Microsoft has decided to make an upcoming emulator that runs x86 64-bit Windows apps on Arm devices exclusive to Windows 11.
That’s bad news for users of the Surface Pro X and certain Arm-powered laptops, such as the Samsung Galaxy Book S, who want to stay on Windows 10. But fortunately, those products should be eligible for a free Windows 11 upgrade.
The 64-bit emulator is now available on Windows 11, according to a company blog post. It comes several months after Microsoft announced "ARM64EC," which it called a new way to build apps for Windows 11 on Arm. In a statement provided to PCMag, Microsoft notes that it received questions from users about the status of the 64-bit emulator for Windows 10, but it didn’t explain its reasoning behind the decision.
The emulator is designed to address a key limitation to Arm-powered Windows devices, which can’t natively run 64-bit Windows apps originally designed for Intel’s and AMD’s x86 architecture. Hence, users of Arm-based hardware face a more limited library of apps compared with the traditional programs available for an Intel or AMD Windows PC. That said, Redmond has been working to make it easier for software developers to port their programs to Windows on Arm.
Microsoft also developed an emulator for 32-bit x86 apps. However, the company only began previewing the 64-bit emulator a year ago through the Windows Insider program.
For users hoping to try out the emulator, Microsoft announced it's expanding the company's rollout of the free Windows 11 upgrade to more eligible PCs.
“Today, based on the positive rollout update experience and user feedback we have seen to date, we are advancing the pace of the rollout faster than we previously anticipated, and now making the Windows 11 upgrade more broadly available to eligible Windows 10 devices,” Microsoft VP John Cable wrote in a blog post.
The company has released a support document that details which Arm chips officially support Windows 11. They include the Microsoft SQ1 and SQ2 chips, along with Qualcomm processors, such as the Snapdragon 8cx and the Snapdragon 850.