Why Developers (& Applications) Love Windows on Arm
Chapter 4
Developers are targeting their applications for Windows on Arm for two key reasons: Firstly, due to the consistency and performance of Windows on Arm devices, and secondly, the increasing variety of tools and support that are now available for developers.
As mentioned in Chapter 1, there is now a state of readiness associated with Windows on Arm that is making developers and leading application vendors stand up and take notice.
Microsoft’s new Surface Pro 9 and Lenovo’s ThinkPad X13s brought to the market the highest performing Windows on Arm devices to date, while older models like the Lenovo Yoga 5G, Microsoft Surface Pro X, Samsung Galaxy Book S, and HP Elite Folio continue to champion their reputation as versatile, connected devices.
Windows on Arm hardware is continuing to improve, with current OEMs and Microsoft committed to investment in this area.
Many developers are embracing Windows on Arm as a platform with enormous potential to transform the laptop computing landscape. Arm is working with the developer ecosystem to make developing native applications for Windows on Arm as seamless as possible. We started by porting the Electron framework, which is used by applications such as Microsoft Teams, WhatsApp, and Visual Studio Code, so developers can easily support Windows on Arm natively.
Today, with more native libraries, tools, and hardware for WoA app development now available, porting to native Windows 11 for Arm is easier than ever before, with cross compiling no longer needed. This means developers can use their preferred tools, compilers, and frameworks and simply select Windows on Arm as the target.
A consistent stream of announcements from Arm and Microsoft has made Windows on Arm development more seamless than ever. The ‘Windows Dev Kit 2023’ allows developers to bring their entire application development process into a dedicated compact device, so they can develop and test with the necessary resources and specifications before rolling out applications across Windows on Arm laptop devices.
Before the Windows Dev Kit 2023, Microsoft announced the general availability of a new comprehensive Arm-native developer toolchain, which includes full Visual Studio 2022, Visual Studio Code, Visual C++, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Windows Subsystem for Android, .NET, and many more.
Microsoft also committed support for OpenJDK, LLVM, Node, and Git to support Arm64 natively. Meanwhile, Arm64EC for Windows 11 allows developers to build applications for Windows on Arm devices with a combination of x64 and Arm code, bringing performance close to native applications with less development effort.
Additional solutions are coming to Windows on Arm, including GNU GCC, Dart, Flutter, PyTorch and GIMP. These tools can already be used in developer environments like the Windows Dev Kit 2023, but will be across Windows on Arm laptop devices soon.
For OEMs, there are now a range of applications targeting Windows on Arm that customers in enterprise and IT care about. From the actual devices to the ecosystem, everything is set up and ready to go. The next step is to start exploring Windows on Arm in more detail and see how to realize the broad range of benefits.
For developers, Arm provides various resources and guides so they can take advantage of the new tools and frameworks and start building their own Windows on Arm-targeted applications.
For all Windows on Arm development resources, visit developer.arm.com. These included a selection of free Windows on Arm tools and guides for developers.
You can also learn more about Windows on Arm development on the learning path page on the Arm Developer Hub.
