Developer
Windows on Snapdragon

Windows on Snapdragon

Develop next-gen Windows apps with advanced AI capabilities.

Build or port apps on Windows on Snapdragon to enable efficient, AI-native devices with multi-day battery life.1 Distribute workloads across CPU, GPU, and NPU in a single SoC with up to 80 TOPS for smooth development, testing, and responsive experiences. Powered by Snapdragon X Series.

What will you build with Windows on Snapdragon

Windows on Snapdragon is built for developers across the stack, from application ISVs to 
game publishers.

 

Desktop applications

Productivity, graphics-intensive creativity tools, utilities

 

AI-powered apps

Leverage NPU for up to 85 TOPS of inference performance

 

Games and game engines

AAA titles with hardware-accelerated graphics

 

Enterprise software

Cloud-connected business apps

 

Legacy apps

x86/x64 apps via emulation

 

Drivers and kernal level libraries

Developer Workflow for Windows on Snapdragon

Follow this workflow to move from first build to optimized performance across Qualcomm® Oryon™ CPU, Qualcomm® Adreno™ GPU, Qualcomm® Hexagon™ NPU, and connectivity with Snapdragon X Series devices:

Select a remote development device in the Qualcomm® Device Cloud (QDC). Learn more about devices available from major brands.

Learn more

Choose your development approach

Three options let you build or port your apps, binaries, and their dependencies at your pace. Choose from emulating your existing x86/x64 binaries, re-compiling to fully native, or a hybrid (combination) of the two.

Full Emulation

With built-in Prism emulation from Windows 11, you can run your x86/x64 legacy binaries without modification and establish a performance baseline before porting.

Choose this option if:

You need a straightforward approach for apps running in user mode with high levels of performance.

Fully Native

Create and compile a new code base or recompile your existing code to native ARM64-compatible.

Choose this option if:

You want maximum performance, energy efficiency, and kernel-level development.

Hybrid

Prioritize and incrementally port parts of your binaries for near-native performance.

Choose this option if:

You need native/x64 interoperability using Arm64EC (Emulation Compatible) and an Application Binary Interface (ABI) using GitHub Copilot in Visual Studio.

Eyebrow icon

Try this tutorial to learn how to port and optimize apps for Windows on Snapdragon.

Choose your tools, libraries and drivers

An ecosystem of familiar tools and libraries help you build or port x86/x64 code to ARM64-compatible Windows 11 apps for devices powered by Snapdragon X Series.

Build

Tools and compilers to help you build or port code:

  • Visual Studio - Develop in many popular languages like C/C++, .NET, and Python. 

  • Snapdragon LLVM ToolChain - C/C++ compiler tuned by Qualcomm Technologies for building or porting to the Snapdragon X Series native instruction set.

  • MingGW - Linux-like open-source GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) tools and development environment.

 

Tutorials to port Notepad++, 7zip, and Audacity: Learn More.

Optimize

Optimization tools to help you profile 
and optimize for performance and energy efficiency:

  • Windows Profiler Tools in Visual Studio - Visual Studio built-in profiling tools are sufficient for most developers as they let you analyze CPU usage, memory consumption, and more directly in the IDE.
  • Snapdragon Profiler - Lets you analyze, debug, and optimize binaries running on Snapdragon X Series processors. Gain detailed visibility into system behavior, memory, power, and thermal usage with real-time monitoring and trace capture.

 

Optimization Information and tutorials: Learn More.

Device and Cloud Testing

Two ways to access Windows on Snapdragon devices and start testing:

In the cloud

Use QDC to access real devices with Snapdragon X Series remotely through your browser. Build, test, debug, and profile on physical devices. No local hardware is required. Perfect for initial testing, CI/CD integration, multi-device scenarios, and other testing and experimentation.

On-device

Snapdragon X Series processors power PCs from several major brands. Click the link below to learn more about these devices and evaluate which would make the right development machine for you.

Eyebrow icon

Try this tutorial to set up a QDC Snapdragon X Series device and build a simple hello world app. Or, try porting the code for Notepad.exe.

Do more with your Apps

Develop AI Apps on Snapdragon X Series

Build AI apps with fast, responsive on device inference on Snapdragon X Series. An ecosystem of tools helps you build, optimize, and run ML models using on-device inference via the Qualcomm Hexagon NPU which delivers up to 85 TOPS and 228 GB/s of memory bandwidth. Offload inference from CPU and GPU to reduce latency, run multiple intelligent experiences concurrently, and power agentic applications using large language models (LLMs) from common ML frameworks.

Level-up Your Game Development

Optimize PC games and graphics-intensive apps for Snapdragon X Series with the next generation Adreno GPU. Deliver smooth, responsive gameplay with support for high refresh rates, multi stream 8K UHD video encoding/decoding, and modern graphics APIs. Keep performance consistent even when unplugged and support anti cheat and uninterrupted game play across Wi Fi and cellular connectivity.

Case studies


Most Windows apps will work via emulation without modification. For optimal performance and full compatibility, port critical components to native Snapdragon.

 
Check out the case studies below, showcasing just a few of the apps ported to Windows on Snapdragon.

Tune in to hear the dev team behind the Fender Studio app to find out how they ported it to Windows on Snapdragon, and hear about their experience as they work to build a fully-native version of it for Snapdragon.

Learn how Nomic combined cross-compiling and porting to accelerate local AI in their GPT4ALL application on Snapdragon X Series processors.

Additional Apps

Learn more about these apps and the organizations building and optimizing apps for Copilot+ PCs, powered by the Snapdragon X Series.

 


 

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Qualcomm, Qualcomm Oryon, Adreno, Hexagon, and Snapdragon are trademarks or registered trademarks of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Snapdragon and Qualcomm branded products are products of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries. Qualcomm patents are licensed by Qualcomm Incorporated.

1 Battery life varies significantly based on device, settings, usage, and other factors.

2 Features: Snapdragon X2 Elite

  • Best-in-class Qualcomm Oryon™
  • CPU up to 18 cores for the fastest and most power-efficient performance at up to 5.0 GHz frequency
  • Up to 1.85 GHz GPU
  • Multitasking across up to three 5K 60Hz monitors
  • Multi-day battery life
  • Truly mobile PC with sustained performance when on battery
  • Optimized power consumption spreads workloads across the CPU, GPU, and NPU
  • Featuring up to 80 TOPS of AI processing
  • AI acceleration for media editing, multimodal content generation, and agentic AI
  • 64-bit NPU architecture with increased memory access to the latest AI models
  • Powers Copilot+ PCs for the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs
  • Lightning-fast 5G for up to 10 Gbps peak speeds
  • Wi-Fi 7 with High Band Simultaneous for peak speeds of 5.8 Gbps
  • Dual Bluetooth with Snapdragon Sound support

 

Qualcomm relentlessly innovates to deliver intelligent computing everywhere, helping the world tackle some of its most important challenges. Our leading-edge AI, high performance, low-power computing, and unrivaled connectivity deliver proven solutions that transform major industries. At Qualcomm, we are engineering human progress.

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