Microsoft is working on x64 emulation software for Arm laptops with Windows 10

Microsoft is working on x64 app emulation for Windows on Arm systems. That’s according to Microsoft’s code on GitHub. This seems to confirm rumors from last year about the possible arrival of x64 apps to Windows on Arm.

The mention of x86_64 for Arm64 systems has been noticed by Twitter user Longhorn, who refers to a Github page titled Add linker support for x64 code emulation on ARM64. It is a Github page for Microsoft’s C++/WinRT project for the Windows Runtime.

The listing confirms rumors from last year that the Arm version of Windows 10 will receive support for x64 program emulation for the Arm64 architecture. That arrival would remedy a limitation of the current Windows on Arm.

Windows on Arm can run 32bit and 64bit versions of Arm apps by default, but to emulate x86 code for Arm, Windows 10 uses the WOW64 layer. This Windows-on-Windows subsystem can only emulate 32bit x86 software and that means 64bit programs will not run. Much Windows software is therefore not available on, for example, Windows laptops with Snapdragon processors.