A few weeks ago, a developer told us they used AI to help get iOS 26 running on Microsoft’s abandoned Surface Duo 2, which shipped with Android. And now, the Google AI Studio boss himself has taken things in another direction, showing off Windows 11 on Apple’s foldable iPhone using Gemini.
Ammaar Reshi, who heads product and design at Google AI Studio, used Gemini 4 Carbon to help get Windows 11 running locally on a non-jailbroken iPhone Duo. The project even adapts to the folding screen, turning the lower half into a keyboard and trackpad.
Ammaar also shared a video of Windows 11 running on the iPhone Duo, and it looks like it works really well:
Google’s AI Studio boss used the ARM version of Windows 11 24H2 to run it on the iPhone Duo
“I used Gemini 4 Carbon to get Windows 11 running on my iPhone Duo!” Reshi wrote in a post and confirmed that he is not running Windows Desktop Remote Connection or streaming Windowson of Windows locally with touch controls
Ammaar calls the project “WindowsiOS,” and it’s fully open-etup process, you can try running Windows on it too!
I haven’t tested WindowsiOS myself, so I can’t say how well it performs in everyday use. But the idea of unfolding an iPhone and seeing a full Windows desktop is hard not to love, even if it’s not a particularly practical idea given that Windows 11 is not Windows 8 and isn’t really optimized for touch, let alone foldables.
A foldable iPhone becomes a tiny Windows laptop
I also like how WindowsiOS makes use of the iPhone Duo’s folding display. If you look closely at the images below, you’ll notice that Windows can fill the full screen when the phone is fully open, so you don’t have “dead zones” or black areas on the screen. When it’s partially folded, it can switch to a laptop-like layout as well.
You’ve got Windows running on the top half, while the bottom half has an on-screen keyboard and trackpad, so the Duo almost feels like a full-fledged laptop.
Interestingly, Google’s AI boss argues that the on-screen keyboard also includes a Copilot key. According to theow chiclet keyboard (F1–F10, Copilot key, stacked Up/Down arrows)” with a multi-touch trackpad
Apple’s foldable has a 7.6-inch inner display, so this is still a very small Windows PC. You probably wouldn’t want to write a 2,000-word article on the virtual keyboard, but that’s not really the point. It’s a full desktop operating system running on a device you can fold and put in your pocket, and that was once a dream for many who used a Windows phone!
How a Google AI Studio boss used Gemini to run Windows 11 on an iPhone Duo, and why it’s a big deal
It’s not the first time we’ve seen Windows 11 running on an iPhone, but this project is particularly interesting because the Google AI Studio boss used Gemini to help build it.
According to a virtual machine environment with components that Windows can recognize, including firmware, storage, a network adapter, USB input devices, and audio hardware
Windows 11 running on iPhone Duo
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There have been Windows on iPhone projects in the past, but one challenge we’ve run into is the lack of Windows drivers for the phone’s hardware. Gemini closed that gap as well with a few workarounds.
Windows has access to an Ethernet adapter when it’s running on the iPhone Duo. This allows Windows to use the iPhone’s internet connection while seeing it as an Ethernet connection.
Gemini also enabled WindowsiOS to provide a virtual audio device that Windows can use with its built-in drivers. As a result, Windows can actually play audio through the iPhone Duo’s speaker, and WindowsiOS passes microphone input back to Windows.
The iPhone Duo is not jailbroken, so Windows 11 uses a software approach
Running Windows in a virtual machine on a phone isn’t new, but WindowsiOS has to work around the restrictions of a non-jailbroken iPhone.
It uses a software approach, including just-in-time, or JIT, translation, to run ARM64 code without relying on Apple’s restricted hardware virtualization framework. And because Windows runs inside an iOS app, you can leave WindowsiOS and return to your iPhone’s usual apps and files.
But can you run traditional Windows apps on Windows running on the iPhone Duo? The project says it supports Prism, Microsoft’s translation layer for compatible x86 and x64 apps on Windows on ARM. That could allow some traditional Windows apps to run, but obviously, not all apps or games are guaranteed to work.
The Google AI Studio boss claims the Gemini-assisted WindowsiOS project runs at “near-native” speed, but he did not share comparative benchmarks.
When asked how long the agents worked on it, Reshi replied: “Agents cooked for 2 hours with Swarm!” He also confirmed that the installation is approximately 12GB.
There is one more catch if you’re thinking of trying it yourself. The documented setup requires an Apple Silicon Mac, development tools, and a Windows 11 ARM image. It also uses an optimized Windows image, and the optimization script disables features including Defender real-time protection and Windows Update background services to reduce resource use.
Still, as someone who misses the idea of having Windows in my pocket, I love seeing projects like this. It may not replace a laptop, but unfolding an iPhone to reveal the Windows 11 desktop is pretty cool.
What do you think about running a full-fledged version of Windows on your mobile? Let me know in the comments below.
