GitHub Actions now supports Windows on Arm runners for all public repos

We are continuously investing in improving the Windows on Arm developer experience by providing and improving the tools needed by developers targeting Arm powered Copilot+ PCs.

Today we are thrilled to announce Windows on Arm runner availability has been extended to all public repos, including GitHub Free tier accounts.

This enhancement simplifies continuous integration workflows and enables developers to better support Arm-based Windows applications. With this update all accounts, including open-source projects using free tier accounts, can incorporate Windows on Arm targets into their CI pipelines for public projects, achieving a similar level of build and regression testing as is available for Intel targets. This improvement simplifies the process for maintainers to add Windows Arm targets to CI jobs to ensure compatibility and reliability across a wider range of architectures.

Key Benefits

1. Expanded Architecture Support: With the continued growth of Windows on Arm devices – especially the Qualcomm powered Copilot+ PCs – developers can easily extend support to this platform without requiring additional infrastructure.
2. Improved Continuous Integration workflows: Adding Arm runners to your pipeline allows for consistent testing and building across both Arm and Intel architectures to pick up regressions as early as possible.
3. Directly benefits open-source projects: The availability of Arm runners for all public repos, including free tier accounts, reinforces GitHub’s commitment to supporting innovation in the open-source community. To learn more about eligibility for GitHub free tier, visit the GitHub Pricing page.

The new Windows 11 Arm image for GitHub runners ships with tooling and software for a variety of different development environments. Find a full list of included dependencies.

Getting Started

Adding Windows on Arm targets to your CI pipeline via GitHub Actions is easy. Windows on Arm runners can be added to your public repos by adding the “windows-11-arm” runner target in your yml workflow. Below is an example GitHub Actions workflow for a C# project using Visual Studio tools:

Moving Forward

The inclusion of Windows on Arm runners in GitHub Actions marks a valuable step forward for open-source projects and developers aiming to support diverse architectures. By integrating Arm targets into your workflows, you can ensure your applications deliver reliable performance across platforms.

Try it out today and broaden your project’s reach and compatibility.

Find out more about adding GitHub-hosted runners to your repository.