Is Microsoft testing Windows Phone 7 apps on Windows 8?

The Windows 8 Consumer Preview version may now be available to download and try out to the general public, but that doesn't mean Microsoft's Windows 8 team is sitting around. The company is now working on pre-release candidate versions of the OS. Now there's evidence that Microsoft may be testing Windows Phone 7 apps on those pre-release builds of Windows 8.

WMPowerUser.com reports that the app I’m a WP7 has a feature that shows the latest build numbers of the operating system where the app is installed. It appears that the list also includes a build of Windows 8, 6.2.8283.0, that is considered a pre-release candidate version of the OS.

The article also has a link to a web page from Lynx Interactive, which also lists the OS builds that are running its apps; it also happens to show the same Windows 8 build number in that list.

Since that version of Windows 8 is not available to the public, we can only speculate that Microsoft is checking Windows Phone 7 apps on Windows 8 devices in their labs. It's possible that Microsoft could offer a feature in the final shipping version of Windows 8 that would allow all Windows Phone apps to run on the PC OS; that would also instantly boost the number of apps available to be used on Windows 8.

Image via WMPowerUser.com