Windows RT

Windows for ARM tablets that could not run Windows programs

Shut down
19902026

Windows RT was the edition of Windows 8 for ARM tablets, launched with Microsoft's first Surface on 26 October 2012 and sold on devices from Asus, Dell, Lenovo, Samsung and Nokia. It had the Windows desktop and Office but ran only Windows Store apps, which confused buyers and doomed sales; Microsoft wrote off $900 million of Surface RT in 2013 and partners abandoned it. The last device was discontinued in 2015 and support ended on 10 January 2023.

Timeline [edit]

  1. 2011
  2. 5 January 2011 Feature
    Windows on ARM is shown at CES

    The project that becomes Windows RT.

  3. 2012
  4. 26 October 2012 Launch
    Windows RT launches with the Surface

    $499, Office included, Store apps only.

  5. 2013
  6. 18 July 2013 Decline
    The $900 million write-off

    Unsold Surface RT stock; the price is cut by $150.

  7. 22 October 2013 Version
    Surface 2 and Windows RT 8.1

    The last significant RT device.

  8. 26 November 2013 Decline
    "Not going to have three"

    Julie Larson-Green signals the end of RT.

  9. 2015
  10. January 2015 Decline
    The Surface 2 is discontinued

    No RT device remains in production.

  11. 16 September 2015 Version
    Windows RT 8.1 Update 3

    A Start menu instead of Windows 10.

  12. 2023
  13. 10 January 2023 Shutdown
    End of support

    Windows RT 8.1 leaves extended support.

The site through time

Browse microsoft.com as it was, via the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine:

2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2023 Full archive →

Ownership [edit]

Microsoft 2012–2023 Founded Developed by Microsoft; shipped on Surface and partner tablets

Why it shut down [edit]

Official line: Windows RT looked like Windows 8 but ran only Store apps, and buyers who could not install their programs returned the tablets; Microsoft wrote off $900 million of unsold Surface RT stock in July 2013 and every other manufacturer had left by 2014. Microsoft stopped making the Surface 2 in January 2015, gave RT a token final update in September 2015 instead of Windows 10, and ended support for Windows RT 8.1 on 10 January 2023.

Our analysis: Windows RT was Microsoft's attempt to have an iPad-style locked-down tablet and the Windows brand at the same time, and it got the worst of both: a full Windows desktop on the screen with almost nothing that would run on it. Customers, and Microsoft's own store staff, could not tell it apart from Windows 8 until they tried to install something. The idea, Windows on ARM, was right and came back in 2017; the name did not.

History [edit]

Windows on ARM, sort of

Microsoft showed Windows running on ARM chips at CES 2011 and named the product Windows RT in April 2012: Windows 8 for tablets built on the same low-power processors as phones, with long battery life, thin hardware and a preloaded Office. The catch was that it could run only apps from the new Windows Store, written for the tile-based interface; the desktop was there, and Office ran on it, but no other Windows program ever would. Microsoft launched it on 26 October 2012 with the Surface, its first own-brand computer, at $499, alongside Windows 8 for ordinary PCs. Asus, Dell, Lenovo and Samsung shipped RT tablets too, and Nokia added the Lumia 2520 in 2013.

Nobody knew what it was

Reviewers found the hardware good and the proposition baffling, and customers agreed once they tried to install iTunes or a printer driver. Microsoft's own store staff struggled to explain the difference from Windows 8. Sales were poor from the start; Samsung and HTC pulled out within months, Dell and Lenovo followed, and in July 2013 Microsoft took a $900 million charge for unsold Surface RT inventory and cut its price by $150. In November 2013 Julie Larson-Green, who ran devices, said Microsoft would not keep three operating systems, and everyone understood which one would go.

The long tail

The Surface 2 of October 2013 was the last significant RT device, and Microsoft stopped making it in January 2015. When Windows 10 arrived that summer, RT devices did not get it; instead Windows RT 8.1 Update 3 in September 2015 added a Start menu and nothing else. Mainstream support ended in January 2018 and extended support on 10 January 2023, and the tablets became museum pieces that still turn on. Microsoft brought Windows back to ARM in 2017 with emulation for ordinary programs, which is what RT had needed in the first place.

The domain today

microsoft.com carries the Windows RT lifecycle page and little else about it.

Similar projects

BlackBerry OS The keyboard that ran the world 1999–2022 Windows Phone The tiles nobody wrote apps for 2010–2019 Palm OS The organiser in your pocket that taught phones to be computers 1996–2009 Symbian Ran most of the world's smartphones, then burned with the platform 1998–2014 Windows Mobile A tiny Windows with a Start button, reset to zero by its own maker 2000–2012 Firefox OS The web as an operating system, aimed at $25 phones 2013–2016

Sources [edit]

  1. The Windows RT review AnandTech 25 October 2012 [archived]
  2. Microsoft lost $900 million on Surface RT IGN 18 July 2013 [archived]
  3. Microsoft could kill Windows RT, Larson-Green suggests The Guardian 26 November 2013
  4. Windows RT gets a Start menu of its own in Windows RT 8.1 Update 3 Ars Technica 16 September 2015 [archived]
  5. Windows RT lifecycle Microsoft 10 January 2023 [archived]

Last verified: 15 August 2026. Spotted an error? Suggest an edit (corrections with sources are reviewed and applied).