The project to run Windows 8 RT on the Lumia 640 XL, enabled by WPInternals, has reached a new milestone.
The busy hacker Ben Imbushuo on Twitter has already managed to load the OS, enabled the GPU, Sound, Sensors and Power Management, and in his latest feat, he has managed to get store apps to install and run on the device, making the hack of course 100% more useful.
While the hack is very promising for those who want a tiny PC, Ben does warn that due to the differences in the telephony stack in Windows and Windows Mobile, it is unlikely the handsets will ever be able to work as a phone, unless someone wanted to hack a driver which supported the right AT commands.
For people asking cellular:
No. Windows and Windows Phone shares a different RIL stack (even in post-OneCore era), unless you develop a set of tools that deal with AT commands, you will not get cellular connectivity on Windows RT on Lumias.— Sunshine Biscuit at scale ? (@imbushuo) February 4, 2018
The hack is nevertheless quite impressive and does make us salivate for a true microPC, which we will hopefully see one day with the much-rumoured Surface Phone.
Ben has written up a tutorial for those who want to replicate his feat, which can be seen at XDA-Developers here.