Snapdragon X Copilot+ PC: My Windows 11 on Arm App Compatibility Scorecard (2024)

Windows 11 on Arm will sink or swim in part on the apps experience, though this is perhaps a bit more nuanced than is immediately obvious.

Ideally, all of the apps we need would be available in native Arm64 versions. But since that’s a fantasy, especially in the short term, Windows 11 on Arm needs to emulate x86/x64 apps reliably and with enough performance that we don’t notice anything off. And that’s where the Snapdragon X in the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x and other first-generation Copilot+ PCs, and Qualcomm’s dramatically better Prism emulator, come into play.

But there are two other issues to consider: Early adopters will sometimes need to do a bit of work to ensure they’re getting the right version of certain apps, and some apps won’t run on Windows 11 on Arm at all. And in the latter case, I’m not just referring to drivers or hardware peripheral utilities. Apps that integrate with the Windows shell won’t work in Windows 11 on Arm unless there’s a native port.

It’s never going to be perfect. But the promise here is that Copilot+ PCs running Windows 11 on Arm on Snapdragon X will go a long way towards erasing our bad memories of previous Arm-based PCs. And to test that theory, I spent much of this afternoon working through the list of apps that I always install on review PCs.

As you may know, I usually use an elaborate Windows Package Manager (winget) script to bulk-install over 20 apps on each PC I use or review. But this time, I wanted to see what it was like finding and installing these apps on the web and in the Microsoft Store, and seeing which were offered in native Arm form automatically and which were not. My hope was that I’d be automatically offered Arm versions when they were available.

As I noted in my Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x 14 Gen 9 First Impressions post, I installed a few keys apps upfront, once I had gotten the PC up-to-date and personalized to some degree. And even that short initial list of app installs provided some interesting data.

First, I installed the Google Chrome and Brave web browsers.

I knew that Chrome is available natively for Windows 11 on Arm and was happy to see that the web installer detected the system correctly and offered me that version of the app. Nice.

I likewise knew that Brave is also available in a native Arm version. But in this case, I didn’t see anything obvious on the website indicating I was getting the Arm version. The good news? It downloaded and installed the correct (native) version.

Next, I installed iA Writer, the Markdown Editor I use for writing. I usually get this one from the Microsoft Store, but looking at its Store listing, I could see that it was only available in x64 form. That doesn’t surprise me: iA Writer is made by a tiny team of developers, and the Windows version of the app is less full-featured than the Mac version. And so I assume Windows 11 on Arm is not a priority. I downloaded the x64 version and used it to write that previous post and the post you’re reading now, and it works wonderfully. No issues at all.

Then I installed Affinity Photo 2 the photo editor I use,. As with Chrome and Brave, I knew that Affinity had announced full support for Windows 11 on Arm, but when I viewed the app’s Microsoft Store listing, it only showed an x64 version. So I Googled it and found I could download the native Arm version of the app directly from Affinity.

So there’s an important bit of work: It’s on you as the Windows 11 on Arm user to figure this stuff out. And the Store listing for each app, which I’d normally consider to be definitive, isn’t enough. I hope this is a short-term problem, but it’s the currently reality.

Finally, I tried to install the Google Drive client for Windows, knowing that I might be defeated: This app obviously requires shell integration, and while Google was quick to port Chrome to Arm, I’d heard nothing about Drive. My first attempt was to simply download the client normally, but as I feared, it wasn’t compatible. So I Googled it and found several years-old support forum post, but no good news. I may look into a third-party solution, but I’ll likely have to work out of OneDrive for now, and upload archived files to Google Drive later.

And that, too, is important to know. Not everything you use will work in Windows 11 on Arm, even in 2024. And this is a mainstream solution: Lots of people use random older and esoteric apps that may never make this transition. So you may need a Plan B.

Initial app installs

Between those first five apps–Chrome, Brave, iA Writer, Affinity Photo, and Google Drive–I had done pretty well: I was able to write two posts, edit all the screenshots I needed for the first of those posts, and upload them: That’s three successes (native Arm apps), one tie (one emulated x64 app), and one defeat (an x64 app that will not work). So the scorecard stands at 3-1-1. Or 4-1, given how well iA Writer works.

✅ Google Chrome
✅ Brave
✅ Affinity Photo 2
💻 iA Writer
✖️ Google Drive

Productivity apps

Next up, I went for the remaining productivity apps I use regularly.

Microsoft Office was preinstalled on the Yoga and it’s available natively for Arm64, so that didn’t require any work. And that’s a big part of the compatibility puzzle for most people, of course.

I use Notion for notes and didn’t expect to see a native Arm version. So I wasn’t disappointed: There isn’t one. Fortunately, the x64 version, like iA Writer, appears to run perfectly fast on Snapdragon X in emulation.

But this did make me think back to a vague memory I had that you could see the architecture of each app you are using in Task Manager. And sure enough, in the app’s Details view, you can view this information. Notion, for example is listed as an x64 app.

That unfolded as expected, but I also found something else: In Task Manager’s default view, Processes, you can right-click any process, select “Properties” from the context menu that appears, and access an Arm emulation settings interface from the Compatibility tab of the Properties window that appears. This might prove useful with future app compatibility issues, so it’s good to know about.

Moving on, I installed Visual Studio Code next. I use this lightweight code editor mostly for book writing, and new it is available in a native Arm version. The website didn’t indicate anything about Arm, but I could see from the installer’s filename that it was for Arm, not x64. So another nice win there, and I was able to sign in to my GitHub account and install my customizations and extensions.

The last one, Grammarly, was a wild card. You can acess Grammarly a few different ways, as a browser extension, but also as a standalone app. The benefit of the latter is that it works everywhere in Windows: Anywhere you can type text, you can access Grammarly’s AI-based spelling and grammar checking capabilities. I knew the browser extensions would be fine, but I was curious about the app, knowing–or believing, at least–that it would have to run emulated.

I normally install Grammarly from the Microsoft Store, but when I checked its listing there, I saw something unexpected: Instead of saying it was available on x64 (and/or Arm64), it said the architecture was “neutral.” Weird. I Googled it and checked the Grammarly website, but didn’t find anything about an Arm port. So I grabbed the version from the Store and, after installing and configured it, ensured it worked normally with other apps, which it does. Checking it via Task Manager as noted above, I can see that it’s an x64 app. But it works great.

The scorecard for my additional productivity apps is 2-2-0: Two successes (Arm64 native), two emulated apps, and no defeats.

✅ Microsoft Office/Word
✅ Visual Studio Code
💻 Notion
💻 Grammarly

And that puts the overall scorecard by this point at 5-3-1 (or 8-1 if you accepted well-running emulated apps as a win).

Communications apps

Next up was the communications apps I’m forced to use for work: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Skype, Zoom, and Discord. With the exception of Slack, which I use every day, I use most of these apps sparingly, so the impact is minimal as long as I can get emulated versions to run OK.

Slack is available in the Microsoft Store, but only in x64 form, and the company did recently announce an Arm64 beta. So I downloaded and installed that version, signed in, connected to my workspaces, and got to work. From what I can tell, it’s identical to the x64 version and appears to work well. Success.

Windows 11 version 24H2 comes with the new Teams client, and Task Manager tells me it’s a native Arm64 app. So I’ll chalk that up as a success too.

Skype … well, it’s available in x86 and x64 versions in the Microsoft Store, but there’s surprisingly no Arm64 version. So I’m using the x64 version in emulation. It seems fine.

Zoom is important: I need it for Windows Weekly each week, and for Hands-On Windows every three weeks or so. And it interacts with the PC’s camera and microphone, and that can always be entertaining, even aside from emulation. And sure enough, Zoom Workspace is in the Store in x86, x64, and Arm64 forms, so I installed it from there. Zoom Workspace can be really buggy, and it’s probably a bit early to hand out the champagne, but I signed in and it works fine with the PC’s webcam, microphone, and speakers. Nice, I’m calling that a win.

I use Discord once each week during Windows Weekly to interact with Club TWiT members. It’s available in the Store, but only in x86 form. I don’t see anything recent about an Arm port, so I installed that. It seems fine.

And with that, the scorecard for communications apps stands at 3-2-0, three wins (native Arm64), two ties (emulated apps that work fine), and no defeats.

✅ Slack (beta)
✅ Microsoft Teams
✅ Zoom Workspace
💻 Skype
💻 Discord

That brings the overall scorecard, to this point, to 8-5-1 (or 14-1 if successful emulation works for you). So far so good.

More creative apps

From there, I went for the other creative apps I use: ImageGlass 9, which I get from the Store, and Greenshot, which I get from the web.

ImageGlass 9 is my favorite photo viewer, thanks to its minimalist UI, and it can also be used for image conversion if other apps don’t work. It’s available in the Store, but only in x64 form as expected: It is the product of a single individual, after all. So I installed it from the Store, ran it, was told it needed the .NET Desktop Runtime (which is true on x64 PCs as well), and so I installed that too, from the web.

This can be confusing: The .NET Desktop Runtime is available natively for Arm, but because the app that needs it is an x64 app, that means I needed the x64 version of the .NET Desktop Runtime too. Or at least I assume so. Anyway, that’s what I installed, and ImageGlass 9 works fine.

I use and rely on Greenshot for screenshots–for the book and site–and it’s available from the Store, albeit only in x86 (32-bit) form. I Googled this one, but couldn’t find anything about an Arm port and so I gave it a shot (pardon the pun). It works perfectly, huzzah!

And with that, the scorecard for my additional creative apps stands at 0-2-1.

💻 ImageGlass 9 (and .NET Desktop Runtime)
💻 Greenshot

Which means that the final tally is 8-7-1. Of the 16 top apps I rely on, 8 run natively in Arm, 7 run well emulated, and one doesn’t work at all.

There’s always more

I have more to say about app compatibility, but I will test some other apps first, including a few heavy hitters. And let’s not forget about games: One of the key selling points of the Snapdragon X is that it can play many modern game titles successfully in emulation better than equivalent x64 Ultrabooks, and I am of course curious. So we’ll see what happens.

Reflecting on the above app compatibility tests, it occurs that raw numbers (8-7-1, 15-1, whatever) don’t tell the full tale. This level of compatibility is nice, but the one app that doesn’t work, Google Drive, is central to my workflow and should be weighted more heavily than many of the apps that do work. So that’s something I need to figure out as well.

But it’s early days. I just got this PC and have lots more to do.