Windows on Arm finally has legs

When I first used the Arm-powered Surface Pro X in 2019, I loved the hardware but hated the software experience. Everything felt like it was left behind. Microsoft didn’t have native versions of Edge or its Office apps, and it was clear that the Surface Pro With little developer support, Windows on Arm was unlikely to succeed.

Nearly five years later, the Windows on Arm experience has improved dramatically. Qualcomm’s new Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus processors deliver a Windows 11 experience that feels like any regular laptop. Microsoft and Qualcomm have also pushed software developers to create more ARM64-native apps, and it has made a huge difference.

Apps like Photoshop, Dropbox, and Zoom are all native, as are entertainment apps like Spotify, Prime, and Hulu. Even Chrome, Opera, Firefox, Vivaldi, Edge and Brave are all on Arm now. That’s a good start, but there are still a lot of apps that need to be emulated on these latest Copilot Plus PCs, and that’s where Microsoft’s Prism emulator comes into the picture.

Microsoft claims that Prism is as efficient as Apple’s Rosetta 2 translation layer and can emulate apps twice as fast as the previous generation of Windows on Arm devices. I’ve been testing the Surface Laptop for the past week and haven’t encountered the erratic behavior I saw on Microsoft’s previous emulator, which also affected the Surface Pro performance that Microsoft promised.

Microsoft’s claims are difficult to test without comparing previous Arm-based devices. YouTuber Gary explains just that, comparing x86 or x64 versions of Firefox, Cinebench R23, and HandBrake on a Surface Pro X without Prism, and then with the latest Windows 11 24H2 update, which includes Prism.

Gary explains found that Prism delivered a 10 percent performance increase in Speedometer 3 running on Firefox, an 8 percent jump in Cinebench R23 single core, and a 4.5 percent improvement in Cinebench R23 multicore compared to the previous emulator. Thanks to Prism, HandBrake performance has also been improved by 8 percent.

In my own testing, I’ve found that Prism handles compatibility well for non-native apps, but performance varies depending on the complexity of the app. ShareX, a screenshot tool, works fine with the Prism emulator, but it is a lightweight app. iA Writer and Notion are not native, but also work well on these latest Snapdragon chips. Discord also performs a lot better than I’ve seen on Arm in the past, but there’s still occasional stuttering and slight lag when navigating between servers.

For more demanding apps, Prism doesn’t bring the experience up to the level of what you’d find on an Intel or AMD laptop. Adobe’s Premiere Pro, emulated, was virtually unusable for editing a 4K video on the Surface Laptop, which is likely why Adobe is now blocking the x64 version from being installed on Snapdragon X Elite and Plus processors. An ARM64 version of Premiere Pro is planned for later this year.

Blender is another example of an emulated app with disappointing performance. Blender doesn’t detect Qualcomm’s Adreno GPU, so everything ends up on the CPU instead. Project rendering performance is abysmal as a result, with one test I ran taking over 15 minutes, compared to just over two minutes on a 13-inch MacBook Air M3. Blender will have a native ARM64 version soon, but I tested the early alpha copy and the results are only marginally improved as it still doesn’t pick up the GPU properly.

Intel has dominated the laptop GPU market for decades with its integrated solutions, so I suspect Qualcomm will still need to work with developers of software like Blender to ensure apps are optimized for its GPUs. Blender illustrates that Microsoft’s Prism emulator can’t solve everything.

Speaking of GPUs, games also don’t “just work” on the Snapdragon X Elite and X Plus, despite Qualcomm’s assurances. I didn’t make a big deal of this for the Surface Laptop review because it’s not a gaming laptop, but gaming on Windows on Arm is disappointing at the moment. Shadow of the Tomb Raider kept crashing for me when I tried to play, and most other games I tried just refused to start. Fall guys throws an unsupported error, just like Halo Infinity. Lot 2 didn’t even start – no error, just a whole lot of nothing. Starfield did the same.

There aren’t many native Windows on Arm games, so Prism has its work cut out for it here. I managed to get it Grand Theft Auto V works but with a lot of frame stuttering. Cyberpunk 2077 also ran on the Surface Laptop 7th Edition, but averaged around 26 fps at low settings and 1080p resolution. The Witcher 3, Baldur’s Gate 3, Check, Rocket LeagueAnd Minecraft also all worked out-of-the-box.

The main problem here is that most antiheat services use kernel drivers that are not supported by emulation. BattlEye, a widely used antiheat service, is one of the rare exceptions that Windows on Arm supports, but it appears that games like Lot 2 who use this antiheat software will need to be updated to work properly here. Fortunately, there is a special website that keeps track of which games are supported and work well. I don’t have much hope for Arm-powered gaming laptops, though.

Another thing I’ve come across is apps that just refuse to install. Google Drive is the biggest here, as it throws an error saying that the Windows architecture of Copilot Plus PCs is not supported. Google’s Drive app on Windows integrates into the shell just like Dropbox, something Microsoft didn’t originally support on Windows on Arm. However, there is a native version of Dropbox that integrates into File Explorer, so hopefully Google can offer a similar experience soon.

There are also compatibility issues with external devices. I’ve seen reports of Brother printers and scanners not working properly on Arm or simply that generic printer drivers don’t support all the features you’d expect. There’s no easy quick fix for accessories that require driver support, and there probably won’t be based on the sheer number of people using these new Copilot Plus PCs. I’m less concerned about the driver issues here, because I think most people can plug in the type of accessories (webcams, printers, storage drives) you use on a laptop and get them working with the built-in drivers in Windows 11 .

VPN apps are also still a problem on Windows Arm. Bitdefender, NordVPN and Private Internet Access do not work. VPN developers use virtual TAP and TUN adapters and devices and require a signed driver from Microsoft to work properly. Happy, Android Authority reports that VPN developers are working on ARM64 versions.

That’s encouraging, because the last time I used Windows on Arm regularly in 2019, I said, “Most of the apps I use on a daily basis have not been recompiled for ARM and probably never will be.” Now it feels like app compatibility on Windows on Arm is changing on a daily basis, a scenario I wouldn’t have expected five years ago.

While we’re at this transition point, you may need to use beta versions or download special builds of Windows apps that are natively ARM64, similar to the macOS transition. This means that the Windows Store versions of apps won’t always be ARM64, and you may find the improved version on the web before the App Store version is updated. That was initially the case with Slack earlier this month before the Store version was updated.

For everything else, Microsoft does have some tools for power users that can improve app compatibility on Arm with existing unmodified x86 or x64 apps. There is a program compatibility troubleshooter that can help you enable or disable emulation settings, and you can also enable or disable them in the properties of an executable file. You can manage things like hybrid execution mode to enforce the use of x86-only binaries, disable floating point optimization that could impact performance, and much more. You can also change how an emulated app uses multiple CPU cores, which can improve performance or compatibility in certain apps.

Ultimately, it’s up to app developers to focus on native ARM64 support for their apps. The sheer amount of native apps now available shows that things are moving in the right direction. These new Qualcomm chips also provide the raw power to emulate apps a little better, in addition to Microsoft’s Prism improvements. I think most people here won’t even encounter any app issues on a day-to-day basis, as many of the main apps are already native or work well in emulation.

I’m confident there are many more ARM64 apps on the way. During my testing, benchmark tools and apps were updated to support ARM64, which surprised me. I’m willing to bet that in a year or two we won’t be talking about Prism or emulated app performance as much, because native ARM64 apps will be as common as x64 apps are today, after the transition from x86 begins 2000s began. After twelve years of trying to move to Windows on Arm, it feels like Microsoft is finally succeeding.