Microsoft will support x64 applications on Windows 10 on ARM. The company has been trying to boost Windows 10 on ARM since late 2016. The initiative, in partnership with Qualcomm, has produced dedicated chipsets such as the Microsoft SQ1 or SQ2.
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The platform has fulfilled some of the promises such as “Always connected PCs” pointing out its total connection capacity under the built-in mobile broadband modem and a great autonomy possible due to the ARM architecture used, but the performance was far below what was expected. The native apps (Modern UI) worked well, but the Win32 under emulation did not. The incomprehensible blocking of software outside the Microsoft Store and the inability to run 64-bit applications can be described as a fiasco to this day.
Microsoft will support x64 applications on Windows 10 on ARM
If you want to try it out, the company has added support for x64 applications in Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21277, it is the latest version for the test channel. The company notes that the feature is still in a preliminary version and they ensure that “both compatibility and performance will improve over time.” Insider testers will provide feedback to assist in the effort using the Windows Feedback Hub.
In addition, to support running ARM64 and C++ x64 applications at the same time, the company asks users to install a redistributable preview version of ARM64 C++ from https://aka.ms/arm64previewredist. All of these steps will not be required in future versions of Insider Preview.
