Windows 10 on ARM gets x64 emulation in latest test builds

The year 2020 will be rumored as the year ARM became a viable option for the desktop market. Not due to Microsoft's efforts to get Windows 10 running on ARM but thanks to Apple's development of the M1 SoC and the surrounding software ecosystem.

Microsoft is making a bit of ARM progress though as the company is now testing x64 emulation. Two new Windows 10 on ARM pre-release test builds in the Dev Channel include support for x64 emulation. This allows emulation of 64-bit x86 applications that were written for the regular version of Windows 10. Up until now, Windows 10 on ARM could exclusively run native code and 32-bit x86 apps.

Currently, Windows on Arm natively supports Arm apps, including ARM64 versions. But so far, only 32-bit Intel (x86) apps are supported in emulation. This lack of x64 emulation has limited the number of apps that can run on Windows on Arm devices, since apps that are 64-bit only have only been available on Windows on Arm (WoA) devices if and when developers created native versions of them. As of now, these x64 Arm apps also can run in emulation.

It's unknown when this feature will make it into the mainstream version of Windows 10. The Windows 10 21H1 update seems to be the earliest option.

Via ZD Net