Windows on your watch: This developer got Windows 7 running on Android Wear

By Kyle Wiggers May 12, 2016

windows 7 lg g watch android wear — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Some matches were never meant to be, but try telling that to YouTube user Hacking Jules. The impish Android developer installed Microsoft’s Windows 7 desktop operating system on an LG G Watch smartwatch. The predictable result? A Frankensteinian software/hardware mashup that’s as abominable as you might imagine.

Setting aside for a moment that Windows 7 really wasn’t designed for devices as small as the 1.8-inch G Watch (indeed, in Hacking Jules’ video, it’s almost impossible to make out shortcuts on the desktop), performance is objectively awful. Windows takes a whopping three hours to boot, and registers touches only seconds at a time. Given the G Watch’s low-end silicon — a single-core Snapdragon processor, 4GB of internal storage, and a measly 512 MB of RAM — that’s not exactly surprising.

For those who feel compelled (out of boredom? Pursuit for internet karma?) to follow Hacking Jules’ foolhardy footsteps, he’s posted a detailed tutorial on just how he achieved his impressive feat of Windows software engineering. Be forewarned, though, that many of the methods involved require at least some familiarity with Android’s development tools and the Windows command line.

The Windows 7 hack is only the latest in what’s become a bizarre tradition: shoehorning apps onto Android Wear devices. Just last month, an intrepid programmer ported competitive first-person shooter mod Counterstrike to the LG G Watch, following successful efforts by others to boot Minecraft Pocket Edition, Doom, and gaming console emulators for the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS. Developers have gotten movies running on Android Wear devices too, and even full-fledged installations of Macintosh II OS and Windows 95.

Apple’s wearables aren’t immune to such shenanigans, either. In February, a crafty young developer ported iOS 4.2.1 to an Apple Watch, and more recently, developer Nick Lee managed to install the 20-year-old System 7. Neither, as you might expect, run particularly well.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Kyle Wiggers is a writer, Web designer, and podcaster with an acute interest in all things tech. When not reviewing gadgets…

Mobile

The Google Pixel Watch isn’t great, but it could still save Wear OS

Google Pixel Watch on a wrist.

Last week, the Pixel Watch launched. As Google's first premium smartwatch, it fills up the void that has existed for eight long-drawn years. During this time, Android users have felt the absence of a powerful smartwatch that offers an unadulterated Android experience, competing against the Apple Watch. Google arrives late to the party, at a time when brands already imagine successors to smartphones, and Apple and Samsung have strongholds in the market.

The Pixel Watch stands against the odds, and the first impressions lend no mercy. Things could have been much different had Google set a timely foot in the segment. So, a few basic questions crop up: Is it too late for the Pixel Watch to get the success that Google claims it to be worthy of? Can Google salvage that? Is this the end of Wear OS?

Mobile

How to watch Google’s Pixel 7 and Pixel Watch event: Live today at 10 a.m. ET

Google Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, Pixel Watch, and Pixel Buds.

Google is once again ushering in the fall tech season this year with another “Made by Google” hardware event to show off the next-generation Pixel 7 lineup, reveal its long-awaited Pixel Watch, and possibly even offer up another surprise or two.

Google typically holds two events each year: the spring Google I/O conference provides a broad overview of everything that Google is working on, from Android to Google’s cloud ecosystem, while its fall Made by Google events (as the name implies) are focused solely on the company’s newest hardware products.
How to watch the Made by Google event on October 6
Made by Google 2022 will kick off at 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT on October 6. While Google is inviting the press to attend the event in person in New York City this year, others can tune in to the livestream from the comfort of their own home or office.

Mobile

Is the Oura Ring finally good enough to replace your Apple Watch?

Oura Ring, iPhone 13 Pro, and Apple Watch Series 7.

I regularly wear the Oura Ring and the Apple Watch Series 7 together, as one fills in the gaps the other has in its arsenal of features. Through two recent updates, the Oura smart ring has increased its ability to monitor health and fitness with the addition of simple fitness tracking and SpO2 blood oxygen monitoring. Is the Oura Ring now a full-fledged health and fitness tracker ready to be worn on its own, without any compromises?
New features
Both the workout tracking and the SpO2 blood oxygen monitoring have been promised since the launch of the third-generation ring in 2021, so their arrival is overdue. The workout mode employs the ring’s heart rate tracking and came to the ring at the end of May, while the Sp02 feature came at the end of July. Once you set the feature up, it works automatically.

The workout mode is quite simple as it only looks at your heart rate to assess intensity, and doesn’t seem to use the accelerometer to cover movement, making it relatively basic when compared to other wearables. The SpO2 monitoring works when you’re asleep. With it, the Oura Ring also tracks Breathing Regularity — helping to identify changes in your breathing patterns overnight, which may be indications of sleep-related problems like sleep apnea.