Microsoft already offers Windows 10 IoT Core for installation on Raspberry Pi, but thanks to the recent launch of Windows 10 on ARM, a dedicated developer has managed to install the full version of the operating system on the computer.
Windows 10 on ARM is one of Microsoft 's latest projects and allows Windows to be installed on systems powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon processors which are commonly used in mobile devices.
Snapdragon processors with special minor modifications are ready to run Windows on a PC. It should be noted that Snapdragon chipsets and Windows 10 on ARM make it possible for devices to achieve amazing battery life of one week per charge.
Dutch developer Bas Timmer, known on Twitter as @NTAuthority, managed to install this version of the operating system on a Raspberry Pi 3 with a Broadcom BCM2837 ARMv8 processor, although at this point, there are several problems that need to be addressed.
Some of these are, for example, that Windows 10 on ARM only runs on one of the four CPU cores, which obviously leads to limited performance. Additionally, sometimes an error appears stating “unsupported processor” even though the operating system initially worked perfectly.
On the other hand, one of the positives of Windows 10 on ARM in general and Windows 10 on ARM installed on a Raspberry Pi 3 in particular is that it makes it possible to run legacy Win32 software just like a desktop computer.
Obviously, such a project comes with hardware limitations that ultimately affect performance, but these are only the early days of Windows 10 on ARM powering a Raspberry Pi 3 so we expect a lot of improvements soon.
