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Windows XP Embedded on HTC devices?

Hi folks
Recenty I got the Windows XP Embedded kit, and I was really satisfied and surprised with the performance of the directly built system on an old machine like a P1 @ 200 MHz with 64 MB of RAM, without a hard disk.
The main goal would be to run truly win32 apps on mobile devices, to give better functionality and compatibility.
Yet the builder supports x86 architecture only, but cannot be a big problem to port it to ARM pocessors.
What might be difficult are these things:
-Getting win32 drivers for built-in devices (ex. integrated SDIO/USB WLAN, BT adapter, touchscreen, and sound devices, and apps for them!)
-Saving user data on turning off (Ebmedded systems are designed for a workstation, like a cash register: prebuilt apps, and nothing more comfort ) like WM200x
If anybody has any suggestion are to get a warm welcome
bye

Yet the builder supports x86 architecture only, but cannot be a big problem to port it to ARM pocessors.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you kidding me?
This would mean reverse engineering and recompiling every binary in the OS.
Do you have any idea how many hours something like that would take?

yup, you're right, but in theory it's possibe. I've seen a running DOS on a Microchip micro-controller, or for example the Atmel STK 1000 is Linux based, also seen an mPlayer app operational on the demo board at the college.
as you see, i'm not an experienced programmer, but i'm not afraid to ask
Yeah, the basic low-level binaries must be recompiled, and once it's ok, it might be usable with regular win32 apps, until you run an old DOS app, wich directly access the hardware.
A few years ago i was able to port Z80 software to 8086, and it wasn't easy.
I don't really know these things, just want to see opinions, possibilities, and suggestions.

exe files are binarys which are instructions directly for the cpu
it's not parsed by the operating system
so compiling the os is not enough every application needs to be recompiled too

The programs you mentioned have source available in one way or another (since DOS is very old there are clones, like freeDOS).
If you have the full source for an app and the right compiler, porting it to another CPU is feasible.
But, this is not the case with embedded XP. Getting the full source is impossible which means most of the system will have to be rewritten from scratch.
Just look at the Wine project to see what it takes, and they "have it easy" - they are just trying to simulate the APIs not change processor architecture. (Lets make it clear - ARM instruction set is very different from x86).
And as Rudegar said it will not let you run any program that has not been specially compiled for ARM CPU.
I know it sounds like we are trying to kill you idea here but its nothing personal, unfortunately it just isn't feasible. We would all like to be able to run desktop apps on our devices, but simply having embedded XP on them would not accomplish that. Also while many old DOS apps can be run using various emulators like pocketDOS, almost all Win32 apps take more resources than our little gadgets can offer.
I am fairly sure though that in 5 -10 years that problem will be fixed.

<_< man hours or not, reveng'ing this will have a bigger impact than just winDOS Mobile devices. Desktops have a use for this, definitely (because the Vista-Only crap is starting to hit the market). Too bad they don't provide assembly in programming classes anymore, obviously because they don't want anyone else to reverse engineer anything and spoil their foisting fun. <_<
In any case, IIRC XP Embedded is missing the install/uninstall engine, so you can't customize it after it's flashed onto the board. This isn't quite a good start - XPLite or 98Lite are better for reverse engineering from scratch (but they're too powerful for mobile devices).
The other alternative is porting ReactOS, which is a reimplementation of W2K. Those guys are "having a lot of fun" getting things to work, tho. <_<

Maybye Windows CE6 yes, but Windows XP Embedded no, because they must run at 686-AT/X platform IMB. Sorry of my English

linux would be a path
with most linux programs you can compile them yourself
using good old
./configure
make
make install
of cause gui programs could have issues displaying correct
on such a small screen

You MIGHT be able to pull it off by installing a minimal (very!) WinMo firmware and then have it autorun Bochs, which is known to be able to run the PC version of XP.. A customised, thinned-down XPe image should run fine under Bochs.
--W5i2

Can x8 directly boot into another OS?

Is it possible to boot another OS like..idk, ubuntu or windows without having to boot up android? Something like direct boot? Just like our PC's do. Is it possible?

Since this question seems to burn on your poor soul ...
NO ... at least NOT for as long as you don't...
- ...write a fitting boot loader for the intended OS to kick-start its kernel and boot-strap the OS.
- ...find a way to re-partition the internal phone storage (aka "NAND") to meet the demands of the OS.
- ...wrote drivers to support the hardware (USB, Camera, Sound, WiFi, et al)
It may be possible to somehow directly boot a made-for-the-X8 Linux, but then the idea is rather pointless anyway as you would also need to code up the required applications to actually use the device as a phone (in case you missed it, you're holding a phone in your hands, not a tablet computer).
Throw away your hopes to see Windows 8 running on the X8 ... the device is not suited to run that OS at all (EDIT: or are you going to port the required Secure Boot enabled UEFI Firmware to the X8?).
Your best shot would be (after some intense development work) to get Linux or Windows CE up and running.

bogdan_mihai554 said:
Is it possible to boot another OS like..idk, ubuntu or windows without having to boot up android? Something like direct boot? Just like our PC's do. Is it possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes its possible you can run Windows 95 on X8 . Search on you tube for videos. After that search in Android development section/
But it will work partially

B.Jay said:
Since this question seems to burn on your poor soul ...
NO ... at least NOT for as long as you don't...
- ...write a fitting boot loader for the intended OS to kick-start its kernel and boot-strap the OS.
- ...find a way to re-partition the internal phone storage (aka "NAND") to meet the demands of the OS.
- ...wrote drivers to support the hardware (USB, Camera, Sound, WiFi, et al)
It may be possible to somehow directly boot a made-for-the-X8 Linux, but then the idea is rather pointless anyway as you would also need to code up the required applications to actually use the device as a phone (in case you missed it, you're holding a phone in your hands, not a tablet computer).
Throw away your hopes to see Windows 8 running on the X8 ... the device is not suited to run that OS at all (EDIT: or are you going to port the required Secure Boot enabled UEFI Firmware to the X8?).
Your best shot would be (after some intense development work) to get Linux or Windows CE up and running.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok, you're right ) windows 8 and ubuntu and too complicated for X8 to handle, but Windows CE would be really nice
Also, i've found an really small linux(Slax) and it would be really cool if we can get it running on x8

bogdan_mihai554 said:
Windows CE would be really nice
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Many years ago (2002? 2003?) I had a COMPAQ iPAQ 3660 (which I even mod-updated from PocketPC 2000 to PocketPC 2002) - and a friend of mine had a 5xxx series iPAQ which where the first ones to come with a GSM slot.
Take my word that Windows CE would be pointless. Compared to Android Windows CE is not only hopelessly outdated but also the same crap as WP7.
If _I_ would want to have Windows CE/Windows Phone 7 device and be tortured to the ninth circle of hell by that steaming-pile-of-sh** Metro UI I would have gotten a brain removal surgery and bought one.
Having a true Linux up and running would be nice, but also pointless for as long as the apps to make calls and send/receive SMS/MMS are missing.

B.Jay said:
Many years ago (2002? 2003?) I had a COMPAQ iPAQ 3660 (which I even mod-updated from PocketPC 2000 to PocketPC 2002) - and a friend of mine had a 5xxx series iPAQ which where the first ones to come with a GSM slot.
Take my word that Windows CE would be pointless. Compared to Android Windows CE is not only hopelessly outdated but also the same crap as WP7.
If _I_ would want to have Windows CE/Windows Phone 7 device and be tortured to the ninth circle of hell by that steaming-pile-of-sh** Metro UI I would have gotten a brain removal surgery and bought one.
Having a true Linux up and running would be nice, but also pointless for as long as the apps to make calls and send/receive SMS/MMS are missing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Windows 8 has Metro UI...I hate it )

Wine on android x86?

So, as I've been thinking about Intel's announcements about medfield atom powered android devices, and the pre-existing android x86 project. I've previously asked the question if you could load windows 7/8 onto an android x86 device, and the answer was, pretty much yes, as long as there are drivers. But running windows isn't that great of an option for a mobile device, so i dug around and saw WINE, which i had forgotten about. From what i've learned, it requires X11 library support on the OS for windows programs to run. Android does not support X11, which stops WINE from being able to run on android X86. Now, with android (and, apparently X) being open source, surely there's a way to build enough of it into android so that WINE can run? One of, say, the x86 android tablets intel and motorola agreed to make would be amazing if a custom ROM could be created to be able to have some support for X, and therefore run WINE.
Now, i'm no dev so i have no idea how difficult (or not) this would be, but it seems completely possible, and it also seems like a much preferable alternative to any metro-haters.
(and yes, i've seen this, i consider it worthless to run an emulator in an alternate OS on a phone. i'm looking for native support.)
Please, don't troll, flame, report, or anything else i know you all love to do. I just wondered if this actually is possible - seems like it should be - and what work would have to go into it to get it to work.
thanks to anyone who can help answer!

Samsung Ativ 500T. Android dual boot? Upscaling?

I believe the best hackers/minds/tinkerers in the internet are typically found in these forums, so I like to post the most intricate questions that all other forums failed to answer as my last resort. As they say, save the best for last. (No pressure, lol)
Issue 1:
Upscaling. Atom Clovertrail Z2760 does not have any upscaling option built into its Intel Graphics Control Panel. It is a known issue with all atom 2760 devices including my own tablet Samsung Ativ 500t, as well HP Envy X2, Asus Vivotab Smart, Asus Vivotab tf810c. etc.
The problem presents itself when attempting to run an old game designed for a resolution of 800 x 600, for example. When you go into "full screen" mode, what you get is a still tiny window with huge black bars all around. Somebody suggested using the windows magnifier, but that cuts off some of the game screen.
So, is there any third party mods to the Intel drivers, third party upscaler software, or anything of the sort I can use to solve this situation? Intel did not develop official drivers, and people contacting Samsung were pretty much told "screw you, we dont care"
Issue 2:
Android:
Research found that Bluestacks does not seem to work with my particular tablet. I encountered an interesting thing called Android X86, which Im sure you guys already know about. While going through their website, my head exploded. I do not have the savvy to reconfigure a kernel, or make a bootable USB drive using Linux without..well..Linux. I was just hoping that somebody has successfully installed Android x86 in a more recent Windows 8 tablet. I have found instances of people who did in older Windows 7 tablets, like the Acer w500 for example, but no one yet with specific information no how to install this on a clovertrail tablet.
I was hoping could help me out getting this done. Being able to dual boot the Sammy Ativ 500 would be a dream come true.
Thank you very much for your time.

There's a thread literally right next to this one that talks about installing Android-x86 on a Win8 tablet. You might start there...
The usual solution to the options for display scaling not appearing in the driver control screen is to put Windows into a lower resolution (for example, 1024x768 or 800x600) and then usually (though I haven't tried on Clover Trail) the option you're looking for (display scaling) will appear.

GoodDayToDie said:
There's a thread literally right next to this one that talks about installing Android-x86 on a Win8 tablet. You might start there...
The usual solution to the options for display scaling not appearing in the driver control screen is to put Windows into a lower resolution (for example, 1024x768 or 800x600) and then usually (though I haven't tried on Clover Trail) the option you're looking for (display scaling) will appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah I tried that. I also tried the whole f11 thing. Nothing. Did not notice that other thread. will go check into it.

GoodDayToDie said:
There's a thread literally right next to this one that talks about installing Android-x86 on a Win8 tablet. You might start there...
The usual solution to the options for display scaling not appearing in the driver control screen is to put Windows into a lower resolution (for example, 1024x768 or 800x600) and then usually (though I haven't tried on Clover Trail) the option you're looking for (display scaling) will appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Im sorry if Im blind but..which thread are you referring to? I assumed it was the Iconia w700 one but saw no mention of Android X86

Near the end of the w700 thread its become a android-ia discussion not android-x86.
Anyway. The clovertrail CPU used in the 500t ONLY supports windows and will likely refuse to boot anything but windows. It might well be possible to male it boot the Linux kernel eventually but only with that kernel configuration you mentioned not wanting to do. Basically its not possible right now, but if it is possible one day there are 2 solutions to your making a usb drive in Linux without Linux. Firstly, ubuntu is free if you are willing to install it on another machine first (I think you can buy ubuntu DVDs or burn one yourself from windows). Secondly you can make bootable usbs in windows.
Android on clovertrail could eventually work, probably easier job than the surface RT guys have. The clovertrail replacement will be back to normal and support any x86 OS, I don't know why clovertrail has such a restriction, it just does.
Bluestacks for surface pro apparently works fine on clovertrail as does jar of beans. I haven't tried either one myself but have heard the various complaints about bluestacks working or not working.

The driver does not support upscaling.
I'm not sure if there is a hardware upscaler in the PowerVR SGX545 core or not.
but it can be done with software, like upscaling a lowres framebuffer to a highres framebuffer (f.e 640x480 -> 1366x768) and using opengl or directX for filtering or interpolation.
It has to be either done by the driver or as a dll hooked into a directdraw/directX/opengl application.
Driver would be the best option because it would be universal and work with all applications.

darkleafar said:
I believe the best hackers/minds/tinkerers in the internet are typically found in these forums, so I like to post the most intricate questions that all other forums failed to answer as my last resort. As they say, save the best for last. (No pressure, lol)
Issue 1:
Upscaling. Atom Clovertrail Z2760 does not have any upscaling option built into its Intel Graphics Control Panel. It is a known issue with all atom 2760 devices including my own tablet Samsung Ativ 500t, as well HP Envy X2, Asus Vivotab Smart, Asus Vivotab tf810c. etc.
The problem presents itself when attempting to run an old game designed for a resolution of 800 x 600, for example. When you go into "full screen" mode, what you get is a still tiny window with huge black bars all around. Somebody suggested using the windows magnifier, but that cuts off some of the game screen.
So, is there any third party mods to the Intel drivers, third party upscaler software, or anything of the sort I can use to solve this situation? Intel did not develop official drivers, and people contacting Samsung were pretty much told "screw you, we dont care"
Issue 2:
Android:
Research found that Bluestacks does not seem to work with my particular tablet. I encountered an interesting thing called Android X86, which Im sure you guys already know about. While going through their website, my head exploded. I do not have the savvy to reconfigure a kernel, or make a bootable USB drive using Linux without..well..Linux. I was just hoping that somebody has successfully installed Android x86 in a more recent Windows 8 tablet. I have found instances of people who did in older Windows 7 tablets, like the Acer w500 for example, but no one yet with specific information no how to install this on a clovertrail tablet.
I was hoping could help me out getting this done. Being able to dual boot the Sammy Ativ 500 would be a dream come true.
Thank you very much for your time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I made a post about this, and i was able to make it boot to ''chose your language screen'' also it boots in safe mode.

Good News People!
I got android x86 installation to boot perfectly, going to install now. posting instructions when i can.

Good news. bad news.
With a program called easyuefi you are able to get it to boot to android x86 installation, however keyboard is not working when choosing an hard drive partition. in grub screen it works fine.
make a new partition, extract android x86 iso there.
Now open up easyuefi and click add entry
When choosing a boot file, In your extracted android x86 files there is a folder called efi.
choose 32bit efi file and click ok. well add to description android so it wont whine about missin description. Now at the easyuefi boot entry screen click on the entry you just created and choose one time boot, now click on power and choose reboot and then click yes.

Cyanogen based android x86 boots fine in live mode but the resolution is ''out of range'' the cyanogen bootlogo is really wide and bugged out, welcome screen is pixeled out.

Not working my friend. Any other suggestions or updates
justanpotato said:
With a program called easyuefi you are able to get it to boot to android x86 installation, however keyboard is not working when choosing an hard drive partition. in grub screen it works fine.
make a new partition, extract android x86 iso there.
Now open up easyuefi and click add entry
When choosing a boot file, In your extracted android x86 files there is a folder called efi.
choose 32bit efi file and click ok. well add to description android so it wont whine about missin description. Now at the easyuefi boot entry screen click on the entry you just created and choose one time boot, now click on power and choose reboot and then click yes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
not working

Ghalilo said:
not working
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Posted to remixos section of xda, asking help with pictures that remix os actually boots but i still have some problems with it.
Remember to install android files to its own partition on your 500t hard drive / preinstall it there. You can add, modify and remove partitions from Disk Management.
I got remix os to boot with their own installer and cyanogenmod based android x86 android image with easyuefi.
remember to disable from bios the boot protection.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/remix/remix-os/samsung-ativ-500t-boot-remix-os-t3500257

Raspberry Pi 2, now with Windows 10 support

Raspberry Pi 2 spec:
A 900MHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A7 BCM2836 CPU (up from a single-core 700Mhz part)
1GB LPDDR2 SDRAM (up from 512MB)
Complete compatibility with Raspberry Pi 1 (software will need to be recompiled to take advantage of the new multi-core processor)
Identical form factor to the existing Raspberry Pi, which means it can fit into existing enclosures
10/100 Ethernet port
40-pin extended GPIO
4 x USB 2.0 ports
4 pole Stereo output and Composite video port
Full size HDMI
CSI camera port for connecting the Raspberry Pi camera
DSI display port for connecting the Raspberry Pi touch screen display
Micro SD slot
Micro USB power source

Its not going to be a full Win 10 like on a PC, its Win 10 IoT.

Well yeah it can not be full version still there is a windows support, I'm still waiting for Android support

Wonder if they will have proper display drivers with Win 10... Those are the reason Android hasn't been 100% successful in being ported over

Nypan sr said:
Its not going to be a full Win 10 like on a PC, its Win 10 IoT.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But hopefully it will be more like more like the x86 Windows version without any dumb restrictions, as opposed to the Windows on ARM SKUs we've seen so far (Windows RT and phone) that have too many restrictions. I believe the current IoT version is prrety stripped down and runs win32 executables, but I guess it remains to be seen exactly what the Windows 10 IoT SKUs (x86 or ARM) will be like.
Either way this is good news, and especially as it's the first Windows on ARM release (that I'm aware of) that isn't pre-installed on a device, and can be installed and removed at will (again, unlike Windows RT/Phone device with a locked bootloader). So that at least is encouraging.

I know it is a silly question, apart from the company news, has anyone independently managed to get a developer copy to work? I scoured all over the web and have not been able to see any info with regards to that.

vulcanize said:
I know it is a silly question, apart from the company news, has anyone independently managed to get a developer copy to work? I scoured all over the web and have not been able to see any info with regards to that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is no copy anywhere. At least, I managed Windows RT to boot with hardware-accelerated Qemu(and a basic Tegra3 emulation) if I disable the graphics driver. Still no input but that should just be some boring code to write.

black_blob said:
There is no copy anywhere. At least, I managed Windows RT to boot with hardware-accelerated Qemu(and a basic Tegra3 emulation) if I disable the graphics driver. Still no input but that should just be some boring code to write.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's sounds very interesting (maybe should have posted that on the Windows RT section)
as a couple of us would be interested in learning how you did that

xsoliman3 said:
That's sounds very interesting (maybe should have posted that on the Windows RT section)
as a couple of us would be interested in learning how you did that
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I should clean the UEFI implementation and adapt the HalExtTegra3 to something cleaner without a hacked VersatilePB target. How to disassemble that lib?

A bluescreen is the result with the RTSM emulator. Does anyone have Windows RT BSP documentation or a disassembler?

Just noticed someone else who has done amazing things with Windows RT on generic ARM hardware
http://winocm.moe/projects/bringup/osports/2015/01/12/giving-windows-on-arm-a-hand/

I think Linux is much more important than windows support.