Replace Android with Windows 10?

[Tim098b]

Is it possible to run Windows 10 on a Galaxy Tab 2? And how do i do that?

[komar]

Short answer - NO, you can't do that.

Some of the latest ARM powered devices can emulate windows 10, but like Linus showed, they are not very good.

[GoldenLag]

Theoretically: yes

Because win 10 has gotten some ARM support

 

In practise: not really

We dont know if you need special bootable media to make it work. You would also probably need access to bios

 

Doe we recommend it: no, only on latest hardware you can feasably run Win 10 at an acceptable rate. Even if you have a snapdragon 845/835 device i think you would fail attempting this.

 

Wait to see if Microsoft makes an ISO for ARM devices. If you want Windows on ARM i think you need to get a preloaded device like the HP envy x2

[AskTJ]

Maybe, but it will run horribly.

[GoodBytes]

Well technically it is possible.

Some effort are being done to run Windows 10 for ARM on the Lumia 950 (snapdragon 808) and 950 XL. (snapdragon 810)

Here are the details of the hack:

https://github.com/imbushuo/Lumia950XLPkg

 

Yes it is a phone, and not a tablet, but same thing. An Android tablet is an Android phone just larger, and without the phone parts.

 

Here is a video showing it running::

 

So far (this is specific to this device):

• No wireless, But Bluetooth recently managed to work (and internet could be sued through that if you have another system).
• No LTE/3G working yet
• GPU drivers lack optimizations (DPI is set to some low value on the video phone for some reason, it can put higher for larger interface)
• You can't do phone calls or SMS, as RedStone 5 is needed (that version of Windows 10 is coming late this year), also the Phone and Message app needs to be updated to use them.

The bios had to be hacked to allow Windows 10 on ARM to run. Windows 10 Mobile, the original OS of this device, is not the same Windows 10. It is a different OS, just sharing the same core, allowing to run the same frameworks (UWP), and same APIs. The same needs to be done on Android.

[Lenovo1984]

With that tablet, probably not. I have one, and it struggles to play YouTube and load basic websites these days, let alone emulate Windows 10. 

[GoodBytes]

26 minutes ago, Lenovo1984 said:

With that tablet, probably not. I have one, and it struggles to play YouTube and load basic websites these days, let alone emulate Windows 10. 

There is no emulation. Windows 10 for ARM is Windows 10 compiled for ARM64 CPUs. So far it will run on a Snapdragon 805, 810, 820, 835, and 845 is to come.

[GoodBytes]

3 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

-Snip-

Sorry I take it back. I looked at the wrong CPU specs of the Galaxy Tab 2. It cannot run Windows 10 for ARM. The CPU is way to slow, and missing needed CPU technologies.

[Lenovo1984]

8 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

There is no emulation. Windows 10 for ARM is Windows 10 compiled for ARM64 CPUs. So far it will run on a Snapdragon 805, 810, 820, 835, and 845 is to come.

That's right, I wasn't thinking. But wouldn't it still need to emulate X86 programs?

[GoodBytes]

51 minutes ago, Lenovo1984 said:

That's right, I wasn't thinking. But wouldn't it still need to emulate X86 programs?

Correct. It is already struggling to do this with the Snapdragon 835.

If you look at reviews of devices running Windows 10 on ARM, you will notice (for those who goes in depth):

• Running UWP apps -> great performance. Impressive even considering the nature mobile chip. Core i3 performance levels.
• Running ARM64 compiled apps -> also, great performance. Core i3 level performances as well
• But, x86 (32-bit only) emulation...... ouch... it is down to Atom levels. I mean, it is really impressive technology-wise that Microsoft managed to emulate x86 Win32 programs on a mobile SoC (granted a pretty powerful one). But, past that, in term of actual usage it is a bit of a pain. But that is why Microsoft markets it as a "backup"/"fallback" of sorts feature, where you can run your Win32 program that you really need, not well, but at least run it instead of having nothing. It should hold up fine for simple programs, like a music player, and other more simple programs. But if you do Photoshop, or something actually demanding, forget it. Look/Request for an ARM64 version of it. Microsoft acknowledges that it will take time before programs are compiled in ARM64, despite Microsoft updated Visual Studio to have a 1 button solution for most cases. I expect most open source programs to be compiled ARM64 (so: Foobar2000, VLC, Notepad++, Audacity, etc) and maybe Paint.net as the dev seems supportive of Windows latest features.As for paying apps, yea, expect chicken and egg problem, at least that is what I expect...
  It is expected that the 845 to fair better as Microsoft and Qualcomm are working closely helping each other (Qualcomm it putting more and more CPU technologies to help Windows run better on it, and try and boost that Win32 emulation system on its chip)

Anyway, all to say, the Tab 2 has no way of running Windows 10 on ARM. The chip is way to old and slow, and that is forgetting Win32 emulation.

The Galaxy Tab 2 has ONLY 1 GB of RAM, and the CPU is not even 64-bit, if I am not mistaken. The device is from 2012.

 

When I initially posted by post, I clicked on the wrong Google link and read the wrong specs. (I read the Galaxy S8 phone specs without realizing at first, then it clicked in my head)