My iPad runs Windows XP now and it’s everything I ever wanted

Apple recently approved a new emulator app called UTM SE that allows your iPhone or iPad (or Vision Pro!) to disguise itself as PC hardware and run honest computer desktop operating systems. Some of you asked in the comments section of my last story how it works – a fair question I couldn’t answer at the time. But now that I’ve tried it a little, I have answers and I can say this: it’s better than I expected, but I wouldn’t count on it much.

This is because it doesn’t use a just-in-time (JIT) compiler, which translates software into code that your device understands before it runs. JIT compilers go against Apple’s software guidelines for the App Store, so you would have to jailbreak your phone to install one. UTM version who uses the technique.

UTM SE will generally be slow on an iPad for anything other than running old operating systems on old hardware, but XP runs surprisingly well – and UTM delivers lots of documentation to begin.

I tried it on my M1 iPad Pro, a device I always wished could do more than it does. Creating a virtual machine to run Windows is especially easy if you use one of the UTMs pre-built machineswhich you can download and adjust. I got this and gave it more RAM and storage, but otherwise used it as it came. I then pointed to a Windows XP .iso file in the IDE Drives option in the machine settings and booted it. And I waited. For so long.

It took two and a half hours for my iPad to track the installation. But at the end of it all, I was presented with the old “happy” desktop background and Windows XP startup sound (which I didn’t know I was nostalgic for). Things got slow after everything finished loading; new windows took a few seconds to open; nested Start menu items as well. None of this was outrageous, and I actually think it’s faster than the Compaq machine we had when I was a teenager. (Those old spinning hard drives really cost a lot.)

Performance and nostalgia aside, using Windows XP on an iPad really highlights how much further iPadOS needs to go when it comes to multitasking. And despite some improvements to home screen customization in iPadOS 18, it still lags far behind Windows XP when it comes to customizing things. XP doesn’t care if I want my title bar pink and the text inside neon green or different fonts for each button, menu or window. The world is my terrible oyster! I miss messing up my computer; that was the dream.

Apple allowing emulators on iPhones and iPads has made a big difference for my iPad Pro. I’ve always enjoyed using my iPad, but rarely wanted for; Now, I don’t think I’ve ever caught it so much.