Windows Already Up and Running On ARM Architecture

syngularyx writes "Over at Microsoft's MIX Developer Conference in sunny Las Vegas, Microsoft has demoed a new preview build of Internet Explorer 10 (which you too can take for a spin, if you feel so inclined), and also dropped a little premature Easter egg – the build of IE10, and the underlying Windows OS, were both running on a 1GHz ARM chip. Sneaky."

Windows on ARM for eight(?) years

[perpenso]

It's about frickin' time! As usual MS take the longest to get on the trend train.

Windows CE has been running on ARM for about eight (?) years.

Re:can you hack the iphone / ipad to run windows 8

[the linux geek]

ARM isn't standardized like x86 is, so probably not... at least not easily. IBM PC clones use a fairly standard set of firmware and peripherals, whereas ARM-based machines tend to be largely custom, just with a degree of binary compatibility between them. Getting Windows running on an iDevice would take serious work.

Re:Why is it sneaky?

[mirix]

Debian has supported arm since potato (2000)...

Re:can you hack the iphone / ipad to run windows 8

[Anonymous Coward]

Pure .NET apps should work though, which will assist Microsoft in eliminating non-managed languages.

Re:Computer vs Big Phone

[ceoyoyo]

Was that a joke?

Darwin, which is the actual OS underlying OS X is also the actual OS underlying iOS, which runs on iPhones and iPads. It's also open source.

Re:Why is it sneaky?

[Desler]

He's calling bullshit the fact that Windows has no infrastructure for an ARM release. They already showed off Office for ARM months ago.

Re:Windows on ARM for eight(?) years

[jrumney]

Windows CE has been running on ARM for about eight (?) years.

Windows CE 2.0 came out in November 1997 with support for DEC's StrongARM processor (now evolved into Marvell's Xscale range).

Re:So what? It's the apps ....

[AlphaWolf_HK]

Has Microsoft created a "fat binary" format, the way Apple did for its migration from PowerPC to Intel?

.EXE files are called Portable Executables. They can already hold more than one program with more than one architecture. Microsoft has been using this since the NT 3.1 days when NT was also available on Alpha architecture, and even today with various server editions of windows running on itanium.