How to Install Windows 95 on Apple Watch [VIDEO]

Remember the days of Windows 95? What comes to mind is the Rolling Stones and their ‘Start me up’ song from Microsoft’s promo video.

To bring back the glory days of Windows 95, developer Nick Lee has managed to install it on his Apple Watch. Why? We’re not sure, but it’s a pretty cool feat.

Here are the basic steps involved, as he explains in a post on Medium:

• Copy symbols and headers from Xcode’s iphoneOS and iphoneSimulator platforms to the watchOS and watchSimulator platforms, respectively.
• Build your “normal” UIKit-based iOS app inside a framework, rather than in your WatchKit extension.
• Use install_name_tool to point your WatchKit app’s _WatchKitStub/WK binary to your framework instead of SockPuppetGizmo. SockPuppetGizmo is the framework that (to my knowledge) runs WatchKit and interacts with normal WatchKit extensions that developers write.
• Jury-rig the iOS port of the Bochs x86 emulator into your framework. “Easy!” “How hard can it be?” read: Pretty hard. In my case, Xcode crashed whenever I tried to use lldb. Your mileage may vary.
• Copy a Windows 95 disk image in to your app’s bundle, write the config file, and boot ‘er up.

This is not unfamiliar territory for Lee, as he’s also previously ported Mac OS 7.5.5 to his Apple Watch:

The developer told The Verge he had to modify Apple’s Xcode in “rather unorthodox ways,” to make it happen.

Want to do it yourself? Lee has posted the code on GitHub here. Grab a six pack of Red Bull, head down to the basement and get started.