Microsoft Officially Released its Windows 11 ISO for ARM PCs: Now Available for Download

Following last month’s announcement concerning the arrival of Windows 11 ISO for ARM-based PC devices (including Snapdragon X Elite/Plus PCs), Microsoft has officially released it now for users. The disk image has been currently made available on the brand’s official website and it can be downloaded absolutely free of cost.

Here’s more about it.

Windows 11 ISO for ARM PCs

The ARM64 ISO files are primarily made available so that users would be able to create virtual machines on local devices, and it is based on the latest Windows 11 24H2. Windows 11 on ARM can be installed directly through the ISO file, after mounting it on to the already running operating system, and then running Windows Setup.

Speaking more, users will have to right click on the ISO file and select ‘Mount’ in order to mount the ISO file. A virtual bootable disc will thereby be created and users can double click on it to view its file contents. Thereafter, double click on ‘setup.exe’, and this will start the Windows 11 setup on the ARM-based PC.

Also to add, apart from creating virtual machines, Windows on ARM ISOs can also be used to create bootable media as well for installing Windows 11 on ARM-based devices. However, for this, necessary drivers from manufacturers will also have to be included for it to be successfully bootable. Older Snapdragon-powered PC users and ARM-based Surface device users will have to keep this in mind before proceeding.

Moreover, the release of ARM64 ISO for Windows 11 has made things very much easier for Apple MacBook M-series users, and they will now be able to run Windows 11 seamlessly. Do note that Azure will have to be used to run ARM64 VM in the cloud, as ARM64 VM can’t be run on x64 hardware (because it is not supported by Hyper-V).

You may check out more about the Windows 11 ISO for ARM PCs in detail by visiting the respective page on Microsoft’s official website.