Can I run Windows XP or Windows Vista on my Sony PSP?

My friend was showing me a copy of Windows XP running on his Sony PSP and I'm gr33n with envy! How do I download Winxp onto my own Sony Playstation Portable? For that matter, can I get a copy of Windows Vista for my PSP?

Dave's Answer:

This is an amazingly common question, actually, and the answer may disappoint you: you can't run any version of Windows on your PSP. Your friend has a "mockup" of Windows where hackers have managed to tweak the icons and graphics in the PSP operating system itself, but they cannot run Windows itself on the device because the Sony PSP is not a PC.

Having said that, there are some pretty fun mockups out there, including pspWxp which features the following screen shot:

The truth is clearly spelled out at the download.com page for PspWxp, where it says: "PspWxp stands for PlayStation Portable Windows XP (based off of winpsportal) and allows you to use Windows XP on your Playstation Portable. Well, really it is just a set of Webpages that look similar to Windows XP, but they are offline. It has some useful features lots of games and applications. You do not need to access the Internet for most of pspWxp, only to access the links and use the Web browser."

Sites like PSP411 also list mockup skins too, including this recent article about the Windows Vista version of pspWxp. Again, though, it's just obfuscating, because the fact is you can't run any version of Windows on your PSP because it's not a PC.

Nonetheless, while I haven't tried this emulator and generally shun any third-party software that monkeys with my Sony PSP, the reviews of pspWxp are very good so if you are feeling daring you might want to try it out for yourself and see how it works!

Digging around I'm not entirely right here. Apparently you can hack the heck out of your PSP, drop an emulator called Bochs onto it, then more or less run Linux or Windows 95 on your device. If you are feeling very adventurous, check out Hacking Windows onto the PSP for details.

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Categorized: iPod, Sony PSP and MP3 Player Help (Article 7381, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: microsoft windows xp, sony psp, windows vista, winxp
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Reader Comments To Date: 44

KayLecia said, on May 18, 2007 5:32 PM:

Hi Dave,
For some reason I can't get the internet to work on my PSP using the USB cable. I tried to do this on a library computer and it worked perfectly, but for some reason it won't work on mine. I thought at first it could be my internet settings but that doesn't seem to be the problem (I have Windows XP). Could you please tell me your input on this problem.

Callum said, on May 22, 2007 1:15 PM:

Sony PSPs use WLAN to connect to the internet, as far as I know its impossible to access the internet via the USB cable. You may need to check that you were not connected to your libarys wireless access point.

Overseer said, on June 3, 2007 7:31 AM:

You can run windows on a psp well just windows 95, linux and mac os 7 and 8, it uses a converted x86 emulator called bochs (http://www.hacker.co.il/psp/bochs/), sorry to prove that little bit wrong, but its only a matter of time before any os can be ran on a console exept the DS that sucks.

james said, on July 21, 2007 6:27 PM:

hello, my question is, if i own the game , is it legal to make a iso to run on my psp,not to share with others, but for my own personal use??thanks

deknexkes said, on August 21, 2007 11:18 AM:

I get a message saying "The content connot be displayed"

KOOL said, on October 2, 2007 9:30 AM:

pls dave thk for ur work pls where you put the winxp on the psp memory card

jfarre20 said, on November 12, 2007 2:51 PM:

You can run an xp-like os on the psp!
Use BOCHS and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's- i'm serious, this exists! Look it up on google if you dont believe me!
It will be just like xp!

can't get pspwxp to work said, on December 28, 2007 4:55 PM:

hi I got pspwxp from download.com put it on my psp and put in the url for it in the browser.
It says content cannot be displayed.

gerald said, on February 1, 2008 8:59 AM:

i cant get windows xp on my psp, why is that?

lakhvir said, on February 15, 2008 9:02 AM:

hi i cant put xp window in my psp its say the content cannot displayed why tell me about this how can i solve this problem

Justa Nother Guy said, on March 4, 2008 4:52 PM:

It is possible to run windows 95.
There is a video on youtube that shows how to do it and includes all the materials. I dont know it off hand, but do some searching on youtube

Its real, i have it.
I have a win 95 computer and a vista

DJKMan said, on March 19, 2008 5:52 PM:

Dave, First of all, PSPwxp, made by Blazebyte.net, is just a portal. It is not an emulator. It is a series of high res images coded in HTML that look and feel just like a Vista or XP. They are still working on the project and it is going pretty well. I know for sure because I am a member there and I help out a lot.

Second of all, you should try homebrew. Homebrew or 3rd party apps as you say it is completely safe on the psp. You must be out of your mind to think your psp can be destroyed by a 3rd Party app. It is not Windows you know. :P Simply download from a trusted source such as QJ.net's download page, dl.qj.net, to download safe programs. Homebrew can really change your life and see how powerful and fun your psp really is. With homebrew, you can literally play any game system dating from the PSOne and N64 and back. There are still more developers porting new things everyday. It is so easy that there are new developers coming every week. :D

I also have a website that is entirely on this. There are developers constantly working on porting every version of Windows, the actual Windows, to a psp. The only requirements are to have a custom firmware installed on the psp (help is available in the forum on my website) and at least 256 MB to be able to run everything. A 32 MB memory stick will work but just barely. Go here http://pspadvice.googlepages.com and scroll down to go to the forum to check out the progress on the projects. So far they have successfully ported Windows 95 and Windows 3.1 at full speed. They are now working on Windows 98 and WXP.

P.S. If you think it is impossible to run WXP on the psp, think again. Turns out that it is possible with a modified WXP. They are using their own emulator that is much faster than BOCH. It is called DBS (created by one of my members, Gaby). Don't believe me? Go look in the forum then. You will change your mind. I know it. :D

jacob wolfe said, on April 4, 2008 12:09 PM:

can u guys help me how to put the windows on my psp. befor i trad it.for an ipod

EDgar GArcia said, on April 20, 2008 12:55 PM:

is this legal? i wanna put this on my PSP but i scared that i might get arrested

Joe Cusco said, on April 23, 2008 5:00 PM:

Ok, Dave, you are wrong here, and DJKman is definitely right. If you have hacked your PSP, have custom firmware, or have the 1.50 kernel addon, you CAN run windows. All the info you need is here.

http://djkman.freesmfhosting.com/index.php/topic,8.0.html

The project is rapidly growing, and for a project only 3-4 months old, it has had incredible sucess. They have however, finished windows 3.1, 95, and 98, but i think that they removed the link to the WORKING Dosbox, and replaced it with an alert warning that that the new one is not finished. If that is the case, email me and i will upload the old working Dosbox. The only difference is that the new one can run all windows (except vista), however, the site doesnt have the .img's for those OS's yet... i think...

Gilligan said, on May 4, 2008 10:09 PM:

Your actually wrong about the "Not Able To Run Windows On A PSP" thing. You can with DosBOX or BOCHS emulators. people have managed to run 3.1, 95,
and 98 on a PSP.

jj said, on July 8, 2008 2:30 PM:

hey this worked but it wont let me click the links..? do you happen to know why

KZB said, on July 8, 2008 5:31 PM:

Hey running an OS on PSP is possible with the new homebrew called DOSBOX. I've managed to run Win95,Win98 and Win 3.1 on it. They are the real OS not just a portal... They're just a bit slow because it's on the PSP and they aren't really easy to use... You just have to find the ".img" files for the OS you want to run.

Kwaku Boateng said, on September 1, 2008 7:27 AM:

How do i get access to the pspwindowsvista download.

secret said, on October 16, 2008 6:36 PM:

actauly you can with cfw you can run windows 3.1 to widows 98 with boch or dosbox

DJKMan said, on October 20, 2008 9:51 PM:

And I forgot to mention Joe. :D

Anyway, you can find the latest releases on the new site ready to be downloaded.

By the way, we also offer to help anyone with any problem for free (the way it should be.) :)
http://psp.wijou.com

I hope this will change your mind, Dave. :D

DJKMan said, on October 20, 2008 9:54 PM:

What? I posted something before that last message. ???

I'll type it again.

If anyone is still interested in the project visit the new official site. You can also grab a copy of Mac OS 8.1 for your psp ready-made. :)

Bikram said, on November 2, 2008 9:42 PM:

What the hell is this????? Of course you can run windows on the psp. I would know, I can run Windows 3.5, 95, 98 and xp on mine. All you need is a homebrew compatible psp and something called dosbox. Come on Dave!

MASTERFROMPOLAND said, on November 19, 2008 4:46 AM:

IDIOTS !!!! YOU CAN RUN WINDOWS 3.11, 95 and 98 ON YOUR PSP USING FOR EXAMPLE DOSBOX !!!!!! THIS PROGRAM CAN RUN DOS GAMES, BUT CAN RUN WINDOWS FROM DRIVE IMAGE !!( PSP HAVE TOO SMALL RAM MEMORY TO GOOD PLAYING WINDOWS ) ;)

josh said, on December 16, 2008 2:13 AM:

dave your worng my psp in unhacked and i have windows xp on it

me said, on December 28, 2008 10:22 PM:

You can run windows on the psp. How do you have a website on computer technology without knowing that

kmfwe' said, on February 1, 2009 5:20 AM:

Okay... Here's how to run windows on your (probably custom firmware). Go to www.isohunt.com. Type (I'm not sure, but it's either one of these) "Dosbox" or "Dosbox win 95.img. If you want to (and you probably should) run windows faster, press select on the XMB (mainscreen) and change both speed into 366. Now, run Dosbox and press Left and X. Then press triangle and (1). Than, press triangle and (2).Idiots probably don't understand, so go to www.google.ca and type how to use dosbox. For other windows image, make them yourself. (www.google.ca, and type windows _____ dosbox image. There is not much img file uploaded though. P.S if you try to make them (img) yourself, don't.)

vfhfgh said, on February 26, 2009 9:52 AM:

I get a message saying "The content connot be displayed"

Taylor said, on March 20, 2009 5:56 PM:

I get a message saying "The content connot be displayed"

a said, on April 8, 2009 2:22 PM:

meh. It says "Content cannot be displayed" :/

kurt said, on June 2, 2009 9:14 PM:

ok u can't run windows on a psp but can run things that make it look like and act like windows

if u get windows working on a psp awsome

kurt said, on June 2, 2009 9:27 PM:

sorry didnt make that clear ok what dave guy is talking about is the portals ok u cant run a os but u can run things that make it look like and act like it and daves right on some things he worng about the u have to a hack psp u don't i have unhack one it runs pspxp and x5 works but there portals
now if the looking acting u need a hacked psp and custom fireware i do not have that so yea

adilrahmankhan said, on July 26, 2009 1:58 AM:

hi dave i have put window vista in my psp but when i wrote the code on my psp web browser it does'nt work it says the content cannot be displayed what shouldi do.....!!!!!!

al said, on August 16, 2009 3:45 AM:

is it possible to down load pspwxp straight to you psp through wlan....

Adam said, on November 25, 2009 10:59 AM:

for your info u can run windows 3.1 and windows 98 OS on psp using dosbox app they are the Full OS.
There Dont Run At Full Speed But That Fact Of the Matter Is U Can Still Run These Windows OSs On The PSP

Mikael said, on January 1, 2010 1:21 PM:

c'mon guys give dave a break, maybe he's not into consoles.
and btw, i see little reason why i would run windows on my psp. its slower so it's not like i can play my windows games on it.

Brian said, on January 30, 2010 9:27 PM:

I'm sorry,I don't mean to sound rude,but i just wanted to put this out there.I can,and currently do,run Windows 95 on my PSP,through PSP-dosbox.I "googled" if could run any higher versions of Windows on the PSP,and this is what came up.I know for a fact it isn't a portal,but actual full blown,and legit verified,Windows 95 straight from disc.So,I'm still wondering why it isn't possible for the PSP to run Windows XP,is it RAM issues?

jules said, on February 6, 2010 3:33 PM:

Can someone tell me if we can download & install specific software (such as iTunes:listed on the 2nd page), which is missing its content within the PSPhone? If so, can anyone suggest exactly where within the folders I can download and install this other than the "root" folder? Or, is it depending on where the PSPhone application was installed? Did that make sense? Sorry guys/gals... newbie.

jules said, on February 6, 2010 3:52 PM:

Hi again.
One more question: How come my son can have twice the amount of files (movies, songs, games, etc.) & surf the web on his PSP2000 (includes a 2GB Memory StickPro Duo)?
I, myself on the other hand can't seem to surf the web as much without having to clear the cache files, let alone download more than 2-3 movie titles, songs, games, etc.
Plus, I have a newer version (PSP3000) with a 4GB Memory StickPro Duo. He claims that he hasn't installed any third-party software (Brew) nor has he even tweaked / hacked into it. Could it be that Sony made more internal memory space than what it has now? Thanks for reading. I'm just curious.

DJKMan said, on February 24, 2010 8:14 PM:

Just stumbled on this again after searching for some old records of my site.

@Brian: It is due partly to RAM. It also has to do with the fact that BOCHS and DosBox cannot load any 32-bit OS. This is where The PA Dev Team comes in. (http://psp.bbtgp.net) They have a copy of the new BOCHS so once that is successfully ported you should see a working Windows XP. I wouldn't get excited about it though because I bet it would be extremely slow but at least it works!

@jules: Are you viewing the same sites he is viewing? Perhaps you are viewing sites that loads more content than he visits.

@Mikael: True. It's more for the satisfaction of "It's possible!" rather than practicality.

Kimflexy said, on April 20, 2010 11:46 AM:

Hi Dave. Plz i just bought my psp 2000. Wot is home brew n hw does it works?

Maiahi said, on October 23, 2010 4:23 PM:

You CAN put many versions of windows on your psp by using dosbox. You can run windows 3.1 and 95 pretty easily. Portals is for dummys. Therefore its stupid to say wrong things because you don't know your subject well enough

ties said, on November 15, 2010 10:47 PM:

why you can have winpsp

donald sada said, on August 28, 2012 3:41 AM:

Thank you Dev for your help.

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

Can I run Windows XP or Windows Vista on my Sony PSP?

Reader Comments To Date: 44

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!

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