Developer tries installing Windows 10 on a Nintendo Switch, is met with a BSOD

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If ultimately successful, it might be possible to run PC games on a Switch.

Twitter via Ben | imbushuo (@imbushuo). Click for original. (Image credit: Twitter via @imbushuo)

Installing Windows 10 on Nintendo's wildly popular Switch console is the not the difficult part, it's getting the OS to actually boot and function properly that is tricky. A developer who goes by Ben (@imbushuo on Twitter) found this out firsthand.

As spotted by Windows Latest, Ben was able to load Windows 10 onto a Switch console, but was quickly shut down by an error code. He then reached out (half-jokingly) to Microsoft and Nintendo for assistance.

"Hey Windows team / Nintendo, you know how to fix this right?," Ben wrote on Twitter.

Not surprisingly, neither company has responded, though a faux Nintendo of America account did weigh in with an expletive that probably represents how Nintendo actually feels about this.

The reason Ben can even attempt something this mod and be partially successful is because Microsoft is pushing Windows 10 on ARM hardware these days. If Ben could actually get this to work, it could potentially open up playing PC games on the handheld console.

For the most part, we're not talking about demanding games—it would be a hard slog to PC gaming bliss on the Switch's hardware. Still, it's a pretty neat idea. It's not entirely academic, either—as our friends at TomsHardware point out, someone got the original Fallout game to run on the Lumia 950 XL, with Windows 10 on ARM. It would be interesting to see what the Switch could handle.

There is more work to be done before getting to that that point, though. As for what's needed, Ben says a "massive cleanup and bug fix," to go along with "additional ACPI and USB work."

Paul Lilly
Paul Lilly

Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).