Software support continues to be a thorn in the side of Windows 11 ARM64 adoption, arguably more so than on Apple's M-series Macs. Although Microsoft's Prism emulator offers superior x86 emulation to its previous efforts, the performance of native applications will rarely lag behind their emulated counterparts. Developers have gradually introduced applications optimized for ARM64, the latest being with Signal Messenger.
To this end, Google has just released a beta version of Drive for Desktop specifically designed for Windows 11 ARM64 devices. So the Surface Pro 11 and Surface Laptop 7 (currently $899 on Amazon) that we reviewed earlier this year should now be compatible with Google's popular cloud storage service. The same should be true for all other devices equipped with Snapdragon X Plus and Snapdragon X Elite.
Please note that there are some caveats at this time. For example, this version of Drive for Desktop is currently in beta. Additionally, it does not support the Outlook Meet plugin. Therefore, Google recommends only working with backed up or non-critical data. If you are still interested in this preview version, you can download the 279MB installer hosted at on Google Drive. Please see Google's forum post for more details.
