Nick Lee
By tech2 News Staff / 02 May 2016 , 14:34
The Apple Watch has a 520 MHz processor, 512 MB RAM and 8 GB internal storage. The minimum requirements for Windows 95 were a 12 to 40 MHz processor, 4 MB of RAM and 55 MB of hard disk space. A 3.5 inch high density floppy drive was also a minimum requirement, but this does not seem to have stopped developer Nick Lee from going ahead and installing Windows 95 on an Apple Watch.
The developer has previously installed Mac OS 7.5 on the Apple Watch. This time, the Windows 95 installation is fully interactive. To convert taps to mouse pointer locations, the hacker had to modify files of an existing app that used WatchKit.
An application is built in a custom framework, instead of the WatchKit framework provided by Apple. Then an iOS port of an x86 emulator is added to the custom framework. This allows Windows 95 to run on the Apple Watch. The boot time is an hour long though.
The installed Windows 95 can be touch operated, the finger directly replacing the position of the mouse on the screen. Because Apple turns off the display when not in use, the developer used a small motor to slowly keep turning the crown of the Apple Watch. This prevents the Watch from sleeping when Windows 95 is running.