Bandizip on Windows 10 on ARM
Bandizip v6.18 and later officially support Windows 10 on ARM and work natively on ARM64 CPU. As Bandizip’s setup file supports x86/x64/ARM64 all together, you may go straight to the download page, get the file, and install it. If Bandizip is running on Windows 10 on ARM, a text “ARM64” is displayed in the title bar. Download Bandizip
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Introduction to Windows 10 on ARM
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Released by Microsoft in 2018, “Windows 10 on ARM” is Windows 10 OS that runs on ARM64 CPU.
ARM CPU is mainly used in mobile devices such as cell phones and tablet PCs. With support from Microsoft, however, ARM CPU is expected to be used in the future not only on laptops but also on desktops.
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Microsoft announced the reasons for support on ARM CPU as follows:
- Low-power consumption which makes Laptop’s operating time longer.
- Small size which makes devices smaller, or leaves more room to put a bigger battery.
- LTE modem built in the CPU and available immediately.
- Switchable immediately to normal mode from low-power standby mode.
x86 app emulation on Windows 10 on ARM
In addition to introducing Windows 10 on ARM, Microsoft also introduced Win32 emulation which is able to run existing x86 applications.
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Since ARM is a completely different CPU from Intel’s x86/x64, x86 applications are unable to run on ARM without an additional measure. Therefore Microsoft developed Win32 emulator which can translate x86 code to ARM code and execute it in real-time.
Though this emulator works properly, the emulated x86 applications have some disadvantages compared with native ARM64 apps.
- Because the emulator supports 32bit(x86) apps only, the apps are unable to use more than 2GB of memory.
- Due to real-time emulation, running the emulated x86 apps make CPU computing speed slower 2 to 3 times compared to running the same apps compiled for ARM64.
- Explorer shell extensions (DLL) built for x86 don’t work properly.
Tested on ASUS NovaGo with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 835 CPU, the following shows a comparison of elapsed task times between Bandizip compiled for x86 and the other compiled for ARM64. The ARM64 app is 2 to 3 times faster than the x86 app. Asus NovaGo
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