Install Windows 10 on PlayStation or Xbox: Is It Possible?

Windows 10 is the operating system most used in personal computers and companies worldwide. Its broad compatibility with programs and ease of use makes more than one billion people familiar with it. However, there are devices where they cannot be installed despite sharing the same architecture as a computer, such as the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One consoles .

Traditionally, consoles used different architectures from those found on a computer. It was not until 2006 when AMD introduced x86-64 , a series of instructions that we continue to use today not only on Windows computers, but also on macOS and Linux.

However, at that time the consoles launched used other architectures. PS3 used Cell , developed by Sony, Toshiba and IBM that combined PowerPC elements with new ones. In the case of Xbox 360, we also found a PowerPC based processor .

Everything changed with the new PS4 and Xbox One , which went on to use architectures similar to computers. Both consoles use an APU with AMD processor and graphics card. In PS4 we find an AMD Jaguar processor with 4 cores at 1.6 GHz, while that of the Xbox One is an AMD Jaguar with 8 cores at 1.75 GHz. The processors of its older sisters are similar, improving frequencies and graphics cards To be more powerful.

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The key to these processors is that they use x86-64 architecture, similar to what future PS5 and Xbox Series X will also use . This architecture, as we said, is the same that we currently use in our computers. So why can’t Windows be installed on them?

The consoles are fully coated so as not to install Windows 10

The answer is relatively simple: because they are coated . If we focus on Xbox, the question grinds even more because it is Microsoft itself who develops the console. In fact, Xbox One could perfectly run Windows 10 because, basically, it already does. The Xbox One internal operating system is based on Windows 10 OneCore , on which Xbox One Experience and Microsoft UWP platform apps are running . Thus, there is no reason why an Xbox One game cannot work on PC.

However, Microsoft has introduced many modifications at the hardware and software level so that it is not possible to install Windows 10 like the one we have on PC, so that problems related to chetos are avoided or that people can use pir-te games on the console.

An important modification that we find at the hardware level is the Southbridge , which is responsible for communicating elements such as the peripherals of the console and the processor, such as video output, WiFi, the signal from the remote control, the disk reader or the HDD. This Southbridge has a proprietary design for which there are no drivers that allow Windows 10 to function normally.

The same goes for the Northbridge , which instead of being separated like the southbrige, is included in the processor package, and is responsible for communicating the cores with the chip’s memory. We also find the same with the memory controller and basically everything that is responsible for controlling the proper functioning of the hardware in a coordinated manner, such as the SMC (System Management Controller) that controls the LED lighting or the fan speed depending on the temperature of the console. Everything is closed.

To all this it is added that the unmodified Windows 10 kernel does not work with the console hardware, so it could not communicate correctly with the components to pass instructions and tasks, since the kernel that uses the console is modified despite of being based on Windows OneCore. Thus, there is no hardware abstraction layer (HAL) that acts as a link between the hardware and the kernel, and one should be created from scratch, which is impossible.

And this is only at the hardware level. If we go to the software, the console uses the Secure Boot to see that no modifications have been made to the system. The BIOS / UEFI would also have trouble reading the files, since the Xbox is designed to work with FATX , the file system that Microsoft has exclusively for the console instead of NTFS using Windows 10. PlayStation also uses a proprietary solution called PFS as a file system.

That PlayStation and Xbox share architecture with PC is very good

Despite all these limitations, the fact that both consoles use the same architecture as a computer has multiple advantages related to the PC, such as the fact that games that are designed for consoles can be easily ported to PCs as We are seeing in recent years, and vice versa.

In addition, the backwards compatibility with the consoles is really simple because the games have been designed to work in the same architecture, and that is the reason why for example PS5 will be backward compatible with PS4 output in the same way as if we change PC we can continue playing with our Steam games.

Thanks to this, companies also save a lot of money when developing their own processors, which in the long run has an impact on the price of consoles being cheaper. Luckily, getting our own computer is getting cheaper, although it would not hurt to make the consoles also run a desktop operating system as the first PlayStation 3 with Linux already allowed, where many families would save money from having to Buy a PC for your child to work and a console to play. Here the PC will continue to have that advantage.