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Microsoft is no longer bringing x64 emulation to Windows 10 on ARM
Last December, Microsoft announced that it would bring x64 emulation to Windows 10 on ARM, a feature missing from the fledgling OS. Windows 10 on ARM already supported x86 emulation but making sure you have a 32-bit installer is not ideal. Initially, Microsoft brought x64 emulation to the Windows Insider Program, although you need a preview version of the Qualcomm Adreno graphics driver for some ARM machines that supported Windows 10 ARM.
Since then, Microsoft has released Windows 11, including an ARM version. For some reason, the company has now decided to quietly drop any intentions of integrating x64 emulation within Windows 10 on ARM. Inexplicably, it only confirmed this change in a Windows Blogs post where most people would miss it.
Windows Insider blog. Also at The Verge.
Previously: Microsoft Document Details Windows 10 on ARM Limitations
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Friday November 19 2021, @10:25PM (2 children)
In the past, Microsoft simply had to emulate x86 and x64. The entire value proposition of Windows was all the legacy software that runs on Windows. Much of that software is deeply wedded to Intel and not simply recompiled for ARM.
Developers of newer software (some years ago) could see this coming and make sure that their software could compile for multiple processor architectures. Those developers are probably well positioned for when/if RISC V ever ascends to challenge ARM.
I figured that someday, we would reach a point where a lot of legacy software from decades ago might no longer be a "must have" for newer and newer Windows systems.
Maybe Microsoft calculates that we have reached that point, and some of the oldest non-portable legacy software simply won't hold people back from Windows on ARM. Especially as more and more modern software is on the web. Tons of vertical market applications (eg, specialized business software, accounting, medical software, lending library software, oil change software, cabinet making software, hotel reservation software, etc) are now on the web.
Just a thought.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday November 19 2021, @11:28PM (1 child)
Except they're keeping the emulation for the older x86 stuff - it's only the newer x64 stuff that's getting left out in the cold.
Which means most prominently that nothing can accesses more than 4GB of RAM - that was the driving force behind moving the 64-bit computers in the first place: 32 bit apps can only access 2^32 bytes = 4GB of RAM. And there's a *huge* amount of software written in the last 20 years that benefits from more than that.
And while a whole lot of developers may have ARM-friendly source code, vanishingly few actually distribute ARM64 binaries. Just off the top of my head I checked Fusion360 (no 32 bit or ARM support) and Photoshop (added ARM64 support in May 2021, but I'd bet not for the older versions most people are running). Heck, it seems even Microsoft Office is only just beginning to introduce ARM64 support - and it sounds like it's only available for the Windows 11 version.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday November 22 2021, @03:17PM
The x86 only emulation fits what I explained. The oldest of the legacy software is probably x86 only. Things from the 1990s or early 2000s before there even was x64. Software that is deeply wedded to x86. Software that may no longer even be commercially available -- even if it could be made to work with a simple recompile / rebuild.
If you think a fertilized egg is a child but an immigrant child is not, please don't pretend your concerns are religious