You May Be Able to Run Windows 11 on Your Raspberry Pi

Microsoft recently announced Windows 11, which will be available as a free upgrade for Windows 10 users in October. The OS will introduce a handful of new features, but developers are noting that Windows 11 is very similar to Windows 10 under the hood. And, even though Microsoft lists hardware requirements, it seems that those aren't quite as necessary as they suggest. One curious user found that Windows 11 can run on a Lumia 950XL smartphone. Another user in Japan got Windows 11 working on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B and Richard Speed at The Register has confirmed that it also runs on a Pi 400.

Microsoft's official hardware requirements list includes a processor that is "1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster with two or more cores on a compatible 64-bit processor or system on a chip (SoC)." Compatible processors include the typical offerings from Intel and AMD, but also some Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC (System on a Chip) products. Raspberry Pi's single-board computers do not have Snapdragon SoCs, but rather SoCs from Broadcom. The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, for instance, has a Broadcom BCM2711 — an SoC that is not on Microsoft's official support list. But both the Broadcom SoCs and the Snapdragon SoCs are based on Arm processors and it seems that that is enough for basic compatibility.

Enterprising developers have coaxed Windows 10 into running on Raspberry Pi SBCs for years, despite the lack of official support. It appears that Windows 11's underpinnings are similar enough to Windows 10's that this hack still works. On June 29th, shichinomiya_s tweeted that they had successfully installed a leaked version of Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B. They even wrote an article explaining how you can do the same. While those instructions are thorough, there was a chance that it was a hoax backed by a bit of hidden-cable trickery. But Richard Speed and his cohorts at The Register followed those instructions and had Windows 11 running on a Pi 400 within a few hours. Speed reports that there are bugs and the performance is less than stellar, but the OS did not throw out any errors regarding the unauthorized hardware.

While this proves that Windows 11 can run on a Raspberry Pi, and potentially other Arm-based devices, it is possible that Microsoft will implement hardware checks in the official OS that prevent this. But if that happens, we have faith that dedicated developers will find a workaround, just like they did with Windows 10.