#Zinstall migration pro instructions drivers
Zinstall Fullback makes use of compression and encryption as part of its features, both of which need access to drivers and the ability to use their own assembly code. Most of the time spent porting was on the hardware-specific instructions since these could not be emulated. As the emulation is all done on the software level through WOW64 rewriting the assembly code, access to drivers and hardware is not available for emulated programs. Having the location incorrectly set will cause the application to break.
#Zinstall migration pro instructions install
Once your application nears completion, it is also important to remember to modify the installer instructions since WoA machines install files in different locations to other machines. For WoA driver development you need to use the Windows Driver Kit and Visual Studio 2019, which require a move away from old tools like nmake. With driver development such as the work involved in porting Fullback, adaptation is significantly more complex. Once that is working, you can start adding the actual code.įor most people creating user mode programs, setup is as easy as opening Visual Studio, changing the target platform and hitting compile. Even if just for a “dummy” application, such as a “Hello World” style program as suggested by Zinstall. This means setting up everything that you need to compile, build, and deploy for Arm. Getting your environment set upĪn important step in the porting process is to get your environment in order. This split was made possible due to their application already using a well-implemented modular design, allowing parts to be modified without affecting the others. The user interface (GUI) parts of the application were kept as emulated parts as the performance for that part is restricted by user speed rather than the emulation layer. Parts that can be emulated without losing performance don't add much to the end result. This meant most of the application had to be ported over to run natively on WoA machines. Unlike most other apps, which can run via the emulation layer of WoA, Zinstall Fullback required access to lower-level components which were inaccessible through emulation. Why port to Windows on Arm?ĭue to high customer demand, Zinstall began porting their application to WoA. Zinstall Fullback is a backup tool which allows both backing up Arm devices, as well as migrating data to an Arm device from a different device. Zinstall has been working for more than a decade to provide backup and migration facilities for users to protect their data. Along with a lot of other Windows developers, they ported their application Zinstall Fullback to run natively on Windows on Arm (WoA) machines such as the Surface Pro X.