Microsoft announced that x64 emulation is now generally available in Windows 11 on Arm PCs.

This is a cool new feature of Windows 11 and potentially a big disappointment for those who enjoyed the Windows Insider preview. Currently, these users can emulate x64 apps through Windows 10 on Arm.

Windows on Arm is a version of the operating system designed to run on devices with low-power Arm SoCs (system-on-chips), such as Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips. It differs from traditional 64-bit CPUs from Intel, AMD, and others; Windows on Arm can run many apps from the Microsoft Store, but it cannot natively run apps made for x86-64 CPUs.

That's why x64 (short for x86-64) emulation is a killer feature: an Arm-based PC like the Surface Pro X with a Microsoft SQ1 or SQ2 Arm processor can run games like Rocket League.

Microsoft announced plans to support x64 emulation on Windows 10 PCs powered by Arm SoCs in late 2020 and began distributing Windows Insider Preview builds with beta versions of x64 emulation shortly thereafter. However, it appears that this feature will not be offered in Windows 10, as Microsoft has quietly updated its original blog post. It now states that a PC running Windows 11 on Arm is required for general use.

This means that it will likely not be supported in future Windows 10 Insider builds, effectively ending any hope of general availability on PCs running Windows 10 on Arm. Therefore, Windows 10 on Arm users using older Windows Insider Preview builds should be able to continue emulating x64 apps, but Microsoft is unlikely to support or update this feature in the future. We do not recommend that you refrain from updating your system as it could lead to security vulnerabilities, and if emulating x64 apps such as Adobe Creative Cloud is important to you, it is time to plan an upgrade to Windows 11 It may be time to plan an upgrade to Windows 11.