For more than twenty years, VLC has been the Swiss-army knife of video players on Windows, capable of handling formats and situations where other players fall short. Now, as Microsoft pushes deeper into the Windows on ARM era with its new Copilot+ PCs powered by Snapdragon X chips and a growing library of native apps, VLC is keeping pace.
The freshly released VLC 3.0.22 Release Candidate 1 (RC1) marks a turning point: it delivers official ARM64 builds for Windows, while also reviving support for Windows XP SP3, a nod to retrocompatibility. Though still a test version, this release gives a strong preview of what’s coming to the stable channel soon.
What’s New in VLC 3.0.22 RC1
1. Native ARM64 Builds for Windows
- The highlight of this release is full ARM64 support.
- On devices like the Surface Pro 11 or Surface Laptop 7 with Snapdragon X processors, VLC can now play demanding content such as 4K HDR video without relying on x86 emulation.
- These builds require at least Windows 10 RS5 (1809), so Windows 11 on ARM is fully supported.
2. Return of Windows XP SP3 Support
- Surprisingly, this RC restores compatibility with Windows XP SP3, which had been dropped in earlier versions.
- While not a mainstream focus, it’s valuable for labs, legacy systems, and retro projects.
3. Interface Improvements
- Dark mode is now available in the Qt interface.
- VLC also gains Qt6 compatibility, while keeping Qt5 support.
- Users can now rename, move, or delete playback files directly from within Windows.
4. Video and Codec Enhancements
- Added support for AMD Fluid Motion Frames (frame rate doubling) in Direct3D 11.
- Improvements in AV1 hardware decoding.
- Fixes and optimizations for ProRes 4:4:4:4, Opus audio, and CEA-608 subtitles.
5. Security Fixes and Roadmap
- VLC 3.0.22 is the most heavily patched release in the project’s history, thanks to collaboration with the Sovereign Tech Fund and OSS-Fuzz.
- The VideoLAN team aims to finalize the stable release in early October (though the date is tentative).
- Being an RC, this version is best suited for testing, not production use.
One of the long-standing challenges for Windows on ARM has been the limited pool of native apps. With VLC joining the lineup—alongside heavyweights like Adobe and Dropbox—the ecosystem is maturing quickly.
For users on Snapdragon X laptops and tablets, the benefits are immediate: smoother playback, lower power consumption, and freedom from emulation overhead. And for Windows users in general, the fact that VLC continues to bridge the future (ARM PCs) and the past (Windows XP) shows why it has remained indispensable for over two decades.
