Windows RT Jailbreak Is Surprisingly Simple

In stark contrast to the hoops hackers must jump through to crack open iOS' tasty insides, Microsoft's tablet-bound Windows RT is a few executed binaries away from being a homebrewer's paradise. OK, well, maybe not a paradise, but at least they now have a valid ticket to get there.

A few days ago we heard reports that getting Windows RT to run unsigned applications was possible, though doing it yourself wasn't particularly easy. Now, a user by the name of "netham45" over at xda-developers has put together a batch file and a few executables that will allow any app to run on the operating system, as long as it's compiled for ARM.

The patch isn't a once-off -- it needs to run every time the device is reset, though that's a trivial inconvenience.

The big benefit of this "jailbreak", as it were, is the ability for enterprising users to compile cross-platform apps for use on the OS that aren't currently available, with the xda-developers' post using the examples of Firefox and Chromium (the foundation for Google Chrome), which are both open-source.