(Comp)Chem on Windows on ARM
This is a living document based on my day-to-day use of a Zenbook A14 (Snapdragon X Elite) running Windows on ARM. I will document which commonly used software packages work or do not work. Overall I love this laptop. It’s snappy, incredibly light, and the battery life is amazing.
Software overview
Section titled “Software overview”| Software | Category | Platform | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| MobaXterm | General | Windows (x86 emulation) | ✅ |
| WinSCP | General | Windows (x86 emulation) | ✅ |
| ChemDraw 25 | Chemistry (general) | Windows (x64 emulation) | ✅ |
| xTB 6.7.1 | Computational chemistry | WSL2 (ARM, conda) | 🔴 |
| ORCA 6.1.1 | Computational chemistry | WSL2 (ARM) | ✅ |
| Avogadro 2 | Computational chemistry | Windows (x64 emulation) | ✅ |
| Chemcraft | Computational chemistry | Windows (x64 emulation) | ✅ |
Hardware and environment
Section titled “Hardware and environment”- Laptop: ASUS Zenbook A14
- SoC: Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-78-100 32GB LPX RAM)
- OS: Windows on ARM
- Environment: WSL2 (Ubunt 22.04 ARM build) or native Windows ARM with x86/x64 emulation
Status legend
Section titled “Status legend”| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| ✅ Works | Runs reliably in my setup |
| 🟡 Works with issues | Usable, but problematic or fragile |
| 🔴 Not working | Produces incorrect results or fails |
| ⚪ Not tested | Not evaluated yet |
Software list
Section titled “Software list”General
Section titled “General”Endnote
Section titled “Endnote”To-Do
Works flawless so far.
Works flawless so far.
Chemistry (general)
Section titled “Chemistry (general)”The x86 Windows version of ChemDraw 25 runs without noticeable issues via Windows’ built-in x86 emulation. Drawing and pasting as embedded object to Office works.
Computational chemistry
Section titled “Computational chemistry”The conda-distributed xTB binary currently does not behave correctly in my setup under WSL2 on Windows on ARM. Geometry optimizations may converge but can yield clearly unphysical structures and energies.
This appears to be a known issue; see
https://github.com/grimme-lab/xtb/issues/1151
I have not yet tried compiling xTB from source on ARM, which should resolve the issue when using newer versions of XTB.
ARM compiled Linux version from the ORCA Forum. Seems to work flawless. Benchmarks are following.
Drawing/hanlding molecules and optimization works.
Seems to work so far. Pink atoms and everything.
This page is updated as I encounter new tools or revisit existing ones. The intent is to provide a realistic snapshot of what currently works (and what does not) on Windows on ARM for chemistry and computational chemistry workflows, rather than a complete list. If you have any software I should try, let me know.