Current generation consoles use the exact same architecture as PCs (x86-64), so it may have crossed your mind: can Windows be installed on a PS4 or Xbox One console and used as a PC? Of course it would be ideal, because you would have a pretty decent gaming PC for just 300 euros .
This makes special sense when it comes to the Xbox One, since it is made by the same manufacturer that develops the Windows operating system, right? Especially when Microsoft boast of their “universal platform”, with which they intend to unify their entire ecosystem of hardware and software products.
So can a console be used as a Windows PC ?
Why can’t you install Windows on a console
Each console has its own custom operating system, and although modified versions of Linux can be installed in some cases , it is a really hard job and with a lot of trouble tickets, so it is not viable at all.
It is clear that neither SONY nor Microsoft want to sell their consoles, which cost around 300 euros, for people to use as a cheap gaming PC. They sell the console for you to use as a console, and for you to buy their games.
For this reason, Microsoft already made it clear that it had implemented a system in Xbox 360 (DRM – Digital Rights Management) to prevent the modification of the console, something that SONY also did in theirs (PS3 at that time). This same system has been inherited by PS4 and Xbox One, and of course PS5 and Xbox Series X will.
But DRM is not only about software, it has also been implemented in the form of hardware modifications. Continuing with the example of the Xbox, although it is an x86-64 architecture just like PCs it has a huge layer of customization just above the architecture that makes its hardware directly incompatible with Windows .
For example, the Southbridge of the Xbox One (it is the chip that connects the CPU to the input and output devices such as USB or the network card) is a custom design by Microsoft that requires drivers written specifically for it, and that the system Windows operating literally does not understand.
In the case of PS5 and XSX it is very similar, but we also have to bear in mind that the iGPU goes inside the SoC itself and that now the GDDR6 also have error correction with the memory controllers, therefore they need a specific coding for them, complicating everything a little more.
The same is reflected in the Northbridge, located inside the processor die and which is responsible for connecting the CPU cores to the memory, as well as the SMC (system management controller), responsible for the basic functions of the hardware, such as the control of fans, status indicator LEDs or temperature sensors. All this cannot directly work in Windows because it does not understand the drivers, which are also specific to the console.
So it just can’t be done?
Virtually yes that would be possible, but you would have to make modifications at the Windows kernel level (it is the part of the operating system that, among other things, is responsible for communicating the operating system with the hardware) so that they can link with the hardware of the console.
Typically, there is a “layer” called a “hardware abstraction layer” (HAL) in BIOS that is placed between the kernel and hardware so that they can understand and communicate with each other, and multiple HALs are required for an operating system to work with. different types of hardware. Since there is no HAL in Windows for Xbox or PS4, for Windows to work on the console we would have to write the HAL from scratch.
But, in addition to that, we would find the impediments that we have already talked about (specific drivers, DRM, etc.) plus another additional one, and that is that both the Xbox and the PlayStation have a very different starting sequence than the one. you have a PC when you turn it on, and this would make Windows not directly know how to boot into a console.
In the case of Xbox, another impediment must be added, and that is that while Windows uses a file system called NTFS, Xbox uses another called Fat X and, in fact, the BIOS of Microsoft consoles does not even support NTFS.
In short, both Microsoft and SONY have put all the impediments that were in their power so that we can NOT use Windows on their console in any way. As we mentioned before, it would be a “bargain” for users to buy a console for 300 euros and turn it into a gaming PC just by installing Windows.
