People are already porting Windows 11 on old Windows and Android Smartphones

It hasn’t even been a week since Windows 11 was released, and it has already been successfully ported to smartphones. Gustave Monce, a dedicated engineering student, posted a YouTube video demonstrating the current developer version of Windows 11 working on an outdated Windows Phone.

The phone is a Lumia 950 XL, which you may recall was one of the first to try to bring in the Windows 10 Mobile era. It was also the final Windows Mobile phone, and it has since become something of a collector’s item.

In an interview with The Verge regarding the Lumia WOA Project, Monce noted, “It all started truly five years ago when Windows 10 Mobile was on the verge of obsolescence.”

Monce is correct in stating that Windows Phone was on the verge of extinction at the moment. Even before that, the platform was battling to maintain its tiny 2% market share as Android and iOS devices proliferated.

“As time went on and we started talking about it, discussion groups formed, and in turn, we had a community of people interested in running full Windows 10 on Lumia 950s,” 

The WOA Project now has a staff of 15 people working on it. They collaborated on the Windows 11 port by reverse-engineering their previous work on Windows 10 and 10X.

Android users have joined in on the Doing It Because You Can do fun, The Renegade Project’s engineers (Youtuber edi194) got Windows 11 to boot on a OnePlus 6T, according to XDA. Some of the operating system’s essential capabilities, such as Bluetooth and USB input, are even functional. The desktop size is small and clipped, but it’s still entertaining!

If had not enough, Youtuber edi194, the developers behind this project have also provided a list of the PC games that are running on the OnePlus 6T with Windows 11, and surprisingly it can run Crysis at 20fps, a game that is used to test the graphics capabilities of a computer or GPU. Other games on the list include Left 4 Dead and Hitman 4.

If you had the resources, you could probably try it yourself. At the very least, the Renegade Project allows you to download the source code and play around with it. The WOA Project also includes a number of instructions that will walk you through the process of resurrecting that ancient Windows Phone that you have stashed away in your closet.

Unpopular opinion: Microsoft is unlikely to introduce its Windows-based phones right now, but the results of these types of experiments might change their mind. The above experiment showed us how an ARM-based Windows 11 phone can offer a desktop experience surely after hooking it with an external display and some other gaming peripherals.