Hacker releases steps to install Windows 10 on ARM on Lumia 950 XL

Lenny Bonsignore News, Windows 10 Mobile

Bingxing Wang, or @imbushuo on Twitter, is finally confident enough with his hack to let others try it too. He released another video of his Lumia 950 XL running Windows on ARM on Twitter and detailed steps to install it on his Github repository.

Ben has been working on this for quite a long time while teasing other users along the way. He failed too, probably that’s why he wasn’t sure on releasing the steps, as it might brick others devices for those who try. Even still, there’s high chance that one might brick his/her phone in the process, hence proceed only if you know what you’re going to do.

To install Windows on ARM on your Lumia 950 XL:

  1. Use WPInternals 2.4 to unlock bootmgfw
  2. Check out Boot Shim. This Boot Manager Application implements a simple ELF loader for the kickstarter (LK).
  3. Check out LK. You need the msm8994-test-2 branch. Build MSM8994 target, then you will get a emmc_appsboot.mbn file.
  4. Re-partition your Lumia 950XL, shrink the Data partition, create a new partition with GPT name boot, and another uefi_vars (reserved for further use). 4MB for both partition is okay. Tools like cgdisk is recommended.
  5. Place emmc_appsboot.mbn in the WP EFIESP root directory, copy Boot Shim EFI appliction to the EFIESP partition, create a new BCD entry for it.
  6. Boot to this BCD entry, you should enter Android Fastboot mode.
  7. Connect to your computer, flash the build: fastboot flash boot UEFI.elf
  8. Continue to UEFI: fastboot continue

Here’s how it looks on Lumia 950 XL:

Microsoft may not have officially released Windows on ARM for Lumia devices, but they did release Windows on ARM and the interop unlock tool last year that made this possible. With Microsoft completely abandoning Windows Mobile, all that’s left are independent devs that are keeping this platform (somewhat) alive.

Check out his Github Rep for more details.

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