Microsoft Releases Official ISO for Windows 11 on Arm

[AleksandarK]

Microsoft's Windows-on-Arm (WoA) project has been going through an expansion phase, with the recent range of Snapdragon X SoCs powering many laptops. However, as we are about to get bombed with WoA devices in 2025, Microsoft has prepared an official ISO image of the Windows 11 operating system, available for users to download on the official website. The download size is about 5 GB and requires an Arm-based system to work, as expected. The need for Windows 11 ISO image for WoA comes from the increased number of desktop builds shipped to developers worldwide based on Arm. There are many workstations like the ones offered by ODMs, with an Ampere Altra or Altra Max processor inside.

This is also good news for enthusiasts waiting for the NVIDIA-MediaTek collaboration to drop its first goodies next year, and we expect to see some interesting solutions arise. With Microsoft investing its developer resources into producing Windows 11 Arm builds, it signals that the adoption of Arm-based devices is about to get much higher interest from the consumer standpoint.



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[kondamin]

Might be a good time to try making windows phone a thing again

 

[mtosev]

Great. I welcome to see more Arm devices.

 

[JasBC]

Stop copying each other's idiotic brand names ffs!

 

[xSneak]

Looking forward to future Nvidia ARM cpu based builds using this OS.

 

[londiste]

Now it is time for ARM ecosystem to embrace interoperability, open (at least open enough) firmwares and responsible system for providing drivers, right? Right?

It is an important step from Microsoft side though.

 

[SL2]

It's kind of hard to see the appeal with Arm Windows if key selling points for regular Windows are gone. Personally I'm not sticking with Windows out of stubborness.

Not that it's MS's fault, as it's obviously a consequence of using Arm, but I might as well go for some other OS.

Spoiler

If you're replying you probably missed my "if".

 

[enb141]

Raspberry PI?

 

[Wirko]

Now it is time for ARM ecosystem to embrace interoperability, open (at least open enough) firmwares and responsible system for providing drivers, right? Right?

Until then, MS should at least provide an up-to-date list of compatible hardware (devices, motherboards, SoC's).

 

[tpuuser256]

I hope they add driver support for samsung tab S Ultra series

 

[lexluthermiester]

Might be a good time to try making windows phone a thing again

No, that's a terrible idea. Bad Felicia!

Great. I welcome to see more Arm devices.

If microsoft was actually smart, they would focus on Windows for RISCV.

 

[AGlezB]

Another nail in the x86 coffin.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Another nail in the x86 coffin.

I nominate this comment for this year's Darwin Award!

 

[phints]

Give this time to cook. Let's get an M5 Pro + RTX 5080 running on Win11 25H2 next year and see how it does (9800X3D will still crush it).

If only ARM chips had the PCIe lanes available to run with a GPU haven't seen that yet. Until then it remains for glorified tablets.

 

[AGlezB]

I nominate this comment for this year's Darwin Award!

Thanks! That's very gracious of you.

And yes, I know x86 is still alive and kicking ... in a ER from the multiple stabbing wounds it has received from ARM. The kicking is from the pain and the alive is turning into not alive very quickly.
ARM already replaced x86 in Apple products and while Windows has had ARM support for years it wasn't "official" because there wasn't enough compatible hardware and software in the market to make it popular. From 2025 onwards we'll be seeing a big increase in mobile devices dropping x86 in favor of ARM and more software with ARM builds and that trend will continue and once enough software is available the same thing will start happening on desktop devices.

x86 days are numbered [as a mainstream platform, thanks @lexluthermiester ]. I'm not saying it will dissapear completely because it won't, but in 20-30 years it will go from being the main desktop platform to something only companies with legacy software will be using.

 

[SL2]

I nominate this comment for this year's Darwin Award!

Doesn't look lethal, though..

 

[bug]

Windows on ARM is nice and everything. but it doesn't mean much on its own. Most Windows software is proprietary, you can't just recompile it and be good to go
Remember how many years it took for some manufacturers to move their device drivers from 32 to 64 bit?

 

[SL2]

x86 days are numbered. I'm not saying it will dissapear completely because it won't, but in 20-30 years it will go from being the main desktop platform to something only companies with legacy software will be using.

Give it enough time and everything will be obsolete, well except for chemical elements.

20-30 years? If we're not using silicon anymore, chances are that current CPU types are long gone and we're using something drastically different. Yeah I said chances, I'm not predicting anything lol

 

[lexluthermiester]

Doesn't look lethal, though..

Is it ever? Unless someone steps out in front of a bus or train..

Thanks! That's very gracious of you.

You're very welcome! Any time!

And yes, I know x86 is still alive and kicking ...

And it's not going anywhere. ARM is great for some things. It's not great for everything. Your suggestion is as narrow focused as it is a failure to understand the computing market and industry as a whole.

in a ER from the multiple stabbing wounds it has received from ARM.

That is a laughable and utterly daft notion.

x86 days are numbered.

So you said this and immediately followed up with...

I'm not saying it will dissapear completely because it won't

...this? Make up your mind will you?

Saying that something's "days are numbered" directly implies it will be gone.

RISC will NEVER replace CISC. Ever. Not gonna happen and there are very important reasons for this.

So yup, Darwin Award worthy comment..

However, were straying from topic, so I digress..

 

[SL2]

Is it ever? Unless someone steps out in front of a bus or train..

Darwin awards are, by definition. Sterilization is also accepted but it doesn't seem more likely here.

Dunno if one can be nominated if alive/not sterilized, I won't bother look it up lol

Anyway, I just don't see the the need for staying on Windows here.

 

[AGlezB]

RISC will NEVER replace CISC. Ever. Not gonna happen and there are very important reasons for this.

As a general design, sure, both exist for very good reasons. As a CPU design, not so much because it's easier to offload complext tasks to specialized hardware like GPU and NPU. You see, my first intel PC didn't have a FPU. You needed a 8087 that you had to plug in like this:

Overy time the functionality of the FPU became so important that it had to be included in the CPU package and continue to be like that until this day. Except, the FPU it's not powerful enough to handle more complext tasks and thats how we got GPUs and then NPUs, where the cost of offloading the operations to an external component offsets by far the cost of doing the proccesing in the CPU. For most tasks you don't need CISCs, especially if you have other hardware with the same/better capabilities.

So go ahead and give me the award. Frankly I don't know if I'll be around in 20 years but in time we'll see if I'm right or wrong.

 

[lexluthermiester]

Anyway, I just don't see the the need for staying on Windows here.

For some that's not a thing. For some it is. This Windows on ARM thing isn't a terrible shout really. As a long as it works and compatibility is maintained, it could be a solid option for some, especially for low cost computing devices.

Darwin awards are, by definition. Sterilization is also accepted but it doesn't seem more likely here.

Dunno if one can be nominated if alive/not sterilized, I won't bother look it up lol

So go ahead and give me the award.

Please note context, I nominated the comment you made for the award, not you personally.

You see, my first intel PC didn't have a FPU. You needed a 8087 that you had to plug in like this:

Yup! I remember those. Installed a whole bunch of them! Moving the FPU on-die(486DX) was a revelation for latency and overall performance. This kinda proves the point.

 

[SL2]

For some that's not a thing. For some it is. This Windows on ARM thing isn't a terrible shout really. As a long as it works and compatibility is maintained, it could be a solid option for some.

Well I wasn't talking about "some", I thught I made it obvious.

So yup, Darwin Award worthy comment..

Since you insist: https://darwinawards.com/rules/

 

[lexluthermiester]

Well I wasn't talking about "some", I thught I made it obvious.

Since you insist: https://darwinawards.com/rules/

See above edit..

 

[ScaLibBDP]

No, that's a terrible idea. Bad Felicia!

If Microsoft was actually smart, they would focus on Windows for RISCV.

RISC-V is a generic term in that context.

What hardware Microsoft should use for an R&D phase of Windows on RISC-V?

There are No really good notebooks, laptops and tablets with RISC-V processors at the moment. DC-ROMA RISC-V notebook is a toy to play for a couple of days! RISC-V Single-Board-Computers ( SBCs ) is another example of a hitech-mess related to RISC-V.

As a matter of fact RISC-V ISA fragmentation ( too many extensions released ) is an extremely terrible thing and it creates a lot of problems for software development teams, especially for developers of compilers, like GCC and LLVM. Even mighty Google is having problems with Android on RISC-V project!

>>...RISC will NEVER replace CISC. Ever. Not gonna happen and there are very important reasons for this.

Take a look at my previous post on why...