A PhD Student Loaded Windows On Pixel Watch 3, And It’s Legit Cool

Summary: An engineer got Windows PE running on his Pixel Watch 3. Although the engineer couldn’t make the smartwatch display time with Windows on it, he made it work as a USB mass storage device. This weirdly exciting project hints that modern smartwatches are capable of more than we can think of. 

A PhD student got Windows running on the Google Pixel Watch 3

Today, if someone turns up to you and says, “Hey, someone booted Windows on a Google Pixel Watch,” you’d think it’s some sort of April Fool’s prank. Turns out it’s not. A PhD student, Gustave Monce, one of the contributors to the WOA-Project, has achieved this feat. For the uninitiated, that project enabled Windows to run on the Lumia 950 series and the Surface Duo family.

As one would expect, getting Windows to run on the Google Pixel Watch wasn’t easy. It took Monce a considerable amount of time. Monce, in his blog post, mentions that he initially had to inspect a rooted boot image, followed by modifying the stock UEFI to run the custom one.

Next, he had to edit the ACPI table and patch many other files before he got Windows PE (WinPE) running on his Pixel Watch 3. If you are unaware, Windows Preinstallation Environment (WindowsPE or WinPE) is a minimal, lightweight version of the Windows OS.

Now, you must be wondering whether Windows is fully functional on Monce’s Pixel Watch 3. The answer is no; it can’t even display time. Although Monce didn’t prank us, he definitely started it as an April Fool’s project. He notes, “Yes, this is an April Fool’s project, and like with every April Fool’s project I personally do, it’s real and goofy and it’s not finished either. You can try it now. But honestly, you really should not lol.”

Not practical, but something out of the box

While it’s not very practical, Monce’s feat of booting Windows on the Pixel Watch 3 tells us that these days, manufacturers make immensely capable smartwatches. Not to mention, Monce was able to make this Pixel Watch 3 work like USB mass storage, too. We’ve attached the screenshot he shared at the end, highlighting all the partitions. It’s not the first time we’ve seen something interesting done with these smartwatches. Earlier this year, someone got Minecraft running on their Galaxy Watch 4, which was pretty cool to watch.