The first wave of ARM-based Windows tablets, like the Surface RT, had 32-bit ARM chipsets. However, Windows 11 required a 64-bit ARM device from the start, and now Microsoft is dropping support for 32-bit ARM applications entirely.
Microsoft is now rolling out Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 25905 to the Canary Channel for Windows Insiders. The update completely removes support for 32-bit ARM UWP applications, with a list of affected applications appearing during the setup process. If there is another compatible version of the application on the Microsoft Store, it will appear as an app update in the Store before the Windows update is installed — you might need to click the “Get Updates” button in the Library page of the Store for that to work. After the Windows update is installed, your only option is uninstalling the incompatible app and trying to download it again from the Microsoft Store, where Windows will obtain a compatible version if there’s one available.
So, why is Microsoft doing this? Well, Qualcomm’s modern chipsets (which power all existing ARM Windows 10 and 11 devices) have limited support for 32-bit ARM software, and future chips are expected to not have any 32-bit cores at all.
The good news is that this probably won’t affect many applications. Most, if not all, 32-bit ARM Windows applications are also available in x86 versions intended for mainstream PCs, which Windows 11 can emulate on ARM devices. The emulated apps might run a little bit slower than they would otherwise, but they’ll at least work.
It’s also worth noting that Microsoft’s announcement doesn’t mention Win32 applications at all, like the early versions of Microsoft Office for ARM. It’s not clear if those apps will stop working too, and if so, when that might happen. Many of those applications have been updated to 64-bit ARM or have x86 alternatives available that can be emulated.
The removal of 32-bit ARM support is only live in the Canary testing channel for now, so it will be several weeks or months before the change is rolled out to all ARM Windows PCs. There’s no firm timeline for that right now.
Source: Windows Blog, Microsoft Learn
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