Wintty on a Snapdragon X laptop
A Snapdragon X Elite or Snapdragon X Plus machine is a Windows on ARM machine, so the terminal question is not whether a terminal runs. It is which build of one you get.
What "native" changes on this hardware
Wintty ships an ARM64 build of the same terminal, so the app itself is ARM64 code running on the ARM64 machine, rather than an x64 build running through the emulation Windows provides. What that removes is one translation layer under the terminal. The ARM64 vs x64 emulation explainer describes the layer; the short version is that a native build does not sit on it.
Everything you launch from the terminal is its own process with its own architecture: an ARM64 terminal does not change how an x64 tool runs.
Installing on a Snapdragon X laptop
The ARM64 build ships on its own channels, arm64-stable and arm64-tip, and Sponsor and Pro desktop are the editions that carry it. Sponsor at any amount, then sign in with GitHub and take the installer on the Windows on ARM page, which keeps the current download controls.
The same sponsorship covers both architectures, so there is no Snapdragon-specific tier and nothing separate to buy.
What is experimental about it
ARM64 builds are experimental: there is no ARM hardware here to test them properly yet, so treat them as early builds even on the stable channel. Reports from Windows on ARM machines are welcome.
That is the honest state of it: the build is real and it is served, and nobody here has run it on the hardware this page is about, which is why there is no performance number to quote. The pages here describe what a native build removes structurally, not how much faster it is.
Before you install
- Windows 11 on ARM64, which is what current Snapdragon X machines ship.
- A DirectX 12 capable GPU for the standard renderer.
Not affiliated with Qualcomm
Snapdragon is Qualcomm's chip and Wintty is not affiliated with Qualcomm. This page is about running Wintty on that hardware.
FAQ
Does Wintty run on a Snapdragon X laptop?
Yes. A Snapdragon X Elite or Snapdragon X Plus machine is a Windows on ARM machine, and Wintty ships an experimental native ARM64 build for Windows on ARM on its own channels. Sponsor and Pro desktop carry it.
Is the native ARM64 build faster than the emulated x64 one?
Nobody here has measured it. There is no ARM hardware in-house to test on, which is why the build is labelled experimental. The claim the project makes is structural: a native build has one less translation layer under it, and no performance figure is quoted until someone has run it.