Imagine Windows 11 running on an old Windows Phone. Image courtesy of Lumia WOA ProjectWindows 11 has been successfully transferred to a smartphone in less than a week. Gustave Monce (a very dedicated student of engineering) uploaded a YouTube video showing Windows 11's latest developer preview on an old Windows Phone.AdvertisementIt is a Lumia 950 XL phone, which you may have seen in an earlier attempt to usher the era Windows 10 Mobile. It is also the last Windows Mobile phone and is considered a collector's item.It all began five years ago when Windows 10 Mobile was in its final year of life, Monce stated in an interview with The Verge about Lumia WOA Project.Monce is correct about Windows Phone's near-extinction period at the time. Even before that, the platform was struggling to maintain its 2% market share in an era when Android and iOS devices proliferated.Monces video showing Windows 11 in a Lumia 950 XL.Monce was paired up with Bingxing Wang, a classmate who was also interested in the idea of running a desktop operating system on the Lumia 5.7-inch screen.Monce explained to The Verge that as time passed, we began talking about it and formed discussion groups. In turn, we created a community of people who were interested in running Windows 10 full on Lumia Lumia 950s.Now, the team consists of 15 individuals working on WOA Project. They collaborated on Windows 11 by reverse engineering the work they had done with Windows 10X and Windows 10.AdvertisementAndroid users are also joining the Doing it Because You Can fun. XDA revealed how developers from The Renegade Project were able to get Windows 11 up and running on a OnePlus 6T. The operating system core functions work as intended. It even supports Bluetooth and USB input. Although the actual desktop is quite small, it's still very fun. Pure joy!A developer shows Windows 11 running on a OnePlus 6T.It's a great way to see the possibilities with patience and a good understanding of reconfiguring. It also shows Windows 11's ability to scale up in comparison to older versions. Windows runs natively on ARM-based CPUs as shown in the embedded videos. Windows 10 was previously only compatible with Qualcomm-based tablets or smartphones. Microsoft has now rebuilt Windows 11's binaries on ARM using ARM64EC. This makes it possible to remap the OS on older hardware.AdvertisementIf you had the time and resources, you could probably do it yourself. At least the Renegade Project allows you to download and modify the source code. You can also find many guides on the WOA Project that will help you understand how to restore an old Windows Phone you've forgotten about.
