diff --git a/README.windows.md b/README.windows.md
index 8b4a5e6..fd0789d 100644
--- a/README.windows.md
+++ b/README.windows.md
@@ -54,7 +54,9 @@ python dikte.py
 
 - The local install fetches whisper.cpp's **OpenBLAS build**, which
   transcribes about twice as fast as the stock one on a plain CPU. There is
-  no GPU build to fetch for machines without an NVIDIA card.
+  no GPU build to fetch for machines without an NVIDIA card, and none for
+  Windows on ARM either: whisper.cpp publishes x64 only, so a Snapdragon
+  machine runs it under emulation and the cloud is the faster option there.
 - Setting Settings → API and models → **Threads** near your physical core
   count helps noticeably; the server's own default is 4.
 - If speed matters more than accuracy, `ggml-small` and `ggml-base` are much
diff --git a/ggml.py b/ggml.py
index 39a6e21..87a2c4c 100644
--- a/ggml.py
+++ b/ggml.py
@@ -251,6 +251,10 @@ def _wanted_assets(program):
             # as fast as the stock one, and it carries everything it needs.
             # Full names, because "bin-x64.zip" alone would also match the
             # CUDA archives, whichever the release happened to list first.
+            #
+            # x64 whatever this machine is, because whisper.cpp publishes no
+            # arm64 build for Windows: a Snapdragon runs this one emulated,
+            # which is slow but is the only local option there is.
             return ("whisper-blas-bin-x64.zip", "whisper-bin-x64.zip")
         if _has_vulkan() and arch == "x64":
             return ("bin-win-vulkan-x64.zip", f"bin-win-cpu-{arch}.zip")
diff --git a/tests/test_ggml.py b/tests/test_ggml.py
index dab95a4..1f01372 100644
--- a/tests/test_ggml.py
+++ b/tests/test_ggml.py
@@ -725,6 +725,15 @@ class WindowsAssets(Local):
         self.assertEqual(ggml._wanted_assets(ggml.LLAMA),
                          ("bin-win-cpu-arm64.zip",))
 
+    def test_an_arm_machine_is_handed_the_x64_whisper_anyway(self):
+        """whisper.cpp publishes no arm64 build for Windows: the release has
+        Win32 and x64 and nothing else, so emulated is the only local option
+        a Snapdragon has. Pinned here so that a release which does start
+        publishing one is noticed rather than quietly ignored."""
+        self.patch_attr(ggml, "_arch", lambda: "arm64")
+        self.assertEqual(ggml._wanted_assets(ggml.WHISPER),
+                         ("whisper-blas-bin-x64.zip", "whisper-bin-x64.zip"))
+
 
 class InstallOnWindows(Local):
     """The Windows releases are zips, and the binary carries .exe."""