Microsoft has shipped an update to its Prism emulator that allows x86 apps to run on Windows 11 devices powered by Arm chips. While Prism already supports running most x86 apps, this latest update adds compatibility with an even wider selection of apps and games, such as those that use AVX or AVX2 extensions.
“With today’s update, Prism expands its capability by supporting translation of more x86 instruction set architecture extensions, including AVX and AVX2, as well as related extensions BMI, FMA, F16C, and others.” With this update, apps like Ableton Live 12 should now run fine on Windows 11 on Arm devices.
This update to the Prism emulator is already rolling out as part of the latest Windows 11 updates on version 24H2 and 25H2, so your Windows 11 on Arm PC should automatically be updated to be able to run these additional apps and games. It’s enabled automatically on 64-bit apps, and can be manually enabled on 32-bit executables.
Windows on Arm has come a very long way since its inception in 2017. After launching as an underpowered platform with very little support from developers and hardware makers, the Windows 11 on Arm platform today is thriving with a large selection of devices to choose from, as well as many mainstream apps natively supporting the platform.
The Prism emulator is also a huge step up over the old x86 app emulation layer that shipped on Windows 10. Most x86 apps now run without issues, and in many cases don’t even feel like they’re being emulated. These days, the majority of users won’t notice a difference between using an Intel PC or a Snapdragon one, and that’s not something you could say just a few years ago.
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