An insider's preview of Windows 11 is now available. That means enthusiasts and hackers are already doing weird and wonderful things. Cell phones with Microsoft's unreleased OS built in don't work very well and can't make calls, but they do work.

And for some, that's reason enough. [Windows 11 is obviously designed for traditional PC platforms like desktop and laptop PCs, but it also has the lucrative tablet market in mind, with not only ARM (Snapdragon) processors, but also Intel and AMD x86 CPUs Support. [This is because the OS can now be installed on more powerful smartphones with Snapdragon 845 and 855 chips.

Phones like the OnePlus 6T and Xiaomi Mi 8 are testbeds for the project "Renegade," and developers have already successfully booted the OS on these devices. Phone functionality is not part of Windows 11's mandate, so don't expect too much from such a project. Still, I applaud Xilin Wu and the rest of the Renegade team for getting this far.

Meanwhile, another enterprising developer, Gustave Monce, has successfully installed the Windows 11 preview version on a Windows Phone, namely the Microsoft Lumia 950 XL. Microsoft discontinued its own Windows Phone program in 2017, but here it is running a full Windows 11 installation in 2021. The phone can also make calls and send and receive messages after developers ported drivers from Windows 10 Mobile.

Windows 11 has been included in many desktop and laptop PCs as well as the Raspberry Pi 4. Some PCs have stated that they are not compatible with Windows 11 without a few tweaks to the UEFI/BIOS, but if a developer can get it to work on a cell phone, it may be worth the effort to get it to work on a gaming PC.