A developer has used emulation to demonstrate running Windows 11 ARM on an M2 iPad Air, which has become much easier since the EU Digital Markets Act (DMA) regulations came into effect.NTDev on social mediashared a simulation example onPosted a video on YouTube(embedded below) demonstrates this simulation in action.
The achievement comes thanks to new EU regulations that make it easier to sideload apps on iOS and iPadOS devices. Under DMA, users can now download third-party app stores such as “AltStore Classic” which supports the installation of JIT (Just in Time Compilation) enabled UTMs.
UTM technology makes this possible, emulating Windows 11 in iPadOS by converting Windows code into ARM instructions at runtime. Technically, iPadOS limits direct virtualization of third-party apps, but the JIT compilation feature allows Windows 11 to boot and run smoothly without the need for jailbreak access. NTDev thanks AltStore's StikDebug helper app for enabling JIT compilation under the hood.
NTDev improves performance by using Tiny11, a stripped-down version of Windows 11, which removes excessive bloatware and lowers system requirements. This optimized version requires less RAM and storage than the standard version of Windows 11. The developer says Tiny11 runs "pretty good," but judging from the video, it's not powerful enough to replace a PC.
This isn't the first time Windows 11 has been demoed on tablets. Microsoft's operating system has previously launched successfully on Android devices from OnePlus and Xiaomi.