Windows on ARM testing

[rthonpm]

With clients asking about ARM PCs, as well as a few of my own team, I bought a low end no name Qualcomm processor PC to start testing. It's running Windows 11 Pro and domain bound.

So far:

Software: it's worked with all of my standard applications with several having native ARM versions (7-Zip, Acrobat Reader, Firefox ESR, Notepad ++, Office 365). With regular x64 or x86 software it's been fine as well. No issues running anything like WinSCP, VLC, or even the agent for my security software that installs as a Windows service.

Performance: it's a low end machine with 8 GB of RAM. It's been comparable to a four or five year old laptop, though RAM has been a bottleneck more than the CPU.

Peripherals: here's where it gets interesting. Ricoh hasn't added any ARM drivers, relying on Mopria. With older equipment like our office MP 171 there's no support so I've had to get creative. The 64-bit drivers for traditional processors won't install and the built-in generic Postscript Class driver wouldn't offer duplex. I ended up enabling WSD for the printer feature, which obviously created a WSD port for the device but it also made the PC pull the Ricoh class driver, which has worked with basic printing thus far. With the driver installed, I removed WSD from the MFP again and re-connected via a standard TCP/IP port in LPR mode. I'll be trying to connect to a similarly aged SP C232DN with the class driver as well over the weekend.

Outside of printing, USB devices have worked without issues. Wireless keyboards and Bluetooth headsets all connected and tested successfully. I'll also be trying connecting mobile phones and any driver based devices over the weekend as well.

My weekend plans include trying some of the more niche software some of our clients use, as well as some of the other agents we install on equipment to see what breaks or acts flaky.

If there's any specific software that anyone needs tried, let me know.

[rthonpm]

Weekend testing, with additional things to still do:

Printing, testing with a Ricoh SP C232DN and the Ricoh Class driver was a disaster. Even setting the driver to the correct tray and paper type just gave a paper type mismatch or just gibberish, which is common even on a regular Intel or AMD device. The only successful workaround was creating a shared printer queue using a Type 4 driver and connecting to it. I still had to set the default paper tray and type, otherwise it tried using the bypass tray every job. With no ARM driver on the server, the PC just uses the generic Point and Print driver, but all of the features for the printer are there.

Software:

Looking at some client software, about 90% of what I tested worked properly. The only exceptions have been a few embroidery control applications, as they load drivers for a USB connection to the embroidery machine; some scientific apps that just give a Windows message that they're not compatible with this version of Windows; and some engineering applications that also try to install drivers for test equipment. Outside of the niche stuff, everything else has installed and run without issues.

Overall, my advice to clients is going to be that ARM PCs are going to be better served in office environments with little or no legacy devices, or as road warrior devices. One of my project managers has volunteered to have their old Surface Pro 4 replace with an ARM ThinkPad. For travel or users without regular access to charging it could be a huge benefit due to the increased battery life.


This is going to be the future of Windows , however in regular Windows fashion, it's going to take time to become the standard as backwards compatibility always hangs around.

[ihatefinishers13]

We have one church who's Reverend uses a laptop with ARM, and because he also wants user authentication on, he has to use Sharpdesk Mobile from the Microsoft store. We got it to basic print with a PPD driver (could be wrong there), but with authentication there's no way to do it otherwise. I asked our Sharp rep about ARM drivers and he said unless the world switches over to it, they're not going to add support for it... Which I told him wasn't helpful to the customers that end up buying them and we look like the bad guys for not being able to support it. Either way, ARM processor's need abolished for business use.

[rthonpm]

ARM processor's need abolished for business use.

A bit hyperbolic. It's more of having the conversation about the early adopter tax.

When 64-bit desktops started becoming a thing back about 20 years ago there were very few hardware devices that had drivers available unless they were supported on servers. I spent a lot of time reinstalling a 32-bit version of Windows on a lot of systems until the hardware vendors finally caught up.

ARM is going to be the future but until the Qualcomm exclusivity contract for Windows expires it's going to be a fairly limited number of systems available to reach the critical mass needed.

[ShafaqatBlogger]

We have one church who's Reverend uses a laptop with ARM, and because he also wants user authentication on, he has to use Sharpdesk Mobile from the Microsoft store. We got it to basic print with a PPD driver (could be wrong there), but with authentication there's no way to do it otherwise. I asked our Sharp rep about ARM drivers and he said unless the world switches over to it, they're not going to add support for it... Which I told him wasn't helpful to the customers that end up buying them and we look like the bad guys for not being able to support it. Either way, ARM processor's need abolished for business use.

Thanks your information is important for me

[nullskull]

A bit hyperbolic. It's more of having the conversation about the early adopter tax.

When 64-bit desktops started becoming a thing back about 20 years ago there were very few hardware devices that had drivers available unless they were supported on servers. I spent a lot of time reinstalling a 32-bit version of Windows on a lot of systems until the hardware vendors finally caught up.

ARM is going to be the future but until the Qualcomm exclusivity contract for Windows expires it's going to be a fairly limited number of systems available to reach the critical mass needed.

I didn't know Qualcomm has exclusivity for that. Very dumb imo. Have the other big two shown interest (intel & AMD) in making ARM chips?

[rthonpm]

Qualcomm signed a deal with Microsoft back in 2016 to be the provider for ARM processors. The deal ends this year so starting next year other companies can start to make chips. So far at least Nvidia and AMD are interested.