Developer Gets Apple Watch to Run Windows 95

[ForkHandles]

Apple, Give this man a job, that is very impressive indeed. Just keep him away from marketing, that was one awfully slow piece of advertising.

 

[Shirasaki]

if Windows 95 on Apple Watch takes an hour to boot, then Windows XP may take a day to boot. XD

 

[MacsRgr8]

BUT WHY?

Because:
a) You can
b) It's amusing
c) Gives perspective to how the tech of modern a smartwatch compares to a desktop PC of some 15 - 20 years ago.

 

[scaramoosh]

I hope they give the Aluminium version a Sapphire screen next time, I hate the weight of the Steel version, but man my Sport Apple Watch has a screen that's scratched to ****.

 

[the-msa]

nice, but he should try windows xp (or even vista?), an old 166 mhz computer with 16 mb of ram can already run win95 and i think 4 mb ram is already enough for it.

lets see whats possible xD

 

[MH01]

So basically he put a virus on a watch.

Bless, you still associate Windows with viruses in 2016.... That joke just keeps on giving !

I think it's awesome that you can run a full OS on a watch.

 

[Makosuke]

Fun fact: You can put the entire global NES game catalog onto one DVD.

One DVD? Compressed, the entire collection of Japanese NES games (over a thousand) is under 100MB, and it's under 300MB uncompressed.

The full collection of SNES games is under a GB compressed, and even the complete collection of N64 games would fit on one single-layer DVD with compression.

You've gotta hand it to classic game developers--they were fantastically good at making use of limited resources. One of the all-time great platformers, Super Mario Brothers 3? Under 400K. Final Fantasy VI, with an involved story, 14 playable characters, a mini opera, a Bach homage, and dozens of hours of gameplay? A bit over 3MB.

I haven't done the math, but you could probably fit every home video game produced through 1990 on an Apple watch, and it's more than capable of running them. I expect an iPhone could comfortably store and run every game produced globally through the mid-90s.

 

[0098386]

Gotta love emulation.

Fun fact: You can put the entire global NES game catalog onto one DVD.

DVD? Surely it'd fit onto a CD. There are around 700 NES games, each one between 8kb-1mb.

 

[cableguy84]

Apple watch doesnt even run it's own native OS very well.

 

[emm386]

So basically he put a virus on a watch.

The watch itself really is the virus... think about it for a second.

 

[vmistery]

It is going to be slow because the x86 emulation on arm devices is painful, if an Intel chip was in there it would have a chance of performing better. Well done to him for doing it though, I'd quite like a wrist mounted version pip boy style!

 

[Three141]

This brings a tear to my eye, not enough to make me buy the watch but just shows how far along tech has come.
Well done to the developer.

 

[Enabledobject]

cool

 

[iZac]

Runs about as smoothly as WatchOS

/sarcasm

 

[Gorms]

Very cool hack, ultimately pointless, but still great work

 

[Porco]

Once Windows 95 was loaded onto the Apple Watch, the booting process took an hour because it's being emulated rather than virtualized.

#If you start me up... If you start me up you never stop...

 

[eric_n_dfw]

I haven't done the math, but you could probably fit every home video game produced through 1990 on an Apple watch, and it's more than capable of running them. I expect an iPhone could comfortably store and run every game produced globally through the mid-90s.

In my experience, games as simple as Breakout and Pong are laggy on my Apple watch and they are written natively to WatchOS so I think your, "more capable of running them", comment is a highly optimistic. I think the emulation software would bring to run NES, Atari, etc would bring it to it's knees much like this Win95 demo did.

 

[unplugme71]

If one has so much spare time to waste, why would he need a watch - at all?

To tell how much time he can waste?

 

[Macyourdayy]

if Windows 95 on Apple Watch takes an hour to boot, then Windows XP may take a day to boot. XD

How do you tell?

 

[maflynn]

That's really impressive, wow.

I thought the watch CPU was really slow, but its as powerful as CPUs of the day for windows 95

 

[fermat-au]

Interesting that he installed Windows 95, no a version of Mac OS from the time (Was it MacOS7 or 8 in '95?). My guess would be that Microsoft being more open that Apple, it was it easier to get Window not Mac OS running on the hardware the software was never intended run on.

 

[Superhai]

My guess would be that Microsoft being more open that Apple, it was it easier to get Window not Mac OS running on the hardware the software was never intended run on.

If you checked out his medium-post you would have known he did that a year ago.

 

[jyen]

I'm surprised he didn't get the blue screen of death somewhere along the way in the video.

After developer Nick Lee realized that the Apple Watch's 520 MHz processor, 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of internal storage made it more powerful than many desktops running Windows 95 in the 1990s, he felt confident he could get it to run Microsoft's successful operating system.

Photo via Nick Lee​

To get Windows 95 to run on the Apple Watch, Lee knew he couldn't rely on Apple's WatchKit SDK because it doesn't allow developers to directly access user touch locations. Instead, the SDK forces developers to use Apple's stock controls. So Lee had to patch certain files within a WatchKit app to load his own app code rather than Apple's. Lee tells MacRumors the process, which puts an x86 emulator into a self-contained Watch app, essentially turned Windows 95 into an an app.

Once Windows 95 was loaded onto the Apple Watch, the booting process took an hour because it's being emulated rather than virtualized. Lee also had to attach a straw to a small motor that nudged the Digital Crown periodically to keep the Watch awake. Once the Watch is all booted up and ready, users can control the mouse with their finger. However, because the emulation is so slow, Lee told MacRumors that "it only registers a few pixels per movement on the screen." To combat the lack of speed users can queue up commands by rapidly swiping on the display.

The Watch can be seen booting up and running Windows 95 in the video above, and Lee goes into further detail about the process in his Medium post.

Article Link: Developer Gets Apple Watch to Run Windows 95

 

[zhaolewen]

Well in fact I think with some effort I can get any OS "running" on the watch... with the tiny motor switching screenshots constantly with the wheel ...

 

[JosephAW]

Bless, you still associate Windows with viruses in 2016.... That joke just keeps on giving !

I think it's awesome that you can run a full OS on a watch.

Virus is right. Did a factory dvd format and install vista on a dell 530 and went to cnet and downloaded easeus partition manager.
Installed using advance and skipped the bloat ware. Within a few minute some fake malware app said I had a virus called easeus and chromium was also installed. Couldn't remove either.
I'm so glad I have a Mac. Even if it doesn't support el capitan.