New drivers for Surface Duo on Windows add charging, new sensors support, and more

Gustave Monce, the creator of the DuoWOA Project, has released a new set of drivers for the first and second-gen Surface Duo smartphones. Those drivers are necessary to befriend the mobile hardware with a desktop operating system and turn Microsoft's dual-screen smartphones into small Windows PCs with two displays. Version 2212.12 brings charging support, improved brightness control, compatibility with more sensors, and various fixes.

Here is what is new for the original Surface Duo:

• Charging finally works under Windows! This is a first version of the charging stack, as a result a few things are currently limited. The charging input is limited to low current for safety measures while work is ongoing.

• Adds a driver for the Qualcomm SMB1380 Secondary Charger.

• Adds a driver for the Qualcomm PM8150B Fuel Gauge and Primary Charger.

• Enables Content Adaptive Brightness Level.

• Adds support for Duo's Pedometer Sensor.

• Adds support for Duo's Light Fusion Sensor.

• The new Tablet Posture experience is now enabled for Surface Duo by default. Expect a more tablet optimized taskbar, bigger hit targets in Microsoft Edge/File Explorer, and more.

• Addresses a few issues with duplicated sensors.

• Enables smooth brightness control for both panels.

• Addresses an issue preventing USB Function Mode from working. This issue mainly affected USB File Transfers using a computer.

• Updates Surface Duo firmware to the latest Android OTA release of November

• Long forgotten bug fixes & enhancements.

• Call provisioning is work in progress, if calls do not work for you at the moment, you may need to provision the call functionality manually. (Same as on Lumia 950s).

   

And now to the Surface Duo 2, which currently features much more limited Windows support compared to its predecessor:

• Addresses an issue preventing USB Function Mode from working. This issue mainly affected USB File Transfers using a computer.

• Updates Surface Duo 2 firmware to the latest Android OTA release of November.

• Call provisioning is work in progress, if calls do not work for you at the moment, you may need to provision the call functionality manually. (Same as on Lumia 950s).

   

It is worth noting that getting Surface Duo's sensors to work under new drivers on Windows 11 requires sensor calibration (follow the steps published on GitHub) and updating the UEFI to version 2212.12 or higher. Also, mind the following known issues:

• Automatic Orientation only works for the left panel, using the right panel orientation sensor.
• USB Dongles that are not externally powered may not currently work.
• USB C Billboard devices will not currently work.
• External Display Stream support will not currently work.
• Additional information provided by the posture sensor is currently not available for. public consumption, this includes peek events.
• Digitizers will not react to the device being folded over.
• Displays will not react to the device being folded over most of the time.
• Physical device data is incorrect.
• Digitizers aren't calibrated correctly.

You can track the progress of the project on GitHub, where Gustave has published all the features working and not. Swapping Android with Windows on Surface Duo smartphones is a complicated process, so we recommend waiting for more user-friendly methods and guides if you cannot afford to brick your dual-screen smartphone. Luckily, the original Surface Duo is available for only $314, and you might want to consider buying one to see how well the smartphone runs Windows 11.

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New drivers for Surface Duo on Windows add charging, new sensors support, and more