Google Pixel 6 successfully runs Windows 11 virtual machine

Microsoft launched the Android subsystem WSA in Windows 11, based on the Hyper-V virtualization platform, which everyone is familiar with. Google also uses a similar technology to run Linux programs in Chrome OS, called Linux Kernel Virtual Machine  KVM. The Android system is also built on the Linux kernel, so it is theoretically feasible to use KVM to run other operating systems in Android.

According to the latest test by XDA senior member kdrag0n, Google Pixel 6 successfully runs the Win11 Arm virtual machine after installing the first developer preview version of Android 13.

The idea behind the technology is that in the Android 13 bootloader and firmware for the Tensor platform, Google added the ability to expose the Exception Level 2 hypervisor privilege level to the kernel for its protected KVM ( pKVM), making it easy to leverage full KVM functionality on an unprotected VM.

According to tests, this function can achieve near-native performance on virtual machines, but GPU hardware acceleration is not currently supported, and Root is required.

kdrag0n even played Doom on the phone, and the old 1993 game ran without stress.

Google will support pKVM in the official version of Android 13, and then we can see how the Win11 virtual machine actually performs on mobile phones.