After announcing x64 emulation for Windows on ARM in September, Microsoft is finally releasing the feature for insiders today. According to the company, this new feature will open a door for many x64-only productivity apps like Autodesk Sketchbook or games like Rocket League on ARM-based machines. Apart from this, other applications like Google Chrome will be able to run their more efficient 64-bit version. All in all, the feature will allow users to run 64-bit apps that haven’t yet been compiled for their ARM-powered devices.
Since Windows on ARM’s emulation has been pretty rough in the past, we are not sure if the applications will run well. Users will definitely not get to see the same emulation performance as their ARM Mac brethren have been witnessing. Nevertheless, an app running poorly is better than not being able to run it at all. Hence, the project is still in development and will not be available commercially anytime soon.
For now, Microsoft is waiting on the feedback from their Windows insider community and will make a decision accordingly. The company has warned beta testers that some apps might have issues, and that’s why developers should retest while trying the build.
Microsoft should have taken this step months ago, but better late than never.
