
Windows 10 on ARM64 gets its first compiled apps (7-zip, PuTTY) - dbcooper
https://mspoweruser.com/windows-arm64-gets-first-compiled-apps/
======
Analemma_
Not quite the first! I actually had a Surface RT, and for a while you could
jailbreak it and run Win32 apps, as long as they were recompiled. Obviously
there wasn't much available (turns out there wasn't much motivation for
recompiling apps for the tiny fraction of the tiny fraction of people with
jailbroken Surface RTs, whoulda guessed), but there were a few: someone
actually ported the Python runtime. It worked great!

It was always inexplicable to me that Microsoft did all that work to port the
entire OS to a new architecture and then roped it off and said "No touching!".
Looks like it finally wasn't a waste after all.

Edit: My bad, the title specifically said ARM64. Will leave the story up as a
hopefully entertaining anecdote though.

~~~
DaiPlusPlus
Microsoft didn't want to spook Intel too hard, that, and they wanted to
motivate developers to buy into the sandbox "Store App" environment. So long
as Win32 worked, why bother putting effort into designing an app specifically
for Windows RT/8?

There's another reason for Microsoft to allow full ARM development with the NT
OS: Windows CE is dead, and I believe many IOT/Embedded shops might be too put
off with other embedded systems - and/or don't want to rewrite their ATM UIs
or Factory robot arm controllers (both historically the realm of WinCE) as
Android apps or "Windows IOT" UWP apps. So saying "Windows 10 now also
replaces Windows CE" is a good thing, especially given the relative ease of
porting Win32/CE code to the full-fat Win32/NT implementation.

I think this will only be news if we hear them announce unlocked ARM for all
phones and tablets. It's still possible unlocked ARM is entirely up to the
discretion of the OEM, not the user.

~~~
digi_owl
It seems that with the whole "RT" thing is it one step forward, two steps
back.

You either have a RT app, or a win32 program, you can't wrap a win32 program
in a RT ui in case you want to make it tablet friendly.

Well you kinda can, if you are a web browser. But Windows will only allow you
if the user sets said browser as the default.

------
Zekio
Microsoft doing a lot of instruction set translation/emulation lately

