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+---
+layout: post
+comments: false
+title: "Windows ARM64 builds now enabled in Conan Center"
+description: "ARM-powered devices continue to gain significant traction across a number of platforms"
+meta_title: "What is in your dependencies updates?"
+categories: [armv8, arm64, windows, conan]
+---
+
+ARM-powered devices continue to gain significant traction across a number of platforms. Last year marked a pivotal 
+moment with Microsoft's release of new Surface products as well as laptops from multiple vendors featuring Snapdragon X 
+CPUs. This commitment is further reinforced by Qualcomm's recent announcement of the Snapdragon X2 Elite, further 
+enabling developer workflows on native devices. 
+
+Conan has been platform-agnostic since its inception, already enabling teams to target various operating systems and CPU
+architectures using the same recipes and commands (e.g., macOS Apple Silicon, Android, iOS, FreeBSD, …). Windows ARM64 
+is no exception.
+
+But up until now, the conancenter remote lacked binaries for this evergrowing platform, that's why we're thrilled to 
+announce improved support for Windows ARM64 in Conan Center recipes! We've been working 
+hard to streamline the development experience for this platform, and the latest improvements are now rolling out.
+
+## What's New and Improved?
+
+**Native Installer and Self-Contained Executable:** While Conan is typically installed by developers locally using pip, 
+we also provide standalone installers that don’t require a Python distribution. Starting with the 
+**Conan 2.21.0 release**, we are now providing a [native ARM64 Windows installer](https://github.com/conan-io/conan/releases/download/2.21.0/conan-2.21.0-windows-arm64-installer.exe) as well as [a self-contained executable](https://github.com/conan-io/conan/releases/download/2.21.0/conan-2.21.0-windows-arm64.zip) 
+for Conan.
+
+**Validated recipes for native development:** We understand that a package manager is only as good as the packages it 
+provides. We've dedicated significant effort to validating a subset of the most popular Conan Center recipes to ensure 
+they build and run natively on Windows ARM64. This includes over 350+ recipes in Conan Center (and counting!), including 
+the most popular ones such as Boost, OpenCV, Qt, ffmpeg, Protocol buffers, gRPC, and many more! 
+
+**Improved fallbacks for build tools that don’t yet support ARM64:** Some recipes require build tools that currently only 
+run with x86_64 emulation, like Autotools on msys2 and strawberry perl. We have improved the recipes so that compatible
+binaries are transparently fetched from Conan Center without manual tweaks.
+
+**Availability of Windows ARM64 binaries in Conan Center:** To further simplify your development workflow, Conan Center 
+CI will now actively build and publish Windows ARM64 binaries for already validated recipes. This means that for an ever 
+growing list of libraries, you won't need to build from source on your ARM64 machine if your profile matches the 
+available binaries, saving you time and resources. This is an ongoing process and we aim to publish Windows ARM64 
+binaries for every recipe that supports it. You can check if binaries are available in the Conan Center package 
+explorer, example: [https://conan.io/center/recipes/fmt](https://conan.io/center/recipes/fmt)
+
+### Your Feedback Fuels Our Progress!
+
+This is an ongoing effort, and your feedback is invaluable. As you begin to develop on Windows ARM64 with Conan, we 
+strongly encourage you to share your experiences, report any issues, and suggest additional recipes you'd like to see 
+natively supported. Your contributions help us prioritize and expand our ARM64 coverage, ensuring Conan Center remains 
+a powerful resource for all developers.
+
+## Getting started with Conan for native ARM64 Windows Development
+
+To get started with native Windows ARM64 development, you'll need the right tools. Here's a quick guide to the essential
+components:
+
+### Conan
+
+Download the latest 
+[installer](https://github.com/conan-io/conan/releases/download/2.21.0/conan-2.21.0-windows-arm64-installer.exe) 
+(does *NOT* require a separate Python installation) and follow the instructions in the installation wizard.
+
+### CMake
+
+Now you will need CMake, which you can download from the official [website](https://cmake.org/download/). Don’t forget to 
+add it to the system PATH.
+
+The current release at time of writing is 4.1.1 
+(download [installer](https://github.com/Kitware/CMake/releases/download/v4.1.1/cmake-4.1.1-windows-arm64.msi)).
+
+### Visual Studio
+
+* Install Visual Studio 2022 (Version 17.4 or later): This is the first version of Visual Studio that offers native ARM64 
+support. You can download it from the official [Visual Studio website](https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/). 
+Please ensure you are using the correct license.
+* Select the "Desktop development with C++" Workload: During the Visual Studio installation process, ensure you select this workload.
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+  <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/post_images/2025-10-01/visual-studio-desktop-development.png"
+       alt="conan report diff web interface"/>
+</div>
+<br>
+
+That’s it! Now let’s get this to work.
+In a terminal window, first run the following command:
+
+{% highlight bash %}
+> conan profile detect
+{% endhighlight %}
+
+The result should be:
+
+{% highlight bash %}
+Detected profile:
+[settings]
+arch=armv8
+build_type=Release
+compiler=msvc
+compiler.cppstd=17
+compiler.runtime=dynamic
+compiler.version=194
+os=Windows
+
+{% endhighlight %}
+
+⚠️ Ensure the detected architecture is ``arch=armv8``. If you get ``x86_64``, you may be running a non-native installation of Python or Conan. This will still work, but you will need to modify the generated profile to reflect the ``arm=armv8`` architecture.
+
+## Build a sample project
+
+We can now use Conan as we are already used to natively on any platform. For example one of the toy projects in the 
+examples repo:
+
+{% highlight bash %}
+> git clone https://github.com/conan-io/examples2.git
+> cd examples2/examples/libraries/raylib/introduction
+> conan install . -s compiler.cppstd=17
+> cmake --preset conan-default
+> cmake --build --preset conan-release
+.\build\Release\runner_game.exe
+{% endhighlight %}
+
+<div style="text-align: center;">
+  <img src="{{ site.baseurl }}/assets/post_images/2025-10-01/raylib-image-example.png"
+       alt="conan report diff web interface"/>
+</div>
+<br>
+
+Dependencies will be downloaded from Conan Center and the app will build and run natively on Windows ARM64. 
+
+Happy coding!