Installing Windows 11 on an ARM system or VM used to be quite the process, but the goal is to eventually make it as easy as it currently is on x86 systems. Now, Microsoft has taken a big step in that direction by finally making ARM ISOs available.

Microsoft finally has a webpage where you can easily download the latest ARM build of Windows 11 in the form of an ISO image. Unlike with x86 systems, the website doesn’t give you an option to set up a bootable drive or disc using the Installation Assistant. Rather, however, you only select the only version of Windows 11 available from the dropdown and click download. After the download is complete, you can select it in a virtual machine or write it to a USB image for booting a PC. If your PC isn’t already licensed for Windows 11, you’ll need to buy a key.

The new ISO download is especially useful for restoring Windows installations on Snapdragon-based Copilot+ PC laptops. They can also be used for ARM-on-ARM virtualization, like running VMware Fusion or UTM on an Apple Silicon Mac. The company does note a few caveats if you are going to use this. ARM hardware doesn’t have the same generic drivers as x86 PCs, so if you’re going to create a bootable drive using this, you will also likely need to load up all the drivers you need beforehand for it to even be bootable.

Most computers with ARM chips will come with Windows pre-installed out of the box, so this is useful if you ever happen to find yourself in a need to reinstall your operating system, or again, if you need to set up a VM. You can download the latest ARM build now from Microsoft’s site.

Via: Jeff Geerling (Mastodon)