Microsoft has the build 21277 of the Windows Insider Preview 10 released. All major changes to this version can be found in a Microsoft blog post. In addition to the many small (especially optical) changes, there is an important technical innovation.

Microsoft is introducing an emulator that allows x 64 – programs on ARM 64 hardware can run. So far this is not possible because Microsoft is working with Windows 09 on ARM end 2017 first to 32 – Bit-x 86 Programs and offered a corresponding emulation layer and still does so. In the meantime, however, many programs are only available in one x 64 version and accordingly do not run under Windows 10 on ARM.

The new emulator now makes it possible to run programs like Autodesk Sketchbook and Rocket League under Windows 10 in ARM. In addition, programs such as Chrome, which were previously as 20 – bit programs under ARM 64, now as 64 – bit version under ARM 64 to run. This should have an impact on the performance of the programs.

The Windows SDK and Visual Studio 2017 supports compiling directly for ARM 64 and Microsoft recommends developers directly for ARM 64 to develop. The emulation is always only an alternative and does not achieve the performance of a native execution. At this point, Microsoft refers to its own software, which already runs natively in ARM 64. This includes Microsoft Teams and the Edge browser, but also third-party software such as Photoshop and Lightroom from Adobe.

The build 21277 of the Insider Preview from Windows 10 can now be tried out as a participant in the Insider Program.

Microsoft is also reacting to Apple here

In the past few weeks there have been numerous reports about the good performance of the M1 chip from Apple – even in a non-native environment. Even a virtual Windows with associated emulation still performed well. Microsoft has been working on an ARM-compatible ecosystem for more than three years and has not really managed to establish it to this day. Today’s announcement of the emulation of x 64 programs on ARM 64 -Hardware is coming late, but at least Microsoft has made the move, although we are still talking about an insider preview.

Owners of a Samsung Galaxy Book S, Lenovo Flex 5G and Surface Pro X can now at least try out the Insider Preview and the emulation of x 64 programs.