Summary
- NTDev runs Windows 11 Arm64 on iPad Air M2 using Tiny1
- Tiny11 uses JIT emulation within UTM app to achieve this feat.
- Despite some lag, Windows 11 runs on iPad Air M2 successfully.
If you ever have the urge to see Windows 11 squished into the strangest devices you’ll ever see, then you need to check out what NTDev is doing. They’re the person behind Tiny11, the fan-made version of Windows 11 that removes a lot of non-essential features in exchange for a much smaller file size. Now they’re showcasing the Arm64 version of Tiny11 running on an iPad Air M2, and it performs better than you might expect.
Related
Files review: A more modern alternative to the Windows 11 File Explorer
The Files app is what I want the Windows 11 File Explorer to look like, but it’s not quite perfect. It’s also limited by Windows in some ways.
NTDev gets Windows 11 Arm64 working on an iPad Air M2
As spotted by Windows Latest, NTDev posted pictures and a video of them using Tiny11’s Arm64 build. To achieve it, they ran it within the UTM app using just-in-time (JIT) emulation. And because the iPad Air M2 uses an ARM CPU, it only makes sense to use Arm64 on it. And because Tiny11 has a much smaller footprint than regular Windows 11, it makes it a lot easier for the iPad to chew over than installing the regular version of Microsoft’s operating system.
You can see it running in the video below. It’s not exactly running smoothly, per se; windows seem to take a while to load up and run. However, it’s still an impressive feat to squish Windows 11 onto the iPad Air M2 and have it running without crashing.
This is by no means the first time someone has gotten Windows 11 running on something where it really shouldn’t be. We’ve seen Windows 11 running in a VM on a Windows 7 machine, which looked really odd. Even our own writers have given it a go, running Windows 11 on things like a live USB stick, a Mac Mini, and a Docker container on a Raspberry Pi.
