14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft announced last week that future Qualcomm ARM processors would be able to run the full version of Windows 10, showing a demo of Photoshop running on a Snapdragon 820 processor that’s already available on a number of devices out there.
And because Windows on ARM seems to be Microsoft’s new push, it was only a matter of time until developers embraced it, and it appears that this is happening already.
Famous SSH client Putty has been recompiled to work on Windows 10 ARM using what seems to be an unreleased version of Visual Studio - it’s likely that when the first ARM processor supporting full Windows 10 goes live, Microsoft might also release a new version of Visual Studio, making it possible for devs to easily recompile their programs to support the platform.
The screenshot included in this article shows this version of PuTTY prepared for Windows 10 on an ARM64 device, and this is without a doubt just the beginning of a whole new series of applications.
Why recompiling?
What it’s worth knowing is that Microsoft’s plans to bring Windows 10 on ARM64 chips are supposed to make desktop applications run flawlessly on these devices anyway, so recompiling isn’t absolutely necessary.
But by recompiling a desktop solution to run natively on ARM64, a developer can help deal with any issues that might be experienced by users, and at the same time, he can fully optimize the program for lower power usage and better performance - which are both critical in the case of mobile devices.
Microsoft has said that the first processor to support Windows 10 on ARM will be the Snapdragon 835, although the original demo was made on Snapdragon 820. This means that devices that already feature the 820, such as the HP Elite X3, won’t get this super-exciting feature next year when it goes live.
In the meantime, it looks like 2017 will be a very busy year for developers planning to make the most of Microsoft’s Windows 10 expansion on ARM, so expect many more announcements in this regard to go live in the coming months.