Microsoft Releases ARM64 Version of Notepad for Insiders

A new Notepad update has started rolling out to Windows Insiders in all channels, and the new bits finally bring native ARM64 support for the legacy app. The new native ARM64 version of Notepad should bring performance improvements on Windows on ARM PCs, but this update also delivers better support for screen readers, text scaling, and other assistive technologies.

The new ARM64 version of Notepad follows the rollout of an ARM64 version of the Microsoft Store for Windows Insiders last week. At its Build developer conference last month, Microsoft also announced the upcoming release of a native developer toolchain for Windows on ARM PCs that will include ARM64 versions of Visual Studio 2022, Windows Terminal, and the Windows Subsystem for Linux.

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In addition to today’s NotePad update, a new version of Microsoft’s Media Player app has started rolling out to Dev Channel Insiders. This update brings performance improvements as well as the ability to sort songs and albums in your collection by date added, which was a top requested feature.

Support for CD playback and improvements to the drag and drop experience are also now available for all Insiders, the team said today. It doesn’t look like we may get a new Windows 11 Insider build this week, but these latest app updates are certainly better than nothing.

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  • Scsekaran

    09 June, 2022 - 1:41 pm

    <p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">ARM64 native Powertoys released as well!</span></p>

    • dftf

      09 June, 2022 - 3:08 pm

      <p>Really? That’s been a long-time coming! (They were originally planning to release a 32-bit version too, but quietly announced they’d given-up sometime last-year, given the low-install-base of 32-bit versions of <em>Windows 10</em>, and there not being any 32-bit kernel support in <em>Windows 11</em>…)</p>

  • behindmyscreen

    09 June, 2022 - 2:55 pm

    <p>Mary Jo rushes to get an Arm based laptop</p>

  • dftf

    09 June, 2022 - 3:05 pm

    <p><em>"</em><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The new native ARM64 version of Notepad should bring performance improvements"</em></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">It’s </span><u style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Notepad</u><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">! It’s only used to open plain-text files, which are typically very small (okay, outside of log-files, perhaps) so was there </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">really</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> that-much of a penalty previously running the AMD64 binary one through the translation-layer (or whatever it is) on the ARM64 version?</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Of all apps that would surely need a native ARM-port to improve speed, I really wouldn’t have </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Notepad</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> at the top of the list! I mean, it’s crazy that right-now only </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Firefox</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> and </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Microsoft Edge</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> are available in a precompiled ARM64 format; for </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Google Chrome, Brave, Opera</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> and </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Vivaldi</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> you still only have the option of running the AMD64 versions on </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Windows 11 on ARM</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, or the Intel32 versions on </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Windows 10 on ARM</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> (or did W10oA actually receive the ability to run AMD64 binaries?)</span></p><p><br></p><p><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Even for </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Microsoft Office</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, only </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Word, Excel, OneNote, Outlook</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> and </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">PowerPoint </em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">are ARM-native: </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Access, Project</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> and </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Visio </em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">still aren’t. (Nor is </span><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Publisher</em><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">, but it’s not-really supported anymore full-stop.)</span></p>

  • wright_is

    Premium Member
    09 June, 2022 - 3:13 pm

    <p>Performance improvements? It is the most basic of text editors, how much improvement can you make?</p><p><br></p><p>Okay, I bang on a lot about developers taking no pride in their coding skills these days, but this is almost the other extreme, and a big question of why it want one of the first things that got recompiled into ARM64, when the core OS was first released.</p>

    • yaddamaster

      09 June, 2022 - 4:11 pm

      <p>it’s the answer to a question literally no one was asking. Well, congrats to the intern who got assigned to this one. Something to put on the resume I guess.</p>

      • anoldamigauser

        Premium Member
        09 June, 2022 - 4:32 pm

        <p>At least that intern got something done.</p>

  • anoldamigauser

    Premium Member
    09 June, 2022 - 4:30 pm

    <p>Baby steps…</p>

  • matsan

    09 June, 2022 - 4:59 pm

    <p>After three weeks with my Apple studio I still only have one application requiring Rosetta: Sonos Desktop Controller. All other of my development applications are Apple Silicon native. Pretty amazing. </p>

    • rob_segal

      Premium Member
      09 June, 2022 - 5:04 pm

      <p>Apple has a more engaged user and developer base than Microsoft does with Windows users and app developers. Also, they are migrating their entire line to Apple Silicon, which launched with great, class-leading chips, unlike Windows on ARM, which has a very small number of users.</p>

      • dftf

        09 June, 2022 - 6:34 pm

        <p><em style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"[Apple] are migrating their entire line to Apple Silicon, which launched with great, class-leading chips, unlike Windows on ARM, which has a very small number of users."</em></p><p><br></p><p><em>Windows on ARM</em> is in an odd-place, yes. Theoretically, it <em>should</em> become the de-facto version of <em>Windows</em>, given-that the ARM chips would provide better battery-life, but you can still run all your legacy AMD64 and Intel32 coded apps (but not high-end games). And yet the ARM CPUs available in their devices <em>don’t even compete</em> with those that can be found in premium <em>Android</em> phones, let-alone <em>Apple Silicon</em>. (It’s still in a <em>much-better </em>place now than back in the <em>Windows RT</em> days, where only 32-bit ARM and Intel32 apps were supported, and many standard <em>Windows</em> built-in apps didn’t come with it — I think in the current <em>Windows 11 on ARM</em>, only the old <em>Windows Fax &amp; Scan</em> is the only one not included, which is hardly a great-loss to most thesedays!)</p><p><br></p><p><em>"Apple has a more engaged user and developer base than Microsoft does with Windows users and app developers"</em></p><p><br></p><p>Well, <em>Windows </em>is just the "default-option", so that’s to be expected. People specifically <em>get into Mac</em>, and pay a lot-more for the privilege, so it stands-to-reason they’d have a more vested-interest. Though, on the developer side, I’d argue their interest likely lies far-more with <em>iOS</em> and <em>iPadOS</em>, where most of the big-money is made on the apps, than with <em>macOS</em>…</p>

        • wright_is

          Premium Member
          10 June, 2022 - 12:18 am

          <p>That is the problem, or problems. Microsoft don’t seem to be taking ARM seriously, just getting a SKU out there that works, but they don’t want to offend Intel too much.</p><p><br></p><p>Plus, Apple turned to their developers and users and said, "Intel is dead long live ARM!" The users and developers didn’t have much choice, the old software would, mostly, run in emulated mode, sometimes slowly, but it was just a stop-gap measure and everybody knew it would go away, so they had to get with the programme.</p><p><br></p><p>Microsoft, on the other hand, is controlled by its corporate customers and the developers of corporate software, they wouldn’t put up with an Apple like move that would cost them millions, if not billions to refurbish their businesses – the hardware is the smallest cost, when it comes to corporate use. We have 400€ PCs for most people, but probably 5-7,000€ in licenses per PC for the software the users need to run.</p><p><br></p><p>You just can’t run out and replace all of that with ARM versions, if the devs could even be bothered to develop for it. Heck, our PLC software control software still runs in IE11 in compatibility mode, using ActiveX!</p>

          • matsan

            10 June, 2022 - 3:09 am

            <p>Agreed.</p><p>Also native apps is the way forward, Rosetta is just a transition tool.</p><p>But, the legacy of APIs and platforms on Windows is staggering and all boils down to supporting Win32 API on ARM… </p><p>Don’t know if there is an equivalent to Universal apps in the Windows world to ease the transition and possibly get some traction to WinOnARM, but that likely won’t help due to the plethora of SDKs and application models Microsoft has been throwing at the wall to see what sticks during the last two decades. Meanwhile Cupertino has been focusing all attention to one set of Cocoa API (two sets including the Touch, but even there the Foundation and other core APIs are shared).</p><p>Using Windows’ 64-bit transition as a benchmark we’ll maybe see full ARM support in 2038 or so.</p>

      • matsan

        10 June, 2022 - 2:57 am

        <p>Given the lack of love from Sonos to the Desktop application, I am surprised that the iPad version isn’t available for macOS yet. Would make perfect sense and a cool use of the cross-platform capabilities with ARM and Apple’s APIs.</p>

  • johnlavey

    Premium Member
    09 June, 2022 - 5:06 pm

    <p>I spent about a half hour trying to figure out how to update my (previously never used) Windows Media Player. It must be that this updated Media Player is for ARM armed PCs….although I saw no ARM referencing in that paragraph. I finally gave up my foolish attempt to update the Media Player. </p><p>No h(ARM<em>)</em>, I guess.</p>

    • dftf

      09 June, 2022 - 6:21 pm

      <p>It doesn’t say on the Microsoft Blog article (the first link in Laurent’s article) that the update for <em>Media Player</em> is exclusive to ARM PCs, just that your device must be enrolled in the <em>Windows Insiders</em> programme and on the "Dev" channel. So, in your Start Menu, search for <strong>WINVER</strong> and click on the result, and check if after "OS build" it reads "10.0.25115.1000" or higher.</p><p><br></p><p>If no, then that PC is not in the "Dev" channel and so won’t get the update.</p><p><br></p><p>If yes, then you either need to wait for it to appear (Microsoft do this weird "A/B testing" thing where not everyone on the same version of <em>Windows</em>, <em>Office</em> or <em>Edge</em> get the same features at the same time) or you could go into the <em>Microsoft Store</em>, then to "Library", then tap "Get updates" and see if you then get it.</p>

      • johnlavey

        Premium Member
        09 June, 2022 - 10:43 pm

        <p>THANKS for that information. I am a Windows Insider and my OS version is 22H2 build 25136 (today’s update). To be honest I use iPhone for all my music, so checking out Windows Media Player came from curiosity. I was wondering if the new updated Media Player would work on my laptop. <strong>And</strong> I had no intertest in the updated Notepad. </p>

  • Cardch

    10 June, 2022 - 2:00 am

    <p>I’ve got a PC running Windows on ARM and must say I have never noticed an issue with the performance of Notepad. I also can’t see a way to tell that it is non-native at the moment, as I would never have known without seeing this article.</p><p><br></p><p>However, the more apps which <em>are </em>native the better I guess, it can only help overall performance (which is already better than I had hoped). If MS keep chipping away at Windows on ARM then…one day… you never know. I still love the experience (fanless, instant-on, great battery life) compared to a normal Windows laptop, so for a lot of use cases I think it makes sense.</p>

  • oscar90

    10 June, 2022 - 3:05 am

    <p>All this article really do is unintentionally showing the sad state of WoA.</p>

  • madthinus

    Premium Member
    10 June, 2022 - 1:47 pm

    <p>What was ARM native in this OS?</p>

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