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InDesign and all Creative Cloud apps not working on Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon X Elite – Windows 11 ARM)

Juan Antonio Otero Abbruzzese 20 Reputation points
2025-11-08T09:42:35.1133333+00:00

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased a Surface Laptop 7 for Business (Model 2037), equipped with a Snapdragon X Elite (ARM64) processor and running Windows 11 Pro, build 26220.7052.

I am a Creative Cloud Pro subscriber and need to use several Adobe applications — especially InDesign — for my university exams. Unfortunately, none of the Creative Cloud desktop apps (including InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, and Acrobat Pro) can be installed or started on my device.

Each installation fails with the error: 0xc000007b – “The application was unable to start correctly.”

  • I have already verified:
    • My Windows and firmware are up to date (Surface Laptop 7, BIOS 175.138.235, August 2025).
    • Sufficient RAM (16 GB) and storage (298 GB free).
    • Tried the Creative Cloud installer, Photoshop Beta, and even the InDesign Beta — all fail with the same issue.

According to the official Adobe documentation (updated October 27 2025), InDesign 2026 (Version 21.0) supports only Intel or AMD 64-bit processors with AVX2 — no mention of ARM support.

Could Adobe please confirm whether:

  1. Any ARM64-compatible builds or test versions of Creative Cloud apps (especially InDesign) exist?
  2. There is an official roadmap or estimated date for Windows-on-ARM compatibility?
  3. It is possible to obtain an official statement confirming that Creative Cloud is not yet supported on ARM devices, so I can forward it to my university’s IT department?

I really appreciate your time and any help from Adobe staff or other users facing the same situation.

  • Device details:
    • Model: Surface Laptop 7 for Business (Model 2037)
    • Processor: Snapdragon X Elite (ARM64, 12-core X1E80100 @ 3.40 GHz)
    • OS: Windows 11 Pro (Build 26220.7052)
    • RAM: 16 GB | Storage: 298 GB free / 474 GB
    • GPU: Qualcomm Adreno X1-85
    • BIOS: Microsoft Corp 175.138.235 (Aug 19 2025)
Surface | Surface Laptop | Install and update
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  1. Q&A Assist
    2025-11-08T09:42:47.5033333+00:00
    AI generated content. This question contains an answer created with AI from Q&A Assist. Learn more

    Currently, Adobe Creative Cloud applications, including InDesign, do not have ARM64-compatible builds available for Windows on ARM devices. As of the latest information, Adobe's Creative Cloud desktop apps primarily support Intel and AMD 64-bit processors, and there is no official support for ARM64 versions of these applications. This means that you may encounter issues like the error code 0xc000007b when attempting to install or run these applications on your Surface Laptop 7 with a Snapdragon X Elite processor.

    Regarding your specific questions:

    1. ARM64-compatible builds or test versions of Creative Cloud apps do not exist at this time.
    2. There is no publicly available official roadmap or estimated date for when Adobe will provide Windows-on-ARM compatibility for Creative Cloud apps.
    3. An official statement from Adobe confirming the lack of support for Creative Cloud on ARM devices would need to be requested directly from Adobe's support or customer service team.

    For now, you may need to consider alternative solutions for your university exams, such as using a different device that supports these applications or exploring other software options that are compatible with ARM devices.

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  1. Amy 0 Reputation points
    2025-11-11T15:06:18.38+00:00

    I have a similar setup with the Surface 7 and Photoshop and Creative Cloud worked for me until the latest update a few days, now I get the same error message as you. I have re-installed everything, including Windows, and nothing seems to make it work. Adobe needs to provide an option to go back to previous versions as that one worked. I can't open Creative Cloud to go back to the previous version of Photoshop or even install the current version.

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  2. kai__P 0 Reputation points
    2025-11-16T17:23:26.2433333+00:00

    Hi everyone,

    I’m experiencing the exact same issue on a Surface Laptop 7 (Snapdragon X Elite) — Creative Cloud Desktop, Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign and Lightroom all fail to launch with error 0xc000007b.

    We have a large and very active discussion about this in the official Adobe Community, with many users from Surface Laptop 7, Surface Pro 11, Dell ARM and Lenovo ARM devices confirming identical symptoms.

    Adobe Support has already escalated the issue, but we are still waiting for an official response from Engineering.

    For anyone affected, here is the main Adobe thread with all current findings and updates: https://community.adobe.com/t5/creative-cloud-desktop-discussions/creative-cloud-photoshop-won-t-launch-on-surface-laptop-7-arm-error-0xc000007b/td-p/15586587

    More reports help both Adobe and Microsoft identify the root cause faster, so feel free to join the discussion there as well.

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  3. Kedarnath 0 Reputation points
    2025-11-19T06:10:06.8166667+00:00

    Hi, Adobe has released an official fix for crashes on ARM64‑based Windows devices caused by incorrect Visual C++ runtime files.

    You can download the Visual C++ Runtime repair tool from Adobe’s support page here: https://helpx.adobe.com/acrobat/desktop/troubleshoot/performance-issues/acrobat-crashes-arm64-windows.html
    Once you run the tool as administrator and restart your device, the runtime errors should be resolved

    Thanks!

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