Running SketchUp 2016 32 bit on Surface Pro 7 (ARM)

[colin]

A customer bought a Surface Pro 7 for use on a long trip, and also bought a Pro subscription. Some amount of normal support emails later I did a screens share to try to figure out why SketchUp shortcuts were not on the desktop, and why opening SketchUp did nothing.

I realized it was one of the ARM 64 processors, that as I understand it do not run 64 bit Windows applications, which rules out using SketchUp 2017 or later. The web version does work, but part of the need for using SketchUp is to use match photo, to create geometry from a drawing or photo.

Next thing I tried was to install SketchUp 2016 32 bit. That too gave no desktop shortcut, and would do nothing if directly opened. My guess is that the system is in S Mode, which is where only apps downloaded from the Windows Store are allowed to run.

On a normal PC you can take Windows 10 out of S Mode, but the Windows 10 on this machine seems like a trimmed down version.

So, do any of you Windows experts know if it’s possible to take a Surface Pro 7 ARM 64 computer out of S Mode, and if so, should it then run SketchUp 2016 32 bit ok?

The user is in a different country for now, so going back to the PC reseller and complaining about being sold a computer that cannot run regular Windows 64 bit applications isn’t an option.

[DanRathbun]

@colin

So, do any of you Windows experts know if it’s possible to take a Surface Pro 7 ARM 64 computer out of S Mode, and if so, should it then run SketchUp 2016 32 bit ok?

From a review of the new ARM Surface Pro X …

Microsoft Surface Pro X review: heartbreaker

… I quote …

I need to give some brief context about why app compatibility is a thing on the Surface Pro X. The fact that the following paragraphs are even necessary is a little damning.

When a developer codes an app, it needs to be compiled, which optimizes the code in several ways. One of those ways is ensuring it is designed for the right processor. Before you even consider the Surface Pro X, there’s a four-part matrix you need to learn. On one axis you have 32 bit versus 64 bit — it refers to a class of processor, and of course 64 bit is faster. On the other axis you have ARM versus x86 — that’s the architecture, and x86 is what Intel runs.

With me so far? Well, because the Surface Pro X runs a 64-bit ARM processor, the apps that run best on it are 64-bit ARM apps, of which there aren’t very many beyond what Microsoft itself has made and a smattering of others in the Microsoft app store. (Since Windows on ARM is so new, we can skip over worrying about 32-bit ARM apps.)

Most Windows apps are compiled to x86, though. So Microsoft built an emulation layer for Windows to run them. That emulation layer is able to run 32-bit Windows apps, but not more modern 64-bit apps. Luckily, most of the apps you’re probably wondering about right now are still available in 32-bit versions.

So, the author says it should … but I’d guess it’s not a guarantee. And perhaps the older ARM Surface Pro 7s have an older emulator ?

I’ve never had a Surface (Pro) so I don’t know if it can be switched out of S mode. Perhaps a call to MS support ?

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UPDATE

If the ARM processor is one of the Qualcomm SoCs with Adreno graphics, then they do not support OpenGL so these machines will be limited to SketchUp for Web editions in a browser.