Although it doesn't seem like a priority, Microsoft is working to make Windows 11 behave better, or just behave, on ARM hardware. In fact, he wants to reach more corners than ever, and has even started working on a version for the Steam Deck. Behind what Microsoft does with its Windows is WineHQ, and a few hours ago, and two weeks after 8.7, has launched a WINE 8.8 The most notable novelty is that initial support for loading ARM64EC modules has been implemented.
ARM64EC is a new ABI (Application Binary Interface) with Windows 11 on ARM for compatible emulation that allows you to build new native applications to transition from x86_64 to ARM. It has also been noted that more work has been done to fully support PE in the PostScript driver and IME restructuring. These points are accompanied by the usual various bug fixes, and in total have been made 253 changes.
WINE 8.8 fixes 18 bugs
The list of fixed bugs includes:
- The WINE Build warns with gcc..
- The Freemake Video Converter 4.1 installer complains about running Freemake processes (the 'findstr' application always returns 'match').
- Several applications need tasklist.exe to print the process list in CSV format '/f or CSV /nh' (Net64+ Client 2.x, Playstation Now 11.x, MathType).
- 32-bit dxdiag does not support the '/64bit' command line switch (start 64-bit dxdiag).
- ACAT Phrase, part of Intel Assistive Context-Aware Toolkit (ACAT) v1.00.0 (.NET 4.5 application) crashes in unimplemented function 'uiautomationcore.dll.UiaNodeFromFocus'.
- rise of nation extended: Unable to multiplayer when having more than one network interface.
- Captvty cannot find its own tools/cefsharp folder.
- mfplat: function not implemented when loading Devil May Cry 1.
- Attempt to install/update battle.net fails with Qt error.
- winedbg loads wrong debugging symbols for the built-in dlls.
- Wow64 wineboot cannot generate 32Bit slice of wineprefix.
- Wavelab 6.1 has problems minimizing the window.
- Notepad3 crashes on unimplemented function SHLWAPI.dll.StrFormatByteSizeEx.
- imm32:imm32 – test_ImmActivateLayout() fails on Windows.
- imm32:imm32 – test_ImmSetOpenStatus() fails on Windows in the Korean locale.
- RtlValidSecurityDescriptor should return TRUE if the given descriptor is valid.
- RtlInitializeSid should return NTSTATUS.
- nvcuda build fails with threadpoolapiset.h:36:55: error: expected declaration specifiers before '__WINE_DEALLOC'.
WINE 8.8 can now be downloaded from the following button. In the download page there is information on how to install this and other versions on operating systems such as Debian and Ubuntu, but it can also be installed on Android and macOS.