Adobe Launches Native Windows on Arm Support for Creative Apps: A New Era for Creators

Adobe’s ambitious leap toward native Windows on Arm support is re-charting the creative software landscape, promising a dramatic boost for video editors, audio producers, and digital content creators who have eyed Qualcomm Snapdragon-powered Copilot+ PCs, Surface devices, and a next generation of compact laptops running on Arm-based processors. For years, Windows on Arm has carved a tantalizing narrative—better battery life, silent operation, always-on connectivity, and increasing CPU performance thanks to efficient chip designs. But lurking behind the promise was a persistent app-gap, with heavyweight creative suites like Adobe Creative Cloud taking their time to cross the divide. Now, Adobe has pressed fast-forward: its industry-defining apps—Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Media Encoder—are entering public preview with full ARM64-native support, propelling Microsoft’s Windows on Arm aspirations into a new era.

The Long Road to Native Arm Support​

When the first Windows on Arm devices appeared, they were frequently praised for their instant-on performance and exceptional battery life. However, the experience was marred for power users and professionals by inconsistent support for 64-bit, resource-intensive applications—especially those from Adobe, whose Creative Cloud suite remains the gold standard for media production. While Microsoft’s Prism emulation technology has filled some of the gaps, letting users run legacy x64 and x86 apps on Arm, developers and enthusiasts alike have cited real-world performance penalties, compatibility issues, or outright feature losses.
In recognition of the creative sector’s needs, Adobe made a definitive pledge in May 2024: full support for Windows on Arm was on the horizon, with native versions of Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Media Encoder planned for release. Two months hence, these apps are indeed live in public preview, but as insiders and testers quickly discovered, not all features made the journey intact.

What Native Arm Actually Means—and Doesn’t​

Running an application natively on Arm means it’s been recompiled and tuned for the architecture’s instruction set, bypassing the translation layer needed for legacy code. This offers, in theory, dramatic speed increases, reduced power consumption, and smoother user experiences compared to software that must pass through an emulation layer like Microsoft Prism.
Adobe’s arrival on the Arm-native scene means creative pros can now expect:

• Substantially improved performance in supported workflows, including editing, rendering, and playback.
• Reduced battery drain on laptops and hybrids using Snapdragon X and similar chipsets.
• Fewer system resource slowdowns and improvements in application launch times.
• Greater stability compared to running resource-heavy apps in emulation.

However, Adobe’s native rollout arrives with caveats and missing features, especially for early adopters hoping for the full desktop-class experience.

A Closer Look: Premiere Pro on Windows on Arm​

Premiere Pro, Adobe’s flag-bearing video editor, is front and center in the Arm-native rollout. Users on Copilot+ and other Snapdragon-based Windows machines can now install and run the public preview version without needing emulation. Benchmarks and initial feedback highlight a “night and day” difference in speed and responsiveness, particularly when scrubbing timelines or exporting standard format files.
But not every function is present:

• Loudness Radar Effect: This advanced audio visualization tool is missing; Adobe notes that the Loudness Meter effect is meant as a partial replacement.
• GoPro CineForm Codec: Both import and export are absent, limiting workflows for users with content in this intermediate, widely used codec among action camera filmmakers.
• Export to Wraptor DCP: Direct packaging for Digital Cinema Projection is omitted, a significant drawback for certain professional studios.
• Export to P2 Movie Format: Unavailable for newsrooms and documentary workflows reliant on Panasonic’s P2 ecosystem.

Adobe has explicitly stated these limitations will persist when the app exits beta, and has not provided a public roadmap for future implementation of these niche but valuable features. Furthermore, during public preview, other deeply used capabilities are also missing, scheduled for return in later updates:

• Support for third-party extensions (essential for plug-ins, custom scripts, and advanced automation).
• Support for Apple ProRes and several additional file formats.
• Full compatibility with raw video files from certain camera manufacturers.

This stratified rollout may frustrate some professionals and studios whose pipelines depend on a precise toolset. In short: while the broad strokes of creative editing and exporting are now in reach, specialized workflows requiring very specific file types or effects will need to either wait or rely on workarounds.

Audition and Media Encoder: Mixed Progress​

Adobe Audition and Media Encoder mirror many of Premiere Pro’s restrictions. In Audition, the Loudness Radar effect and GoPro CineForm codec are absent in both preview and planned final native builds. Feature gains such as support for additional formats and third-party extensions are coming “in the future,” according to Adobe, but no target dates have been published.
Media Encoder, critical for transcoding and batch exports, ships with notable exclusions too:

• No Loudness Radar effect.
• No Wraptor DCP export.
• No GoPro CineForm codec support.
• No P2 Movie format.

The cumulative effect is clear: basic creative output is robust, but certain high-end, broadcast, or professional production environments may face temporary roadblocks until those capabilities return.

After Effects: The Exception​

In contrast to its sibling apps, the native Arm version of After Effects appears less feature-limited. Adobe has not listed any features that will be permanently absent; instead, only some enhancements and third-party integrations are scheduled for future updates. This stands to reason: After Effects’ heavily modular architecture and historical focus on compositing and motion graphics may have eased its porting process compared to the complex interoperability demands of Premiere Pro and Media Encoder.
Early user feedback and reporting suggest that the Arm-native After Effects provides a nearly complete replacement for its x64 Windows counterpart, missing only bleeding-edge plugin or file format support in preview.

Compatibility Realities and Microsoft’s Prism​

One reason for renewed optimism in the Windows on Arm community is Microsoft’s continuous improvements in Prism, its dynamic emulation technology. Prism now boasts impressive performance gains over earlier iterations, allowing many 64-bit legacy apps to run with better speed and compatibility than before. However, for applications like Adobe’s creative tools—where real-time rendering, effects processing, and media decoding can be highly CPU-bound—emulation still introduces unpredictable slowdowns and occasional stability challenges.
Adobe’s decision to invest in truly native ARM64 versions, rather than rely solely on improvements in Prism, is a testament to its recognition of Arm’s trajectory within the PC ecosystem and the demands of creative professionals. Arm (the company) claims that over 90% of app usage time on Windows on Arm devices is spent in native apps—a data point that underscores both the platform’s maturation and the essential role that first-party developer support plays in driving adoption.
Yet, a caveat persists: while power users on existing Arm hardware gain immediate performance and capability boosts, those whose workflows depend on specific, as-yet-unported features will need to carefully evaluate whether moving to an Arm-based system is prudent.

The Broader App Ecosystem: Closing the Gap​

Adobe’s debut is more than just a milestone for the creative community; it is also a signal flare for other professional and creative software vendors. While Windows on Arm has made strides with native versions of browser giants (Edge, Chrome), office suites, and communications platforms, complex creative apps like those in Adobe’s umbrella have long stood as the ultimate benchmarks for viability.
With both Microsoft and independent OEMs now pushing Copilot+ PC branding and a new generation of SDX (Snapdragon X) laptops flaunting multi-day battery claims, robust AI accelerators, and silent operation, the incentive for software vendors to go native has never been stronger. The availability of Creative Cloud’s core pillars in ARM64 may tip the scales for fence-sitting users and enterprises awaiting mission-critical tool availability before switching platforms.
Meanwhile, creative professionals need to be aware that Photoshop and Lightroom, also widely used from the Adobe stable, have offered native Arm support for some time, delivering good performance for photography/editing tasks. The new roll-out covers the more demanding video and audio content creation spectrum.

Critical Analysis: Strengths and Strategic Risks​

Major Strengths​

• Performance: Early tests by reviewers and end-users indicate dramatic performance improvements, especially versus Prism-emulated versions. Editing large 4K video files or timelines is now feasible in real-time for the first time on Windows on Arm hardware.
• Battery and Thermals: As expected from Arm-based architectures, users report better thermal efficiency and all-day battery life, even under intensive creative workloads.
• Platform Validation: Adobe’s embrace of the platform will likely unlock broader enterprise deployments and content creation on-the-go, erasing a major barrier for IT decision-makers.
• Future-proofing: With Qualcomm and others preparing next-gen coprocessors, the groundwork laid by native apps positions Arm PCs to take a leadership role as new instruction sets, AI accelerators, and custom GPU cores proliferate.

Strategic and Technical Risks​

• Feature Parity Gaps: Loss of specific codecs, file formats, and key plug-in integration may create friction for some creative professionals, particularly in news, broadcast, and cinema workflows. The absence of precise support timelines for missing features compounds uncertainty.
• Vendor Lock-in and Workflow Disruption: Teams heavily reliant on a specific mix of Adobe features (GoPro CineForm, Wraptor DCP) could find themselves maintaining a split hardware environment—Intel/AMD-based systems for full compatibility, Arm-based for maximum mobility and battery.
• Dependencies on Future Updates: Adobe has committed to adding several features and plug-in support “soon,” but historical precedent shows that roadmaps can slip, especially when supporting multiple CPU architectures.
• Plugin and Extension Ecosystem: The Adobe plug-in ecosystem is vast. While support is coming in future updates, professionals leveraging advanced or custom workflow extensions may find their productivity substantially reduced until parity is reached.

Looking Ahead: What This Means for PC Users and the Industry​

The rollout of ARM64-native Adobe apps on Windows signals the beginning of the end for the long-standing “app gap” argument in the PC market. With flagship creative apps crossing the chasm, the competitive landscape for high-performance, portable, energy-efficient computing is rapidly transforming. Windows hardware not only becomes more attractive to digital nomads and creatives but also sets the stage for a world where the processor architecture is no longer a limiting factor in software choice.
For businesses, educators, and creative studios, the calculus is nuanced. The performance and efficiency gains are significant, but migration planning must account for any workflow dependencies on as-yet-unported features. Dual-architecture environments—combining x64 and Arm64 devices—may dominate transitional periods, especially in complex media production pipelines.
For Microsoft, this transition validates its Prism emulation strategy as a stopgap, but it is Adobe’s full-throated embrace of ARM64 that cements Windows on Arm as a serious platform for creators. The onus now shifts to other powerhouses—Autodesk, AVID, Steinberg, and beyond—to bring their flagship applications natively to Arm. The competitive bar is raised, and the era of “wait and see” for major ISVs appears to be drawing to a close.

Final Thoughts​

Adobe’s native Windows on Arm support for Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, and Media Encoder is a watershed moment in both the Windows ecosystem and the creative software market. The immediate gains in speed, efficiency, battery life, and stability are tangible benefits for professionals and hobbyists alike. But early adopters must weigh these strengths against nuanced feature gaps, particularly in high-stakes broadcast and cinema production workflows.
As additional features and plug-in support are layered in over time, the value proposition of Arm-based Windows PCs will only grow. For now, the arrival of native Adobe apps represents a compelling inflection point—validating Microsoft’s architectural ambitions, empowering a new generation of mobile content creators, and accelerating the broader software industry’s momentum toward ARM64.
It’s a new era for creative pros on Windows—an era defined by portability, efficiency, and, increasingly, freedom from the old limits of hardware compatibility. The tools are finally catching up with the promise. For many, that’s nothing short of revolutionary.

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Source: Windows Central Adobe brings native Windows on Arm support to Premiere Pro, After Effects, and more — but not all features made it