Windows 10 on ARM

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Looks like we’re going to see Windows 10 running on Snapdragon chips by the end of the year. This is a fascinating presentation: https://channel9.msdn
[See the full post at: Windows 10 on ARM]

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I downloaded and installed the 32-bit version of 7Zip on my 12 year old Compaq (HP, really) laptop (Presario M2000z), with a single-core AMD Turion 2.2GHz ML-40 CPU (upgraded from 1.6GHz stock), 896MB of RAM, and a 5400 RPM PATA hard drive, under Windows XP (SP3, with POSReady updates).

Other than the obvious difference in Windows theme (XP’s Classic being far more attractive, IMO, as it remains as my gold standard), it looked just like that video.  Very quick and easy, as 7-Zip is a lightweight program.

I’m still skeptical.  My ancient laptop can run the installer for 7-Zip well, but I doubt most people would find it a suitable general-purpose machine by today’s standards.   As I wrote on The Reg, though, I am willing to be proven wrong.  More competition within the x86 space certainly is welcome, even if it’s not really from an x86 chip.  Doesn’t really matter, as long as it works.

FWIW, this same PC ran Windows 10 (it may have even been the 64-bit version, as that is the install DVD I have on hand) without crashing or glitching in any way, but it bogged down pretty badly if I tried to open… well, anything.  The 896MB of RAM (even less after the GPU integrated into the chipset takes its piece) just isn’t enough to actually do anything in Windows 10, but it ran.  The newest driver I could find for the integrated graphics was for Vista, and I didn’t belabor the point by trying to make it work, but others have reported they were able to get it working under 10.  Since I was not going to have the machine online for what I needed to do with it, I just went back to XP.  The free upgrade didn’t apply to this PC, since it never had anything newer than XP on it previously, so I would have had to pay for it anyway… I would just go Linux if I was going to use this PC for online stuff.

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For Windows 10 SSD is a rather must-have. It seems not to cope with HDDs too well.

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What do you mean that it doesn’t cope well with traditional metal disk drives?

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rc primak

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I wouldn’t mind better phones — although apparently that’s not what MS has in mind — but  there is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in Windows 10 to justify it for anything other than phones. That is, if MS even manages to achieve anything — they’re great on blah blah and weak on substance.

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woody says, …

Windows 10 on Snapdragon/ARM chips will run Win32 apps through a “X86 Win32 emulation layer,” which is surprisingly fast. Watch at the five minute mark forward.

.
The channel9-M$ video did not show a proper running of Win32 apps through the “x86 Win32 emulation layer”, eg Adobe Photoshop and AutoCAD. Wonder why M$ did not show this.
. . The video only showed the running of native or non-emulated preinstalled and UWP Store apps, eg Edge, Camera and iHeart Radio, which is non-surprisingly fast.

Seems, only 32bit Win32 apps/programs can be installed on this ARMx64-machine, eg the shown installation of the 32bit 7-Zip program.

I do not think it is a good idea to put mobile stuffs into computers, which tends to cripple computer functionality, eg the failed Win 8 mobile Metro interface and ARMed Win RT.

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This Windows on ARM looks like a niche product that could be slightly successful in some tablet and laptop devices, but not likely used in mainstream computing.

I have a Windows XP-SP3 x86 VM running “empty”, with 343MB RAM committed out of a total of 2GB available.  Performance is excellent on a 3.4 Ghz CPU, even though XP is “virtualized”.

It is running 27 processes, including Avast, Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit, and Windows 10 Firewall Control.

 

Windows 10 Pro 22H2

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So I see no reason not to push Windows onto ARM and it makes sense for developing countries who want cheaper devices, good battery life and probably duel connectivity with LTE and WiFi. But clearly in my experience the ARM system offers little in performance over a X86 chip and I was not surprised that right out of the gate the presenter skipped over saying anything about performance. Even in X86 chips the ultra low powered Intel’s are not setting the world on fire in performance. Even the Chromebooks running ARM have great battery life, do OK in basic tasks but become slow with too much multi tasking. I would expect similar if not a bit worse results with a layered Windows ported to ARM. Most likely we will see 10S running in these devices too.

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@ jescott418

A few years ago, there were already many cheap Win 10/8.1 2-in-1 tablets with Intel Mobile CPU/APU(eg Intel Atom and Core M) that have 3G-cellular and Wifi connectivity for the Internet. A few can even make 3G cell-calls.

But there were even more such 2-in-1 tablets running Android that were much cheaper. IOW, Win 10 lost out to Android and iOS-iPads in this market segment.
. . Intel gave up on this market segment, eg discontinued the Intel Atom line. But M$ did not give up. So, M$ “again” come out with these Win 10 2-in-1 tablets and notebooks with ARM CPUs that have 3G/4G/LTE and Wifi connectivity, which seem redundant and will likely be a repeat failure. Likely Win 10 S/Win RT will meet the same fate.

Also, tablet and notebook sales have been declining for the past 3 years while smartphone sales have increased.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2017/01/11/tablet-sales-fall-third-successive-year-pc-market-stabilises/

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