Windows 10 on the Raspberry Pi (Raspi): That's what some Raspi and Windows fans have been dreaming about for a long time. And since Microsoft released Windows 10 on ARM for ARM64 notebooks, this dream seems to be within reach.

Now a developer has assembled a script that brings this ARM version to an SD card for the Raspi. The desire for a "real" Windows on the Raspi is so great that in the "c't" editorial after the announcement of this possibility was briefly discussed seriously how to use a Windows Raspi for small tasks productively.

We wanted to know for sure. How practicable is Windows 10 on the Raspi? For the test we used the "WOA Deployer for Raspberry Pi 3". The three developers behind had already built a Windows-on-ARM installer for the Nokia Lumia 950 (XL) and adapted it for the Raspi.

No expectations

Our experience with Windows on ARM hardware has been disappointing in terms of performance. The Raspberry Pi, therefore, was even less to be expected, because the Broadcom CPU of the Raspis is already a few years old - and there are worlds between it and Qualcomm's high-end chips, chosen by Microsoft for ARM notebooks. The sluggish connection of the SD card does the rest. Nevertheless, a certain euphoria spread.

If you want to try Windows 10 on your Raspi, you need a lot of patience and leisure. This starts with the generation of the SD card for the Raspi on the Windows PC. First of all, you have to download a batch script on a website that pulls individual files from Microsoft servers in a process that takes about twenty minutes and ultimately creates an ISO file. How it looks, shows our video.

If you want to be successful with your installation, you should not download the current Windows 10 version 1809 recommended in the GitHub repository, but use the 2018 Insider Build 17134. In 1809, there are a few bugs that cause the installation to be stuck in a loop after initial setup - information that we found only by accident in a Telegram group belonging to the project. We would like to have had them before the third installation attempt with several SD cards. Despite these setbacks, the joyous expectation remained at a historic moment.

From the ISO image you copy out the file install.wim. Now the first installer is used. The requires the extracted install.wim and another package with drivers, binaries and an adapted for the Raspi EFI. If you have passed the files to the program, you can insert a Micro SD card. The installer then creates the partitions for the EFI boot loader and the actual Windows installation.

You should definitely use a USB-3 card reader and a fast microSD card, because with a USB-2 reader, writing takes about five hours. We tried it.

One moment …

When the writing process is complete, the Raspi, in our case the fastest model 3B +, can start working. You do not want to use older hardware - really not. The Raspi first boots into an EFI shell that you exit with exit and a kind of BIOS changes the boot order so that Windows 10 starts directly.

Then Windows starts with the grueling first boat. After almost an hour, it is complete and Windows asks for the region settings.

From there, by clicking through the setup questions to the Windows desktop, pass another 40 minutes. "One moment" - this picture is burning. Every time we changed the animation, we twitched expectantly.

When setting up the user, there was a tough fight between us and the keyboard, because Windows did not seem to register the release of keys and therefore always added the same letter. This keyboard problem persists even after the installation is complete. The Windows on-screen keyboard works as a replacement.

Then finally the breakthrough: a Windows desktop on a Raspi! A glance at the task manager demanded another minute of waiting. Then Windows informed us that the CPU and data media are fully utilized and the main memory is well over 60 percent full - with the dormant Windows desktop without open applications.

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Full load at dormant desktop: Windows overwhelms the Raspi completely.

A retrieval of Heise.de in the for ARM-compiled version of Edge beats with about one and a half minutes to book. But that's even slower when the x86 emulator needs to work: Chrome's x86 version takes about 12 minutes to fetch the page, from pressing the Enter key to closing the store. Scrolling was tolerable in the Edge, impossible in Chrome.

Still disappointed

You have to be an extremely masochistic nature to dare the experiment. If you want to use Windows 10 on cheaper hardware, you should prefer to use second-hand devices and, if necessary, retrofit an SSD or buy a new mini-PC. The insight is actually not new: The Raspi is (even under Linux) for full-fledged desktop operating systems not the best choice.

If you still want to take an evening to see Windows on the Raspi, we have a special service for you: We provide an unabridged two-hour video recording of the installation. Since you can fast forward in boring passages.