They’re not going all-in, but https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/uwp/porting/apps-on...:

“Originally Windows 10 (as distinguished from Windows 10 Mobile) could run only on PCs that were powered by x86 and x64 processors. Now, Windows 10 desktop can run on machines that are powered by ARM64 processors with the Fall Creators Update or newer. The power-saving nature of the ARM CPU architecture allows these PCs to have all-day battery life and support for mobile data networks. These PCs will provide great application compatibility and allow you to run your existing x86 win32 applications unmodified.”

I think the market is betting more on AMD than Intel serving that market though.

I could have kicked myself for not buying AMD stock years ago, even joked about it with some friends at the time but couldn't afford to take the risk. The reason was (rightly or wrongly) Jim Keller returning to work on Zen.

He's worked on a few different and really exciting things since, but he's at Intel now. I suspect they'll sort it out and turn things around, but running their own fabs is their biggest problem now. They aren't competitive with TSMC and they desperately need to be.

It's been possible for a while but never really taken off. As you say, because Microsoft don't control or profit from the hardware (apart from their own Surfaces) they have no real incentive one way or the other.

They did try a more locked down version of Windows, Windows RT, on ARM. It was predictably a disappointment.

Windows could probably run on ARM tomorrow (or at least, in 6 months) if Microsoft really wanted it to.

What it could probably not do is run-on-ARM with acceptable performance for every legacy app.

Windows' bread and butter has always been forever-compatibility (Win API language-of-the-year aside) for long lived business apps.

Apple has never, and doesn't seem to want to, competed on that front.

For consumers, I'm not sure. But I know as part of cutting costs, Azure decided to start running servers on ARM instead of x64: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/windows-server-on-arm-m...

It already does run on ARM64 but it is only available to OEMs, meaning that you can't buy it as a consumer. And it only runs on some specific SoCs, most of which are Qualcomm ARM chips.

Things are likely to change as more actual ARM64 laptops appear. Some Windows on ARM64 laptops are already available like the HP Envy X2, the Lenovo Yoga C630, and the Microsoft Surface Pro X.

Windows running on ARM is about as valuable as Linux running on ARM.

What makes Windows valuable is the 'legacy' applications.