If you've recently bought a new top-of-the-line laptop then you might have noticed that there's one problem: many of the best VPNs don't work on them.
The new Snapdragon X Elite-powered laptops are some of our favorite machines to hit the market in a long time. They pair leading performance with superb battery life at a price point that's lower than you might think.
However, because of their ARM infrastructure, they don't support every app you can think of on Windows just yet, including most VPNs. Luckily, Private Internet Access (PIA) has now launched its ARM native VPN app to bridge the gap.
Why do VPNs not work on ARM devices?
Currently, unless there's a native app built for ARM's x86_64 architecture, Windows will "translate" it to the format. This rough-around-the-edges method is fine for some apps – but not VPNs, since they're specialist software and often integrate themselves deeply into the operating system.
Many of today's top providers, like NordVPN and ExpressVPN, are working on a solution, but haven't finalized their ARM-specific apps. If you have a Snapdragon X Elite Windows machine and want to install a VPN, your choice is currently limited to Surfshark, Windscribe, and now PIA.
Private Internet Access on ARM
Out now, the Private Internet Access app has launched on the Microsoft Store for CoPilot+ machines.
Himmat Bains, Head of Product at Private Internet Access, said: "We are excited to bring PIA’s functionality to Microsoft’s next generation of ARM-based machines. We have been working hard to bring all of PIA’s functionality across to this new hardware, and are thrilled that our users can again enjoy the full power of the PIA platform."
As the app is currently in beta, don't expect everything to be running perfectly just yet. "More work will be needed to streamline PIA functionality as new ARM applications are released," added Miguel Galindo, Senior Software Engineer at PIA. Thankfully, PIA is a name you can trust with a verified zero-logs policy and an effective kill switch that'll prevent data leaks.
