https://www.thurrott.com/windows/windows-10/152501/microsoft-finally-document...Microsoft Finally Documents the Limitations of Windows 10 on ARM 
For over a year we’ve been treated to the fantasy that Windows 10 on ARM was the same as Windows 10 on x86. But it’s a bit more nuanced than that.Granted, we’ve known some of the differences from the beginning, and we’ve vaguely understood that there would be trade-offs for those moving to this new hardware platform. In particular, the performance of x86 apps, which would need to be emulated.
This week, however, Microsoft finally published a more complete list of the limitations of Windows 10 on ARM. And that word—limitations—is interesting. This isn’t how Windows 10 on ARM differs from Windows 10 on x86-based systems. It’s how it’s more intentionally limited.
And while we absolutely knew about some of these, the items on this list now include.
64-bit apps will not work. Yes, Windows 10 on ARM can run Windows desktop applications. But it can only run 32-bit (x86) desktop applications, not 64-bit (x64) applications. (The documentation doesn’t note this, but support for x64 apps is planned for a future release.)
Certain classes of apps will not run. Utilities that modify the Windows user interface—like shell extensions, input method editors (IMEs), assistive technologies, and cloud storage apps—will not work in Windows 10 on ARM. They will need to be recompiled for ARM, and my guess is that this will not happen in most cases, especially in the next year.
It cannot use x86 drivers. While Windows 10 on ARM can run x86 Windows applications, it cannot utilize x86 drivers. Instead, it will require native ARM64 drivers instead. This means that hardware support will be much more limited than is the case with mainstream Windows 10 versions. In other words, it will likely work much like Windows 10 S does today.
No Hyper-V. This was a gray area previously—I’ve heard the phrase “it’s just Windows 10, so it will work” several times—but now it’s real: Hyper-V is not supported in Windows 10 on ARM.
Older games and graphics apps may not work. Windows 10 on ARM supports DirectX 9, DirectX 10, DirectX 11, and DirectX 12, but apps/games that target older versions will not work. Apps that require hardware-accelerated OpenGL will also not work.
That’s an interesting list and while it’s not completely damming (but close to it) my months-long lackluster experiences with Windows 10 S suggest that the first year will be tough for many who do choose to adopt this platform. Thurrott picks up on all the important bits and he nails the prediction on the eventual fate of Win 10 ARM.
Of the 3 promised machines, I look for at least one to fail to arrive in any real numbers, ever ...... 
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Think of it all this way ..... Qualcomm was disrupting the industry and was suing people right and left and was really putting Intel into a sudden new bind on the data center / rack farm side of things. (the side that Intel made most of their money off of)
And now all of a sudden Qualcomm had become a laptop capable chipset that
if a good fast Linux or Fuchsia became available could put both Intel and Microsoft into a more permanent bind.
Something had to be done right away. Phone calls were made, secret meetings were held.
Just as consortiums to disrupt Google (remember the Oracle lawsuit?) had been done in the past, so it was with the Wintel boys and Broadcom. Microsoft distracted Qualcomm by getting all buddy buddy with them by promising a new class of laptop, then dumping on Qualcomm's head by dropping the new laptop product at the last minute with lots of excessive restrictions and
no real finished progress on anything in the last six months.
Meanwhile, Broadcom structures a hostile takeover bid for Qualcomm -- promising publically to stop all the lawsuits and halt all the ongoing big royalty payments if they win. The Microsoft distraction and the hostile takeover attempts from Broadcom stops all Qualcomm progress on all other fronts other than on one (1) main phone chipset and one (1) uber speed broadband cell tower modem design
and this intentional orchestrated disruption causes the Qualcomm stock price to tank.
Intel tries to use this bought time to upgrade its processors (however they just did more of the same, and more and more of the same again on top of that --- all was still done at 14nm lithography).
Now it is the scheduled "dump off on Qualcomm" time, with Microsoft taking the first turn crapping all over Qualcomm's head. Look to see the "out of the blue" Broadcom takeover bid efforts evaporate as well, since this planned irritant has run its course pretty much too.
Has Intel had enough recovery time to do something useful with itself? Apparently Intel will try to do 10nm production thing one more time again this summer, so maybe the fourth time around is the charm for Intel .....
Listen close now, the low moaning you hear in the background is the sound of the AI woodchipper starting up at moderate speed right now, and Intel now faces this brand new threat that can flat grind them up into coleslaw inside a year or two if they don't do some relatively large right things right -- ASAP. Remember, Google and Rockchip have the first ARM based low cost Chromebook AI chipset in trial production and are building up the first trial Chromebook AI units so they can work out the finalized AI functions as we speak.
Look to see a lot of Intel processors move down in the performance rankings accordingly. And ARM Holdings itself has now come out with a twice as big 4.6 TOPS AI co-processor, and a mating Optical recognition co-processor and the Trillium software integration backbone to give it all a cohesive framework to operate against (some sort of product announcements for these may be presented at MWC next week). Having a published FOSS standard to write against means everybody's hardware stuff can run the standard softwares, which is what standards are all about, really.
Intel will supposedly be coming out of the gate with their 4th version of 10nm lithography just as Samsung and TSMC start up their FOR REAL full SoC 7nm full production levels, so once again Intel remains 1-2 generations behind technologically and two full years late to the party.
AMD has grown up a lot in size inside the last year, as have most of the phone boys. Intel is now ranked as the #6 volume-wise fabricator of processors (ranked for volume of production only). Intel is still #1 in PCs, but PC as a group is overall ranked as #4 in volume production size at this point in time.
Phone, Automotive, IoT all are larger than PC based on pure volume of the products produced and shipped annually.
Both Linux and ChromeOS actually show a chart line on most of the volume charts now, and Wintel's influence is still shrinking year on year on year at a fairly steady 5-6% (compounded annually).
Chromebooks continue to advance at an ever increasing pace, as the competing Windows on ARM thing begins to abort on itself.
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This week (Feb 13) Microsoft finally published a more complete list of the limitations of Windows 10 on ARM. And that word—limitations—is interesting. This isn’t how Windows 10 on ARM differs from Windows 10 on x86-based systems. It’s more about how it’s been intentionally limited.OK, another 5 days go past after this point (Feb. 19) and it is now being reported that MS has now deleted this source page completely from their product support site, replacing it with totally reworded stuff about addressing other items completely.
MS is catching a LOT of shite over intentionally misleading the laptop building people and the public and several of the affected smaller manufacturers who had actually spent money on this fake out move have began collecting information to do a class action lawsuit against MS. This original web page was clear primary evidence of the intentional misleading, so it was taken down by MS.
Shame though, the whole thing was preserved on several back up sites before it was taken down by MS.
hee hee EU regulators currently working on the Meltdown and Spectre issues have had them a brand new complaint lodged against the Wintel screw-up boys ...... more of the same sort of shenanigans to the EU boys, sad really. It now becomes "a pattern of behavior in restraint of trade" and the potential fines go way way way up into the 10's of billions.
MS is now faced with a choice --
follow through and make it all real, or else eat the lawsuits, EU penalities and all the bad press. Which one do you think they will do?
Lenovo is now supporting MS by saying they had never really promised to build a unit by early this spring, but that Lenovo had intended all along to go with the Snapdragon 855 processor (next year's 7nm ARM AI processor) assuming that MS still has a Win 10 ARM that is for real sitting around by then that will actually run on the new yet to be built Snapdragon 855 processor. Lots of "ifs" in that sentence, ain't they .....
Wonder who asked them to say that right about now, huh? I think Lenovo has just identified themselves as a co-conspirator instead of covering their own butts as they intended to do as
Lenovo never built anything at all, which means they knew it was a fake out move and they were in on the scam.
Now if MS can arrange for the rest of the original three announced SD 835 ARM laptop builders to say the exact same thing, well then mebbe they can perhaps write an out for themselves as a "solidarity group" ....... mebbe.
To show they were not part of the scam a bunch of finished units would have to have had to be built up by each player though, logically enough. You are either damaged by the scam or a part of the scam -- one or the other.
I still hear a low moaning sound in the background from that constantly running wood chipper as the new Chromebook AI units built off the RK3399 Pro 2.6 TOPS AI SoC gets ready to start grinding up some of its first Wintel bushes .......
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