Developer installs Windows 10 on unsupported smartphones

A developer has found a way to install Windows 10 on Windows Phone smartphones that are not yet supported by Microsoft. Interested parties should install an app and a custom root certificate.

A guide to provisioning unsupported devices with Windows 10 has been published on the XDA Developers forum. The trick developed by user RustyGrom works with FiddlerCore to intercept traffic to Microsoft’s servers. A specially developed Windows app must be installed on the user side, while a custom root certificate must be installed on the smartphone.

According to RustyGrom, the alternative method of installing Windows 10 has been tested on the Lumia 1520. It probably works for other models, but may require minor tweaks. There are tricks in the forum topic to make the method work if problems arise.

The Technical Preview of Windows 10 was released for smartphones last Thursday. For now, the software is only suitable for a limited number of smartphones in the Lumia series. In particular, high-end smartphones can’t officially install Windows 10 yet. According to Microsoft, this has to do with the partition size for the operating system. With some smartphones, this must first be adjusted to make room for Windows 10, and the installer does not yet have support for this.