Microsoft heralds advancements in Windows 11 on Arm, highlighting a shift where users now predominantly engage in natively compiled applications. Compatibility issues are reportedly a thing of the past.
In a significant stride for Arm-based PCs, the launch of Windows 11 on Arm, supported by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X range of PC chips, has seemingly been a success. Microsoft rebooted Windows on Arm with this initiative last May, and since then, developers have been working tirelessly to improve the performance and efficiency of their apps for these Arm-based PCs.
According to Microsoft corporate vice president of customer experience engineering, Mike Adams, the Arm app ecosystem continues to expand. This expansion is evident in the variety of apps now natively compiled for Windows 11 on Arm PCs. Major OEMs are shipping new Arm-based PCs with Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, as promised by Microsoft.
Some of the apps now natively compiled for Windows on Arm include popular productivity tools like 7 Zip, Google Drive, Dropbox, Trello, and Todoist. Creative professionals will be pleased to know that Adobe has joined the bandwagon, with apps like Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Audacity now available to run natively on Arm.
Microsoft Office, Libre Office, Camtasia, Paint.NET, Djay Pro, CapCut, Figma, Apple TV, Apple Music, Google Chrome, Telegram, WhatsApp, Spotify, Davinci Resolve, Blender, Luminar Neo, and even Microsoft Office are among the many apps that have been recompiled for the Arm architecture.
The PRISM emulation engine in Windows 11 on Arm does an impressive job running x86 apps on Arm, with the exception being games. However, the attempt to reboot Windows on Arm has seemingly been successful, as 90% of the time on Arm-based PCs is now spent within natively compiled apps, according to Microsoft.
Qualcomm's upcoming next-generation Snapdragon PC chips, likely to be named Snapdragon X2, are expected to offer better performance and efficiency. This development is exciting news for the Arm-based PC market, as it promises to further improve the user experience for Windows on Arm.
Microsoft has published a new blog post detailing the progress of app developers supporting Windows 11 on Arm with natively compiled apps. The company has also been contributing to app and system compatibility on Arm devices running Windows by enabling Windows on Arm through compiling their apps and components for the Arm architecture. Other large tech companies such as Google, Amazon, and Meta have also adopted Rust to support Arm-based environments, a move that is expected to boost the Arm app ecosystem even further.
In conclusion, the Arm app ecosystem is growing, and Windows on Arm is becoming a viable platform for a wide range of apps. With the expected improvement in performance and efficiency with Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X2 chips, the future looks bright for Arm-based PCs.
