Upgrading a Surface RT to unsupported Windows 10

The Surface RT was the first Microsoft Surface device, released in 2012. It was a sales failure and was quickly left unsupported, never receiving an official upgrade from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. In addition, its 32-bit ARM processor and locked bootloader made it impossible to run anything else for many years. However, recent developments have allowed a leaked build of Windows 10 compiled for this device to work. I install this build, give a walkthrough of the process, and show what it can do.
Tutorial for how to do this: openrt.gitbook...
Open Surface RT Discord: / discord
My Website: matthewsigmond...
My Twitter: / matthew28845
I should really get a new camera. Maybe my phone would work better than the Sony DSC-RX100 that I've been using, which is really designed primarily for photos.

[@thomasdowning3428]

Matthew thank you. My 32gb Surface RT was unusable as it had 27.3 gb of 28 gb trying to run Windows rt. 8.1. I followed the guide for upgrading to Win 10 which turns out to be Windows 10 Enterprise Insider Preview and everything works. My RT is speedier than I remember and I have 19.8 gb used for this Windows out of 28gb. It got me thinking about upgrading and I am going to buy a Surface 2 with 64gb storage off of Ebay for almost nothing (approx. $55 with shipping). Although I like my original RT, it has always had problems to include the speakers being blown out. I look forward to doing this same upgrade and having the benefits of the newer Surface 2 (higher res., faster cpu, etc., storage). Thanks again.

[@thedead_meme]

Surface 2 from 9 years ago??? Just get a chrome book man

[@thisthingmint250]

@@thedead_meme ew chromebooks just get a better surface even a surface 3 is so much faster

[@calmlyeverafter3248]

I bought the surface rt about 5 years ago. It currently serves ZERO purpose. I can't download Onedruve or anything! If I work on documents, I can't save to onedrive or anything. Videos don't play and internet explorer refuse to upgrade. Absolute waste of money!

[@user-om2gx9oc4g]

A guy ripped me off selling this device ..I didn't knew it doesn't support chrome and Google sheets and all.. wasted my money

[@mensuusxd]

@@user-om2gx9oc4g Maybe do some research next time? 🤷

[@tracylf5409]

@@user-om2gx9oc4g About the only use it has is to playback or browse files on a network. A shame because it would be a brilliant Linux tab (Sparky has an ARM version). :(

[@historyfan104]

@@tracylf5409this thing can run rasberry pi os

[@rizzhi.]

Linux

[@Justme0528]

A couple years ago (maybe 4?) I bought this from my father in law for $75. I thought they were being nice. When I tried to use it it sucked so I've just had it sitting in my closet for years and always thought tablets must just be really crappy. But I just pulled it out and gave it another shot and it seems much faster than I remember so I tried to update it and download apps when I realized you can't 🙃 And now I know it was a really old tablet and his wife (my husband's step mom who's not very nice lol) was being crummy selling us an obsolete device because we were young and didn't know any better. Now I'm gonna try to do this update and hope that I didn't completely waste $75 lol.

[@kenpachizaraki1947]

This is an amazing video for a very niche project/solution. Thank you for making this.

[@kenshe111]

what do you recommend? running windows 10 in rt or just run a android os? very informative video btw, thank youu.

[@whutwhy]

10:42 "ohh god" is every human's nature response to that

[@pooksthepossum]

Got a free 64gb Surface RT from a mate. This tutorial is such a lifesaver and so are you! Breathed new life into this VERY limited tablet from 2012. Now it goes in my bag with my gaming laptop so I can game and use this as a secondary media and entertainment tablet. Awesome, awesome AWESOME! SUB TO THIS MAN!!!!

[@NCXitlali]

Just install Linux

[@pooksthepossum]

@@NCXitlali pretty sure there's no Linux distro able to be installed on the original surface RT. It's a pretty locked down device. That's why this unofficial Windows 10 installation is so important for the otherwise paperweight.

[@NCXitlali]

@@pooksthepossum i see. Makes sense

[@ThePeter567]

I wonder if you can install android on it, since it runs on ARM processors...

[@pooksthepossum]

@@ThePeter567 The only issue with that (I've heard) is driver support on 2012 hardware besides just the Nvidia Tegra chip. Like audio, wireless etc.

[@Vamgothic69]

I can't install microsoft edge or anything with out getting a message saying this app can't run on your pc, how to fix?

[@jackl780]

You made the upgrade look so easy... It's actually super hard and I already tried so many times and all failed to jailbreak....

[@samuelolanrewajufajoyomi5481]

can I still upgrade my Surface RT to windows 10

[@Santicom]

Hey question I’ve had this device for many years now and until now there was no use for it jailbreak wise would this be able to do basic school work? Google docs, drive, slides? I know it will be slower but for sitting on the couch and typing stuff out might be kinda nice. Just wondering before I do it and find out that it can’t even open any of those on edge

[@shuraimedits]

Hi Matthew I did the button things at the beginning but my surface did nothing it went back ti the Windows Rt home screen

[@MaciejSzewczyk-x6w]

Hi! Great video. By the way: where did You get Audacity from?

[@jbach43]

had a quick question, do either of these allow installing 3rd party apps? either the win10 or modified win 8.1. trying to install things like geekbench and all that

[@stephenyates5741]

I clicked the tutorial link and no instructions? Been looking around on betawiki and XDA but not able to find app preload instructions, do you have any updated links?

[@dansantillan956]

I need help. I've been watching the video and for some reason I couldn't see where the part is to download the program. Please advise. Thank you.

[@PAZ_Development]

The Surface RT 8.1 Recovery image download to USB FAT 32 isn't working for me.

[@oSTREAMo]

Win10 is faster than win8.1? I'm doing a factory reset with win8.1 and I could update to win10 only if this is better in terms of agility or it has more software (or update at least) available. What do you recommended?

[@skycamvideo]

Did you install the other parts first ? Or just windows. ?

[@joebratt819]

I've just got mine up and running again with the original system and the Internet explorer won't work it says its been revoked would this solve that

[@lbsiuk]

Do you get graphic drivers with this release? There aren't any online (which makes sense), so I'm wondering if they get auto downloaded from Windows Update however I doubt that they have drivers.

[@uomonordico1313]

What about my Lenovo Yoga 11? it has an ARM 32 processor and windows 8.1? Dows this guide work for that as well?

[@KristianNowak]

for whatever reason when i try to boot into this it just boots into the recovery options thing. do you know how to fix this?

[@just3times]

Hi, thanks for making this video. I managed to install Windows 10 on my rt successfully. Do you know how to remove the enterprise insider preview evaluation copy that's at the bottom right of the screen?

[@matthewscomputers]

Seemingly this should be able to fix it: tweaks.com/windows/36869/remove-windows-versi111n-from-desktop/

[@marcviej.5635]

@@matthewscomputers any apps for it? like a pdf reader? it worked btw thanks

[@johnhensman41]

Matthew - did you ever resolve the product key for Windows 10 installation - upgrading Windows RT 8.1 in your video? I have an ASUS Windows RT 8.1 that is still running, but has a problem with loading https on some websites under IE-11 (do you have a fix for that in a video - advise). Finally, once fully configured for Windows 10 - any other thoughts as to fixing things you mention that were not working. Thanks

[@matthewscomputers]

It just fixed itself after a reboot, I'm not sure why it didn't work initially. Other than that, it seemed to run fine

[@pwp5741]

I feel like some steps or information is missing. Can you verify this by chance? Or an updated video perhaps?

[@ryanpatton1795]

Yeah whats crazy is people are still working on this project even releasing an update to the media builder this month but the documentation is very scarce. I've joined the discord and followed all the links I can find but there really isn't a good walkthrough on any of this. I got one of these for free the other day and it is completely unusable. Webpages wont load, no update available even though its not even running 8.1, store wont load, literally nothing. So I'm going to download the media builder from XDA forums and see what I can do. Not sure its going to work though because there is mentions here and there about disabling secure boot, doing something with UEFI, jailbreaking, this and that... If I can just browse the web or youtube I would be happy at this point lol.

[@LdyPrtrdg]

When I try to run the Build command prompt, I get "Error: Media Builder should not be run from the root directory." do you know how to fix this?

[@SockyNoob]

About damn time RT devices get support.

[@aleksandarbabic1687]

Nice desktop background for windows Where did you find for the download

[@RaduPremium]

any chances to remove the Windows watermark from the corner?

[@z3pedro]

Cool video but I must say: It's so hard to determine if a device is worth what it should be worth. This matter is highly subjective upon the user and her/her perception that at the end of the day all you can say "to each its own". For example, some might think that all the time and expertise is not worth it only to get a device that is "slow" compare to the newer devices and that is "limited" if you can't watch youtube for example. This goes to show you how transient everything really is in the tech world.

[@tanweipeng631]

Hi Matthew, is me again. May I know how to downgrade to windows 8.1 if I had followed your steps where recovery drive also been wiped out?

[@matthewscomputers]

instructions here: old.alexenferman.com/how-to-go-back-to-windows-rt-on-the-surface-rt

[@charleyweinhardt]

Is the security good and updates working? I wouldn't care but I'm thinking about doing this for a paranoid person

[@sannyseth2478]

What can I do to make my surface RT accept other apps like chrome browser? Please help 🙏

[@tracylf5409]

No Chrome for ARM.

[@naveenrathore187]

Hey I installed windows 10 on my surface this way but the thing is nothing works, the buttons don’t, the touch doesn’t, I can’t connect to the internet, and can’t install third party software please anyone help me out

[@El_Jito]

That sounds good, but just one question. Does it support ".exe apps" with windows 10 in it, like illustrator o photoshop? or still needing the windows store to download apps?

[@fluidmind3900]

i wanna know too. thanks

[@yushinlee5466]

Only exe files specifically built for Arm32 would work, which means that almost no commercial software would run.

[@yushinlee5466]

So sadly the bottom line is that even with this version of Windows 10 no programs that run on a normal PC would run on these arm32(rt) devices because the hardware is just not compatible.

[@stevesoares340]

I found the files Now i got one folder with it all Do i unzip it ? What files do i leave on the usb pls

[@hedleyreynolds7211]

Thanks for the video, a note flashed up to say you had found an alternative browser. Any luck?

[@lucian.x]

Can you give me a direct link to the tutorial page, I can't find it.

[@leslyfranco4196]

Is this the way to upgrade it ? I bought one online without even knowing that it was outdated. It will not let me update

[@joshuaareno6344]

Does Zoom through Edge Browser works? I need it for our Online Class

[@moki5796]

Nope, the browser is too old and the device way too slow.

[@Prshfh]

There is a arm client on their website that you can download for these devices

[@Tommy-qe6fh]

@@Prshfh no, x86

[@English_Lessons_Pre-Int_Interm]

I also wanted to give lessons on ZOom with this device or use Skype but I haven't found any solution after half a year. Useless, seems to be. The browser is too old, and you cannot update it. Browser versions are not supported. Help!

[@Maruchipawa]

Get a surface 3

[@muhammadumar88]

Can i upgrade my surface RT

[@chibekakunda4135]

but how do you make make the flash drive bootable am a bit lost I want the tutorial please I have a Microsoft surface rt 32

[@andersonoliveira4717]

I erased the HD by the clean command in cmd. Now I can't access the bot. How to recover? Only the Surface written logo appears on the screen

[@skycamvideo]

Where did you download that windows to flash drive ?

[@johnpaultan8150]

What kind of bootable usb it worked? Uefi or legacy?

[@mfmayes]

where do you get the software from? windows 10 for rt?

[@Ted13122]

my volume up and down buttons are not working what can i do to reinstall it

[@isravale]

help with the audio and wifi driver I already have windows 10 installed

[@alisevkiakyuz4365]

Thank you for this nice tutorial. I was trying to do it but I had a problem with Version 2.4j - 10th May 2023. My tablet gave this EROR "Unsupported Operating System." Any Ideas?

[@nitinlovecom]

Sir my windows RT 2 gb ram 32 G B disk space it possible to install windows 10

[@Steve_travels]

Do Google slides work with the older version of Microsoft Edge?

[@Geon-Harris]

sir can you little more detail on surface rt, on the article it said "Surface RT does not require this but some had to execute Golden key removal to boot Windows 10" My surface wont boot on sub eventho i run the .cmd file from the jailbreak file. i already install golden locker on RT (not from boot) do i need to boot the usb from RT, then install or uninstall the golden key? can you explain. thanks! oh my system was surface RT 8.1. can i use yahallo instead of golden key?

[@Worldwide_Knowledge_TV]

I cannot enter in Boot using Power button and volume 😔 Possibly my USB drive is not bootable

[@ignaciocabreragonzalez3650]

Good Job, Amazing Project. Five stars!

[@priyanshu3384]

Is disabling secure boot is not required here.

[@ThatGuy_Pal]

can you get apple music and google maps?

[@touhami-hm3ks]

can i put windows arm on my redmi pad ? thank u

[@jundaaaaaaaaaa]

I recently reset the device on 8.1 and can’t seem to get 8.1 to activate despite using the activation code that came with the device

[@MotownBatman]

New Sub: Dryden, MI Nice Job Nice iPod 4th Gen Photo with Dock!

[@rdnkenki]

I just ordered one. I'm going to try to use it for rooting and unlocking bootloader on Android phones and web browsing and YT

[@therealfox]

Any luck with anything. My suefacert with win10 is pretty useless. Even youtube won't work.

[@babblfish8038]

i want this wallpaper from the beginning ... whats the name of that pic

[@johnsmith9205]

Can you run any emulators with XBox controller support, e.g. RetroArch or similar?

[@aces2266]

Can you provide the links for those apps?unicorn,telegram etc

[@vinigarciaambrosio]

Can it still play KZbin videos? Via Edge or an app?

[@adrianvaladez3028]

youtube doesn´t work, the only media app that´s usable is netflix

[@M-A-C-]

Once you download the file what do you do with it? Extract it to the USB root?

[@呆呆-k2j]

Hi, I have watched your video and I have two questions for you, can I download chrome if I upgrade to this windows 10? Can I accept Windows Updates?Thanks!

[@therealfox]

Nope you cant, no arm32 chrome and no Updates.

[@呆呆-k2j]

@@therealfox ok,thanks

[@ThePolishOrange]

@@therealfox it has updates for some apps, like xbox or whiteboard that have updates all the way over to 2020

[@AbdAlgani1999]

i cant find link of windows rt 8.1

[@m3lve]

Is it work with Lenovo yoga 11 with win rt?

[@docouchi7929]

Keep it up brotha … let’s do the “impossible”

[@trixxprospere4615]

Is this method still good?

[@martinl7072]

Is it possible to run TEAMS ?

[@minecraftportugalcol]

Works on windows 8.1 RT?

[@pedrob7374]

So wait, won't windows 10 fill the hard drive before you know it?

[@clintrichardsonclintfromny203]

I just found my old surface. It works but Internet Explorer doesnt work great. All I want to do is change the browser to a more modern one. Did this upgrade allow you to use Edge browser? Anything else I need to know?

[@matthewscomputers]

You can use Edge, but it's an old version that came included with this version of Windows 10, not the new version based on Chrome

[@tylerfinses4762]

@@matthewscomputers Do you know if Grafana will load on this version of Edge? The only use I have for my old Surface RT is as a Grafana dashboard. Unfortunately Grafana does not work on IE

[@ebikuro6565]

Please how do I get the installer file

[@alexandrelaplante4894]

Does Onedrive work on this Windows 10 version ?

[@thisthingmint250]

The surface RT running 10 requires microsoft store apps with the phone logo aka mobile supported apps

[@davidw1019]

What are the chances this woukd work on the Nokia Lumia 2520 which also runs Windows 8.1 RT, similar hardware Snapdragon 800 2GB Ram etc.

[@EFIShell]

Yes

[@davidw1019]

@@EFIShell OK if so then how haha

[@EFIShell]

@@davidw1019 EDK2 UEFI porting

[@davidw1019]

@@EFIShell is there a KZbin guide on how to do this because I've not single a single instance online anywhere of peoole running Android on these. I don't want to risk bricking the device.

[@iamlightfoot]

Thanks Bro;My Buddy just gave Me one of these Units;The Surface Model #1516;I just might check that Windows 10 install out! Thanks again! ✌

[@user-om2gx9oc4g]

A guy ripped me off selling this device, telling me it support Google sheets.. can It support Google sheets if I do this?

[@ThePolishOrange]

Depends on edge.

[@someidiot4311]

With windows you MAY be able to install a more modern browser if old edge doesn't work. And if that doesn't work, Linux can always run a good browser.

[@reverymusic]

Lmfaooooo I love the energy of "I got the ISO on this usb here" * T O S S E S I T *

[@lucasarcanjo887]

Can you update the version of Windows 10 to 21h2 through Windows Update?

[@leontechtalks]

Nope. This version was a leaked version.

[@dbcrypto6142]

Bro whered you find those speakers i lost them back in 2001 XD Lol JK Dude great video, just got a used surface for $35 mainly for web browsing, reading, and watching youtube while i game

[@msa_1992]

Other exe install option ?

[@alyoofkova9627]

I was wondering if I could perform it on my Lumia 2520 (I did jailbreaked it properly thanks to not updating it to RT8.1 xD)... Snap is just fucked up compared to Tegra btw.

[@matthewscomputers]

Afaik no but considering how similar they are it's almost certainly possible

[@Plamen608]

I can't go into the bios.Why?

[@cbk12]

Will chrome work with this upgrade?

[@sali-ali]

no

[@tonij6986]

I tried it n the windows store is'nt working at all even tho i included the apps modkit while creating the iso. I have downgraded to windows 8.1 and then windows 8 but still the store is'nt working at all. any possible fix?

[@matthewscomputers]

what do you mean exactly? does the app launch and just not load?

[@tonij6986]

@@matthewscomputers on win 8 it says pc isnt connect to the internet. i tried vpn still doesnt work. on win 8.1 it launches but i can't download any apps it says connection is slow n try another network and on windows 10 it launches n comes with can't access store. additionally it doesnt fetch emails and updates. i managed to get the updates by cmd but still doesnt work

[@matthewscomputers]

the store on win 8 is probably too old to work and on win 10 a lot of apps require a newer version. look on the discord in the description of this video there’s a lot of apps people are linking that work

[@monkeypolicd]

Exactly wat i am looking for.

[@EddyKorgo]

Does the play Store work?

[@cheaplife2320]

thanks mate just what I needed

[@steimystein4368]

Can I install third party apps like the Behringer x-edit mixer app?

[@matthewscomputers]

As long as they are compatible with 32-bit ARM but almost no programs are.

[@steimystein4368]

So I've found. I have a RT tablet and I only purchased it to use as a control device for my mixer. I should have done my homework on it before I purchased it.

[@Voyager5171]

Can u try watching KZbin through a proxy site ?

[@U_n_k_n_o_w_n5003]

apps file?

[@ramshacks9493]

It’s 2022 and Microsoft has made windows 10 64bit and 32bit on their site to download I plan on buying one and I’m going to try to install windows 10 32bit and then install windows 11 I’ve done it on a 32bit laptop so I’m hoping I can do the process again

[@QTechman]

thanks Matthews good job

[@brianmartineztorres9683]

someone has the solution for windows store atore in windows 10?

[@liliasara4489]

Does it support Linux Mint easily and how to use KZbin ED in RT system difficult؟؟

[@tanweipeng631]

Hi, may I know is touch working?

[@matthewscomputers]

yea working fine

[@tanweipeng631]

@@matthewscomputers Thanks, I had tried it myself, but unfortunately microsoft office is not included, may I know how you had the microsoft office installed while boot up?

[@matthewscomputers]

the instructions are on the xda thread: forum.xda-developers.com/t/windows-10-build-15035-media-builder.4232301/