It depends on how you have set up your device.
- If you've installed Windows and Android™, without the Dual Boot package (so you use a PC to boot to Windows), then:
Yes! Feel free to do so. All Android™ updates until now have worked fine even if Windows was installed.
- If you have installed the Dual Boot package:
Yes, but you'll have to follow the Dual Boot guide again. The boot image needs to be adapted for each Android™ version that gets released. Please note that after updating Android™, you won't be able to boot it anymore until you follow the guide again.
Short Answer: no we don't, but we also think they did not. The shipping Surface Duo device we all have is a Snapdragon™ 855 based device. The maker of this SoC, Qualcomm Technologies Inc., is the one making the bulk of the drivers to support the SoC, with the rest left to the OEM for their specific hardware. The rumored "Codename Andromeda" device, previously reported on sites like WindowsCentral.com, was a Snapdragon™ 845 based device. The Snapdragon™ 845 device does have official Windows support from Qualcomm Technologies Inc. (see all Laptops with Snapdragon™ 850 that were sold in 2019) and therefore had Windows support. No Snapdragon™ 855 device ever did officially, and thus no Windows support could have potentially existed for Surface Duo we have today.
If Qualcomm Technologies Inc. never offered support for the Snapdragon™ 855, then why is this project even a thing?
As common in the chip industry, Chip designs rarely are entirely different in a whole chip generation. The Snapdragon™ 855 is part of the same generation of chips as the Snapdragon™ 8cx and Microsoft SQ1. Differences between these chips aren't a lot, but are enough for the drivers to also not work on the 855. That's why this is sort of possible.
We won't comment on the blame part, nobody is to blame. At the end of the day you need to ship a successful product to consumers, something people will want to use as a phone. We think Android™ was the best choice in that regard. It doesn't prevent us from wanting to also run Windows on here for fun purposes, and eventually real usage. As to whenever Microsoft Corporation could have done this officially, we don't think so. This would cost too much engineering resources for something extremely niche, and would have required shell adaptations, and a dedicated support team for this alone, it's simply not worth it to offer both options in our mind. Also where's the fun in getting Windows on a device when it already runs it? :)
Yes.
We'll be happy to talk to you on our telegram channel: https://t.me/DuoWOA, note, you can help us with more than driver work, a lot of work is needed as well with documentation, support for the community, testing, developping apps, making a better shell, etc. We welcome any kind of help.
No, but we regularly share our contributions to the team behind the WOA msmnile and Renegade Project, whose job is to do it for all kinds of other existing Android™ Devices.
Because we can, that's honestly the best answer we can give you at the moment. Also memes are fun? :) Also boring phone slabs and tablet slabs are indeed boring. The Surface Duo form factor is something very nice to work with, and something I really wanted to see with Windows or other Operating Systems. That's really the only reason.
We won't spoil anything.
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Snapdragon is a registered trademark of Qualcomm Incorporated. Microsoft, the Microsoft Corporate Logo, Windows, Surface, Surface Duo, Windows Hello, Continuum, Hyper-V, and DirectX are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States. Android is a registered trademark of Google LLC. Miracast is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Other binaries may be copyright Qualcomm Incorporated and Microsoft Surface.
Limited emergency calling
Running Windows on your Surface Duo is not a replacement for a proper phone operating system and does not have emergency calling capabilities.
Hello from Seattle (US), France, Italy.