cable, USB hub, plug in a USB-to-VGA adapter & wireless mouse/keyboard combo, and have a full PC anywhere I go, with 4GB of RAM.
Plenty of cheap-o Windows tablets out there with soldered on 32GB of onboard storage. (I actually own the Microcenter one, and it works really, /really/ well, all things considered. Runs the Windows applications I need it to: http://www.microcenter.com/product/440932/TW802_Tablet_-_Black the Winbook TW02 )
And it's not about the apps. It's about having a Windows PC in my god dang pocket.
For me, and I suspect some other people, it's a lot more than a 'just because you can' exercise. All that shows is a lack of imagination.