The best native Windows on Arm apps

Your new Windows on Arm PC needs some apps! These are the top apps that are optimized for your device.

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Windows on Arm |#FasterThanApple

All-new Snapdragon X Elite Arm processors from Qualcomm beat Apple’s M3 chip in performance benchmarks and rank dead even with the Apple M3 Pro. The landscape of portable PCs is about to change asWindows on Armbecomes faster than Apple.

Got yourself a newWindows on ArmPC? Now it’s time to get to work with your favorite apps! Windows on Arm PCs can run most apps, but some apps will run better than others depending on whether they’ve been compiled natively for Arm.

This article aims to provide an up to date list of the most common Windows apps that have been compiled for Arm processors. If there’s an Arm version of the app available, it will be listed here. We’ve helpfully categorized all the apps into different categories to make it easier to find the ones you’re looking for.

Browsers

The web browser is possibly the most important app on your PC, and the good news is most of the popular browsers are natively compiled for Windows on Arm! Whether that be Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, or even Brave and Vivaldi, these browsers should work with the best performance and efficiency on an Arm PC.

Media apps

Sometimes, you just want to kick back and relax with a good movie, TV show, or album. Luckily, there are a number of natively compiled Windows on Arm apps for you to take advantage of, including Spotify, VLC Media Player, and the most popular streaming apps like Netflix and Disney+!

Productivity

It’s not a Windows PC if you’re not planning to do at least some productivity work on it. Microsoft Office is ready for Windows on Arm, and that includes Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, and Outlook. There’s also LibreOffice and Notepad++ if you prefer third-party solutions.

Photo & Video apps

This list is still pretty short, but it’s getting longer every day. Right now, Adobe supports Windows on Arm with Photoshop and Lightroom, and it’s planning to bring more of its Creative Cloud suite to Windows on Arm in the future. We’ve also got Microsoft Clipchamp, which is a web app that works surprisingly well on Windows on Arm. GIMP and Paint.NET are also Arm native, and Davinci Resolve is getting an Arm version later this year.

Tools

Enhance your Windows on Arm device with these tools, which are designed to help you configure and customize your Windows install. We have PowerToys, which is a suite of tweaks from Microsoft that can enhance Windows 11, as well as third-party apps such as Start11, which outright replace the Windows 11 Start menu with a custom one that you can configure yourself.

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Social apps

Social apps are the bane of our existence, but at least they’re natively supported on Windows on Arm. All the most popular social apps are available on Windows, including X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and TikTok. All of these apps are web apps, powered by Microsoft Edge once you install them.

Windows on Arm is getting better all the time, and as more and more app developers compile their apps for the ARM64 architecture, choosing one of thebest Windows on Arm laptopsmeans the experience is only going to become more performant and energy efficient. Here, we’ve listed all the apps that are already Arm native, but there are thousands of Windows apps out there that are yet to make the jump.

Luckily, this shouldn’t matter, as Windows on Arm includes an emulation layer that allows for non-optimized apps to run on Arm PCs anyway. If you’re using a newSnapdragon X-basedlaptop, these apps will feel no different from natively compiled apps, as the Snapdragon X chip is so powerful it canemulate unoptimized games and appswith little to no performance impact.

Zac Bowden is a Senior Editor at Windows Central. Bringing you exclusive coverage into the world of Windows on PCs, tablets, phones, and more. Also an avid collector of rare Microsoft prototype devices! Keep in touch onTwitterandThreads