Windows 10 on ARM will soon allow running traditional desktop apps, but only 64-bit. Microsoft is working to add support for x86 applications via a special emulation layer. This will allow the OS to get a variety of software which wasn’t previously available on ARM.
As of this writing, Windows 10 on ARM is an ARM64 platform, which is only supports 32-bit x86 apps via a built-in emulator. It is not possible to run traditional 64-bit apps in this OS.
A new commit on GitHub reveals that Microsoft is preparing to add support for 64-bit x86 application emulation to the platform. The commit was made by Principal software engineer on the Windows team, Kenny Kerr. The commit says “Add linker support for x64 code emulation on ARM64”.
Rumors say that Windows 10 should receive 64-bit app emulator in version 21H1. This also means that Insiders may soon start receiving with experimental bits related to the emulator.
Having such an emulator integrated turns yet another page in the Windows 10 on ARM history. Finally users will be able to launch apps that are exclusively available as 64-bit builds.