It's full Windows, just compiled for ARM instead of x86. Now, as some of you might already know, the Surface Pro X is an ARM-based Windows tablet.

The interesting thing, though, is that it hadn't been opened yet, which tells me that whatever the plan was for it didn't end up happening. Chances are, it was for some specific one-off use and then shelved and never bothered with again. Recently, I stumbled across an unopened box for a Surface Pro X in our inventory, and nobody knew what it was for. After all, part of being good at managing endpoints is developing a good understanding of them through direct experience. At some point or another, I've gotten to play with all of these kinds of devices, just to see how they work. Of course, you've got your iPads, iPhones, macOS devices, Windows devices, and even some Androids too! Your Macs might be based on x86 or ARM, your Windows PCs will almost always be based on x86, and your mobile devices (tablets and phones) are pretty much all based on ARM.

I must warn you, here be dragons.Īs the endpoint guy, I get to play with a lot of different devices. Honestly, I think a better title for this article might have been 'The most advanced bit of black magic fuckery I've ever done to get an operating system to work'. Prepare yourselves for the tale of the most absurd journey I've ever undertaken to get an endpoint to work.

Surface pro x windows 10 pro