Today, Microsoft announced that with the release of Visual Studio 15.9, ARM64 development is officially available. The news comes after the firm released a preview SDK back at its Build 2018 developer conference in May.

ARM64 support isn't just for UWP apps, or even Store apps. Any Win32 app can be recompiled with ARM support; of course, if developers want their apps to work in S mode, they'll need to port them to the Microsoft Store. Naturally, compiling a UWP app for ARM64 is easier, as it's just an extra checkbox. Win32 app developers need to add an ARM64 configuration.

Moreover, Microsoft announced today that it's now accepting submissions into the Microsoft Store for ARM64 applications. This is pretty big news, and hopefully we'll see more apps running natively on Windows on ARM devices.

Previously, the only apps running natively were 32-bit ARM apps, which came in UWP form, or even older Windows 8 apps. This is the first time we're seeing 64-bit support, and the first time that Win32 apps could easily be recompiled.