Developer manages to boot Windows 11 on Pixel 6 running Android 13 DP1

Zohaib Ahmed — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 08:28:40 +0000

A developer has managed to get Windows 11 to run on their phone running Android 13. The first Developer Preview of Android 13 was released last week and it apparently makes it easier to access the kernel-based virtual machine that’s built into Android.

The feat was pulled off by XDA developer kdrag0n who was able to run Windows 11 on their Pixel 6 as a virtual machine using the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) on the OS version.

Booting Windows, logging in, using it a bit pic.twitter.com/r1ws0WFxOg

— kdrag0n (@kdrag0n) February 14, 2022

kdrag0n says that Windows on the device is “really usable,” and despite the lack of GPU or 3D acceleration, they were still able to run Doom on the Windows VM.

Said Windows 11 build is obviously ARM-based and not the x86 one you get on a typical Windows PC. kdrag0n says that they’ll be providing more information about the process and how other users can replicate it.

Do keep in mind here though that root access will be required for the procedure.

As explained by XDA Developers, Android 13 allows much easier access to the built-in kernel-based virtual machine. kdrag0n took advantage of an exploit in the OS, allowing full Windows 11 virtualization to work at near-native speeds on the Pixel 6.

Getting new operating systems to run on unsupported machines is nothing new but does take plenty of patchwork. A developer earlier managed to similarly boot Windows 11 ARM on their Xiaomi Pad 5 with little compromise. Another was successful in booting the same on Microsoft’s Android Surface Duo tablet.

Google Pixel 6 Android 13 DP1 Archives - Gizmochina

Developer manages to boot Windows 11 on Pixel 6 running Android 13 DP1