Key Takeaways
- There’s an unofficial fix in the works for Windows Subsystem for Android not booting on Surface devices.
- @sinclairinat0r on X discovered that newer Snapdragon chips can’t run the Armv7 binary needed for WSA.
- Even though WSA is losing support in March 2025, unofficial patches may keep it going thanks to users like @sinclairinat0r.
Have you tried using the Windows Subsystem for Android (WSA) on a Surface device? If you have, you may have noticed that you can install WSA just fine. However, no matter what you try, it will refuse to boot. Fortunately, someone has figured out the issue as to why WSA isn’t acting as it should, and an unofficial fix is in the works.
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WSA on Surface devices is getting an unofficial fix
The upcoming fix was spotted by Reddit user RealThatStella7922 on the unofficial Surface subreddit. In a thread titled “Regarding WSA on Snapdragon X Plus/Elite Surface devices,” they point to the work of @sinclairinat0r on X, who was bothered as to why WSA wouldn’t run on a Surface device.
As it turns out, the reason WSA doesn’t work on current Surface devices is that it uses a 32-bit ARM binary called Armv7 in its boot process. Previous Snapdragon chips were fine with running these, but the new Snapdragon X Plus and Elite do not. As such, when the chip encounters Armv7 when booting up WSA, it doesn’t know what to do with it and crashes. And now that @sinclairinat0r knows what’s wrong, they’re working on instructions on how to get around it.
People in the Reddit thread point out that WSA isn’t long for this world, given that it’s losing support in March 2025. However, people are optimistic that others will keep WSA ticking over with unofficial patches. And if people like @sinclairinat0r are on the case, perhaps people won’t need to worry about WSA going away anytime soon.