Microsoft has partnered with Parallels to create a real virtual machine running Windows 11 Arm on Apple Macs with M1 and M2 chips. We can therefore completely replace macOS with Windows on a machine from the Apple brand.
Apple’s Macs really make you want thanks to an improved quality/price ratio, like the Mac Mini M2 released recently. What may put some people off is the operating system, namely macOS. Fortunately, there is a very simple solution: the virtual machine, which allows you to emulate another operating system. Parallels is now officially authorized to market a Windows 11 emulator that even works with Macs equipped with M1 and M2 chips.
Microsoft drops ballast with Windows 11
With this emulation solution, Microsoft is more flexible. Indeed, on the support page presenting the options for using Windows 11 on Mac M1/M2, it is specified that you can use the Windows 365 service (not to be confused with Microsoft 365) on these computers, which corresponds to a virtual Windows. As specified The Verge who reports the information, so far, ” Microsoft only licensed ARM versions of Windows directly to OEMs, making it difficult for M1 and M2 users to officially run it in a VM. “.
Parallels Desktop 18 therefore allows to use Windows 11 ARM edition Professional AndBusinesson Mac M1 and M2. The upgrade still starts at 70 euros and the purchase of the license is from 100 euros.
Windows 11 limitations on Mac M1 and M2
However, this Windows 11 emulation has limitations, as the dedicated support page points out. It is written that these lastmay impact your ability to use different types of hardware, games and applications, including those that rely on DirectX 12 or OpenGL3.3 or higher“.
This especially includes the virtual machines that can be launched inside this Windows 11… which is itself a virtual machine. Thus, it is impossible to launch Android applications in the Microsoft OS, the same for the GNU/Linux environment. Also, the sandbox and the “virtualization-based security (VBS)» are not available. Finally, we learn that32-bit ARM apps available in the Windows Store are not supportedon the M1 and M2. Rest assured all the same, most applications can be launched in x64 and should work on this emulator.
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