[Windows RT General] Chaos Storm:
I thought I would add a small review/editorial on my experience with the Windows 10 Media Builder posted here on XDA for the Surface RT. Specifically, the unit I have is a Surface 2, which based on some reading is actually the preferred unit to run Windows 10 on for a few reasons.

First, although the Surface 2 was a bit of a mixed bag with RT 8.1 and jailbreaking, for Windows 10 it's super easy. The install all happens from one USB, and I actually was nervous the first time around but it works great. The USB works great, as long as you follow directions and trust the selections you made.

I chose to build the Bootable Media with only the minimum apps and Office. I also chose the modified 8.1 Recovery method which essentially means I had to do no modding, it's pretty basic. All you have to do is hold the key sequence for boot from USB and the installer walks you through the rest. My installer fit on an old 4GB USB using ESD compression.

Once in Windows, everything worked fine, no major issues. My 128GB MicroSD (see note below for upgrades) card was detected, and I was able to install apps from the Store, including VLC and a few music apps etc. Touch works as does the keyboard, although keyboards from that area often have to be "jimmied" a bit before they recognize, something to do with the pogo pins. I don't use it often, I prefer touch.

Windows 10 is a HUGE leap forward for the RT, as it gives more modern creature comforts like a more up to date Powershell, plus a (slightly) newer browser with Edge Legacy. Also, as Windows 10 is auto setup in Test Mode, you can sideload apps much easier. I recommend if you run a Surface RT in 10, that you learn how to use https://store.rg-adguard.net/ to create local backups of RT apps, because there is no telling when publishers (or Microsoft) will phase them out of the app store. With 10 RT installing from a downloaded file is trivial and will save you if you have to reload down the road.

My RT does get hot while using it, but if I had to hazard a guess I would say the SOC probably is in the range of 40-60 during use, which is reasonable given what is being expected of the SOC. The Surface 2 has a newer generation SOC (Tegra 4) so it does have a performance edge in Windows 10.

I gave up having the Surface as a web browser/internet device. It's too old, and the software support just isn't there. I use it for watching videos, playing a few games like card games etc. So, a "media" device. For that it works great. I also was nervous because I just purchased a 256GB MicroSD, but am glad to report it works fine. I would have tried a 512GB (and pretty sure it would work) but the price was above what I was comfortable paying.

I haven't done any in depth testing as far as codecs that can/should play, as I have typically taken my media library and encoded it to H264 480p 30fps because I used to use an old Android tablet with weak specs and a single 128GB card, so space and CPU power was an issue. I don't know what the practical limits are, but don't expect H265 to work, I forgot I still had some in my library and as expected, they lagged bad in VLC. Most of my media is Anime shows I imported from Japan, so Anime isn't hit as hard for low res due to it's color pallete and art style. But I also haven't tested higher resolutions just yet.

One nice thing in Windows 10 is background tasks are handled so much better. In Windows 8.1 if I was playing music and the unit timed out (no keyboard/mouse/touch input) the music would continue to play for a bit but stop...only to start again if I "woke it up" by pressing power button. With Windows 10, it keeps playing even when the screen is off. So that works way better for me.

Since MS has now officially ended support for Windows 8.1, (including store support) it's essentially end of the road for 8.1 and any benefits (in my opinion) of 8.1 is essentially gone, especially for RT 2 users who have to take specific steps to jailbreak as opposed to original RT units.

My unit stays plugged in and I use it as a bedside entertainment media device, so it works for what I need it for.

As far as the future, I've Googled quite a bit, and sadly, there is no real path forward. Around the time this beta of 10 was released, Microsoft shipped it's first versions of Linux subsystem, but ARM didn't get those releases, so there is no way to use the Linux subsystem to maybe get more apps working via Linux. I searched and found out that Windows does have WOW32 for ARM, but it is limited to ARM64, and that really doesn't help us. I also thought maybe there was a glimmer of hope for Edge Chromium or Edge (Legacy) that shipped on Samsung devices with Windows 10 ARM, but sadly those devices emulate 32Bit x86, and don't run native ARM32 except for what might be available from the store. Microsoft now calls ARM64 "ARM" so this leads to many false positives.

The two leads that *might* work are Bochs and QEMU. I'm currently testing Bochs to see if I can get a Android x86 Live ISO to boot. It wouldn't be pretty but maybe, one could get a version of Chromium or even Firefox mobile running in emulation. It's a long road and I don't have much free time. Also, the current available version of Bochs for RT is missing BIOS files, so you need to grab those and mess with config files. It's still panacking on mine...so still no way forward.

QEMU. The thing is, it's beyond my technical ability, but it might be able to use some sort of "VM" to run paralel code. But, the problem is, someone would have to port it to RT, and second, most of the whitepapers and research on "ARM on ARM' refer to ARM64 and datacenters on Linux...not exactly what we are looking for. We don't even know if Microsoft enasbled those bits or if the Tegra 3/4 even support "VM". So, that likely would be a dead end.

I'm not bummed. I'll use my device as a media player and enjoy it for that.